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ADR 0006: Generated Financial Period Labels

Context

BooksPlus financial periods need predictable labels for fiscal years, fiscal quarters, and fiscal months.

If users must name every standard period manually, reporting and period selection can become inconsistent. Generated labels reduce setup decisions and make period lookup, sorting, and display more predictable.

Decision

BooksPlus should generate standard financial period labels by convention.

Standard labels should be:

  • fiscal year: FY{year}, such as FY2026;
  • fiscal quarter: FQ{quarter_number}, such as FQ1;
  • fiscal month: FM{month_number:00}, such as FM01.

Plain numeric month labels such as 01 should not be used as canonical labels because they are ambiguous outside a month-only context.

Fiscal months should be direct children of the fiscal year. Fiscal quarters should also be direct children of the fiscal year. Months should not be nested under quarters by default. Fiscal quarters are derived from generated fiscal months.

For display or external references, BooksPlus may derive full period codes such as:

  • FY2026;
  • FY2026-FQ1;
  • FY2026-FM01.

The generated label remains the period's short label. The full code is derived from the period hierarchy.

Consequences

  • Users do not need to choose labels for standard generated periods.
  • Standard labels sort predictably and remain readable in mixed period lists.
  • Fiscal month labels remain clear even when the fiscal month does not match the calendar month.
  • Quarter reporting can be derived from generated fiscal month groups without forcing months to be children of quarters.
  • Future setup UI should default to generated labels and should avoid prompting for labels unless custom period structures are explicitly supported.