Introduction
For use within the Period Management section, the company periods feature can be used by companies that run fixed periods across all sites (e.g. all sites are weekly).
The company periods feature gives greater control over individual sites by ensuring that all sites periods conform to the same start and end times.
Once enabled, company periods are typically managed by Head Office and created in advance to specify:
- The start and end date of each period.
- The name of each period.
When each sites create their individual periods, their individual period will inherit the relevant company period settings for that period.
Configuration
Enabling Company Periods
Before enabling company periods, it is important to consider that this feature will affect all sites within your company that create periods for periodic stock and/or cash counts. If you'd like to discuss this further, feel free to contact Cinchio support for assistance:
To enable the company periods feature, head to Company Settings > Company and select the Global Settings tab.
Within this section:
- Enable the Enable Company Wide Periods checkbox.
- Select [SAVE COMPANY].
You may get an error message saying Period Type Can't Be Blank. Don't worry about this, simply head to the new Period Management tab that now shows and:
- Select the Period Type as either:
- Weekly
- Calendar Month
- Select the Period Duration as the duration of periods based on the Period Type selected. For example, if you selected Weekly as periods should run each week, enter "1".
Select [SAVE COMPANY].
The company periods feature is now enabled, and you must now create some company periods as covered in the next section.
Managing Company Periods
Creating Company Periods
Company periods should ideally be created in advance of the period starting. This is to ensure that you retain control over the period dates and period names. If a company period does not exist when a site comes to create their period, a company period will auto-create using assumed parameters and they'll no longer be editable.
To create a company period in advance:
- Head to Company Settings > Company and select the Period Management tab.
- Select [CREATE COMPANY PERIOD].
Within the New Company Period window:
- Check that all details show as expected.
- Select [CREATE PERIOD].
The company period is now created and can be edited if required as covered in the Next Section to either:
- Rename the company period.
- Adjust the period end date.
Repeat to add additional company periods as required.
Recommendation: Have company periods created at least a month in advance so that you can plan in period dates and names. Consider setting a quarterly reminder to create each quarters company periods in advance of that quarter starting.
Editing Company Periods
Once created, some aspects of the company period can be edited if required, providing that no sites have created a period linked to that company period yet.
Whilst still within the Period Management tab, select [EDIT] against the relevant period.
Within the Company Period window:
- Name: Change the name of the company period to match your companies period names. Each individual sites period will inherit this name.
- Start Date: Displays when this period starts; this is 1 second after the period period ends, and cannot be edited.
- To Date: Displays when this period ends, and is auto-populated as per Company Period Settings. If the company period is the latest one in the list the date can be adjusted if required - this allows you to plan 'exceptional' periods in advance (e.g. over the holiday period, instead of two 7-day periods you may have a 5-day and an 9-day period.)
Select [SAVE] to save any changes.
Company Periods At Site
When the company periods feature is enabled, when a site Creates A New Period, the period duration and name will be inherited from the next company period for that site.