Installation Cutoff Date

Your installation cutoff date is the date on which you start processing transactions in DPS, also called the "go live" date.

You can use any date as your installation cutoff date. Your main concerns in selecting a date should be:

• Your target date for having DPS up and running.
• Where you are now in the fiscal year and accounting period. You may use either the fiscal year end or the end of an accounting period for the installation cutoff date, but you should not use a date in the middle of an accounting period.

Although you can select a cutoff date in the past or plan to use a date in the future, keep the following considerations in mind:

• If you select a date in the past, you must reprocess any transactions that have occurred since that date. If, for example, you select December 31 as your cutoff date but do not begin processing with DPS until March 1, you must enter historical balances as of December 31 then enter and post all the transactions that occurred in January and February.
• If you select a cutoff date in the future, you must enter any essential history before you can process current transactions. If, for example, you select December 31 as the future cutoff date, you must gather and enter all your essential history up to December 31 before you can begin processing transactions that rely on that history.

End of Fiscal Year

The end of a fiscal year is an ideal cutoff date for your history data. If you install DPS at the end of your fiscal year, you only need to enter account balances for your Balance Sheet accounts. You do not need to enter balances for your Income Statement accounts. This could save you a great deal of time and effort. However, the end of your fiscal year may already be a busy time for your staff. Before choosing a year-end cutoff date, be sure that you have the resources to handle your normal year end work plus installation.

Consider the following if you are thinking about using the end of the fiscal year as your cutoff date:

• If your fiscal year end is coming up soon, you might find it convenient to wait until year end to install DPS. This will make history loading easier.
• If you have just passed year end, you may want to install DPS now, use year end as your cutoff date, and reprocess any transactions that have occurred since year end.
• If you are not close to year end, waiting several months to install DPS or installing DPS and then reprocessing several months worth of transactions may not be worthwhile. In this case, consider choosing the end of an accounting period as your installation cutoff date.

End of Accounting Period

Using the end of an accounting period as your cutoff date may be right for you if you are not close to year end or you do not have the resources to install DPS at year end. You can choose the end of any accounting period as your cutoff date.

Consider the following if you are thinking about using the end of an accounting period as your cutoff date:

• If you select a previous accounting period as your cutoff date, will you have the time and resources to reprocess any transactions that have occurred since then?
• If you select an accounting period in the future, will you have time to enter essential history before the cutoff date occurs and you must begin processing transactions through DPS?
• Are you near enough to year end to use the fiscal year end as your cutoff date instead of the end of an accounting period?