Periods for Accumulating Sales History and Sales Statistics
If you keep sales history and statistics, you must decide how you want to group the data. In Order Entry, you can accumulate data:
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By fiscal year or by calendar year.
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Using almost any reporting period.
Note: In the Small Business Edition, you can only accumulate statistics by fiscal year and period.
Fiscal year or calendar year — Use the Accumulate By option to specify the dates to include in each period. You can choose whether to use calendar dates or fiscal year dates. If you keep sales statistics by calendar year, the first period begins with January 1. If you keep statistics by fiscal year, the first period begins on the first date in your company's fiscal year.
Period length — Use the Period Type option to choose the periods by which sales history and statistics are totaled and reported. You can display statistical totals by seven-day periods, weekly, bi-weekly, four-week periods, monthly, bi-monthly (two months at a time), quarterly, semi-annually, or the periods in your company's fiscal calendar.
Weekly periods run from Sunday to Saturday. This means that the first and last periods in a year will likely be short ones (because your year may not start at the beginning of the week).
Changing the method of reporting history and statistics — You can change the type of year and period by which Order Entry reports sales history and sales statistics, but such changes can distort the figures in past periods.
If you need to change the type of year or period by which Order Entry reports sales history or statistics, you will find it easier to do so after year-end. However, if you do change the reporting period during the year, you can edit the statistics for the earlier periods in the year to correct distortions.