Setting Up Tax Periods

Setting up tax periods requires the Manage Tax Reporting Periods permission.

When setting up tax periods, the best practice is to use months for posting tax, even if you intend to run only quarterly or annual reports. Go to the Manage Tax Periods page, select the Set Up Full Year option, and then choose the Calendar Months format.

You can also create periods individually using these options: New Year Only, New Quarter Only, and Base Period. However, setting up tax periods individually can create incomplete or incorrect period rollups if you are not careful. Be sure to review all rollups on the Manage Tax Periods Page to verify that each tax year is complete and correct.

Note:

If you set up quarters without months, you will be able to run only quarterly tax reports. If you set up years without children, you will be able to run only annual tax reports. Consequently, you will not be able to run monthly tax reports in the event of internal or external needs such as tax audits, unless you have tax periods set up as months.

Important:

If you are currently using quarters or years as your lowest tier of tax periods instead of months, or if you have set up periods in mixed mode, be aware that as of NetSuite 2013.2, a new Is Posting box has been added to the tax period record for quarters and years. You will be required to define the quarter or year as either posting or non-posting. If there is a quarter or year without children (months or base periods), and you want to use it for tax reporting, then you must make sure that the Is Posting box is checked on the tax period record. For more information, see Tax Period Posting Changes.

On the Manage Tax Periods page, you can identify posting periods by their status icons. Non-posting periods do not have status icons.

Month periods are always posting. To define a quarter or year as posting, check the Is Posting box on the tax period record. Note that you cannot check the Is Posting box for quarters and years that have children. Posting periods cannot have children.

Note:

The following steps are for setting up tax periods without the Multiple Calendars feature enabled. If you are using the Multiple Calendars feature, see Setting Up Tax Periods Using a Fiscal Calendar.

Follow these steps to set up a full year that has sub-periods.

To set up tax periods for a full year:

Go to Setup > Accounting > Taxes > Manage Tax Periods.
Click Set Up Full Year.
In the First Fiscal Month field, select the first month in your company's fiscal year.
In the Fiscal Year End field, enter the year for which you are setting up tax periods.
In the Period Format field, select one of the following to divide the year into:
- Quarters – three-month long sub-periods. These quarters have the Is Posting box checked by default.
- Calendar Months – twelve sub-periods.
- 4 Weeks – thirteen four-week long sub-periods
- 4–4–5 Weeks – four quarters in which the weeks follow this pattern, instead of the actual calendar dates.
Click Save.

Follow these steps to set up a year.

To set up a tax reporting year:

Go to Setup > Accounting > Taxes > Manage Tax Periods.
Click New Year Only.
In the Period Name field, enter a name for this year.
Enter or select a start date for this year.
Enter or select an end date for this year.
Check the Is Posting box to enable NetSuite to post tax to this year period. If the Is Posting box is not checked, then you must set up either quarters or months as sub-periods of this year.
Click Save.

Follow these steps to set up a quarter.

To set up a tax reporting quarter:

Go to Setup > Accounting > Taxes > Manage Tax Periods.
Click New Quarter Only.
In the Period Name field, enter a name for this quarter.
Enter or select a start date for this quarter.
Enter or select an end date for this quarter.
Check the Is Posting box to enable NetSuite to post tax to this quarter period. If the Is Posting box is not checked, then you must set up months as sub-periods of this quarter.
In the Sub-period of field, select the year that this quarter belongs to. The parent period must be already set up. Otherwise, it will not appear in the dropdown list. Note that you can add sub-periods to a non-posting year only.
Click Save.

Follow these steps to set up a base tax period.

To set up a base tax period:

Go to Setup > Accounting > Taxes > Manage Tax Periods.
Click Base Period.
In the Period Name field, enter a name for this base period.
Enter or select a start date for this base period.
Enter or select an end date for this period.
In the Sub-period of field, select the parent period that this base period belongs to. The parent period must be already set up. Otherwise, it will not appear in the dropdown list. Sub-periods can be added to a non-posting parent period only.
Click Save.