Businesses often follow a fiscal year to determine the appropriate time for accounting and taxing activities. Fiscal years often comprise a 12-month period. Now, the business’s chosen fiscal year can be entered in the Salesforce platform, especially if the business runs over a long period of time.
Setting Up the Fiscal Year
These steps are used to set up both standard and custom fiscal years in Salesforce:
- Create a backup of all current data. Export it as a CSV file for reference use. Keep in mind that forecast histories and quotas may change once a fiscal year is created or changed.
- Navigate to Setup.
- Type Fiscal Year in the Quick Find Box, and click on Fiscal Year.
- Two options are available; select from Standard Fiscal Year or Custom Fiscal Year.
For Standard Fiscal Year:
- Set the start month of the fiscal year.
- Name the fiscal year. Choose whether it will be named after the year it begins or ends.
- Choose Apply to All Forecasts and Quotas if the new fiscal year settings need to reflect on current quotas and forecasts.
- Save everything.
For Custom Fiscal Year:
- Select Custom Fiscal Year.
- Choose the Enable Fiscal Years option, then hit OK.
- Go back to Setup, click on Company Profile, and choose Fiscal Year.
- Hit New to open the Custom Fiscal Year dialog box.
- Choose from the available templates depending on the company’s fiscal year needs.
- Select the start date, name, and week start day.
- Add a description for the fiscal year, if desired.
- Click on Preview to review the fiscal year settings before saving it.
- Once satisfied, close the preview box and click on Save.
- If another fiscal year needs to be determined, click on Save and New.
Special Considerations for Salesforce Fiscal Years
Take note of the following considerations before determining a fiscal year:
- Once the Fiscal Years feature is enabled, it can never be disabled again.
- User permissions are needed for the Fiscal Years feature. Customize Application and View Setup and Configuration settings must be set to enable users to define, edit, and view fiscal years.
- Fiscal year settings have an impact on forecasts, quotas, and reports. Create backups of current data first before manipulating fiscal year settings.
- Each fiscal year must be manually defined. If a fiscal year is created for the current year, the next year’s fiscal year will not automatically come up. It has to be defined separately.