In Cost Allocation, no matter if you are doing a 2 CFR, Full Cost, Citywide or an Interdepartmental plan, you need to specify some period of time for which you are going to collect the expenditures incurred by your Central Structure Items. Whatever that period of time you are collecting expenditures for is what you will define as your Fiscal Period. For example, many cities will use a standard fiscal year. In this case they will use a Fiscal Period of something like "2018-2019". Some Interdepartmental plans are run quarterly. In this case the Fiscal Period could be "Q3 2019". Allocate allows you to define any period of time that you would like when creating your Fiscal Period.


The Fiscal Period contains all of it's own Functions, Expenditures, Labor Distributions, Incoming, Allocations, Direct Billed, and Revenue Reconciliation and must be created before data can be entered into those tables. 



In the Navigation Menu, click the + icon next to the Fiscal Period drop down. This will open the Edit/Remove Fiscal Period dialog. 


Creating a New Fiscal


In the lower half of the Edit/Remove Fiscal Period dialog navigate to the Add Fiscal Period area. 

  1. In the New Fiscal Period Name field enter the name you would like to use for your new fiscal period. This can be whatever you want, but should somehow represent the time for which you are collecting your expenditures.
  2. Click the + icon to the right of the New Fiscal Period Name field. Your new Fiscal Period will now appear in the upper table and a green message will appear in the right corner of the screen saying "New Fiscal Period successfully saved."


Copying an Existing Fiscal Period


In the lower half of the Edit/Remove Fiscal Period dialog navigate to the Add Fiscal Period area.

  1. Click the Copy Existing Data From Fiscal Period checkbox. This will expose the Copy From drop down.
  2. Select the previously created Fiscal Period that from which you would like to copy the data. You cannot copy a blank Fiscal Period.
  3. In the New Fiscal Period Name field enter the name you would like to use for your new fiscal period. This can be whatever you want, but should somehow represent the time for which you are collecting your expenditures.
  4. Click the + icon to the right of the New Fiscal Period Name field. Your new Fiscal Period will now appear in the upper table and a green message will appear in the right corner of the screen saying "New Fiscal Period successfully saved". All of the Functions, Expenditures, Labor Distributions, Incoming, Allocations, Direct Billed, and Revenue Reconciliation contained in the original Fiscal Period have been copied into your new fiscal period.


Managing Fiscal Periods


In the Edit/Remove Fiscal Period section you can manage Fiscal Periods that you have created. 

  • Name - This is the Name entered when the Fiscal Period was created. You can edit this name by simply clicking into the name field and edit the name as needed. 
  • Scenario - With the scenario checkbox you can can designate which of the Fiscal Periods are 'What if?' scenarios and not final cost plans.
  • Delete - By clicking the X icon in this field you can delete the Fiscal Period. When you click the X icon a dialog will appear asking "Do you really want to delete the fiscal year X?" Click Yes to continue deleting the Fiscal Period, or No to cancel deleting the Fiscal Period. WARNING: Deleting a Fiscal Period will delete all Functions, Expenditures, Labor Distributions, Incoming, Allocations, Direct Billed, and Revenue Reconciliation data associated with the Fiscal Period.


You can exit the Edit/Remove Fiscal Period dialog by clocking the X icon in the upper right corner.