Annual accounting

Annual accounting is a custom assessment method for regulated water in the resource assessment module. The related water user, bulk licensing or environmental demand nodes must be configured consistently with the resource assessment system. The general principles for an annual accounting system are: 

• Available resource is calculated during a defined water year;  
• Allocation of the resource is made to different account types; 
• Each account type’s allocation is distributed between accounts linked to this account type; and
• Any allocated water that has not been carried over at the end of the defined water year will be returned to the available resource for allocations of next year.

An annual accounting system set up in Source follows these principles.

Enabling annual accounting

Firstly, create an annual accounting system as follows:

• Choose Edit » Resource Assessment... to open the Resource Assessment Explorer; and
• Right click Resource Assessment and choose Add Annual Accounting.

In the top Annual Accounting level, you can:

• Configure annual accounting using the Configuration tab;
• View summary information of all accounts added with the Accounts tab;
• Set the available resource vs allocation table using the Allocation tab; and
• Set trigger priority with the Trigger Priority tab.

The next sections provide further details of all the tabs listed above.

Configuring an annual accounting system

This tab provides an overview of the annual accounting system (as shown in Figure 1). The required parameters are explained in Table 1.

Figure 1. Annual Accounting, Configuration

Table 1. Annual accounting, Configuration tab

Accounts

This tab provides a summary of all the accounts in the annual accounting system. As shown in Figure 2, you can add or delete accounts using the corresponding buttons below the Accounts table. Each of the parameters in the Accounts table is explained in Table 2.

Figure 2. Annual Accounting, Accounts tab

Table 2. Annual accounting, Accounts tab

To add an account in the table, click Add Account below the Accounts table to open the Add New Account dialog (shown in Figure 3) and add an account in the table. To associate an account with a host, click on the individual account below the Account type. The section on the far right lists all the associated account hosts available in the scenario. Then, click on the required host.

Hosts in a scenario may consist of water users, bulk licensing nodes or an environmental demand node. 

 Figure 3. Annual accounting, Accounts tab, Add New Account

Allocation

The Allocation tab shows the quality of resources required to achieve the specified allocations, including provision for carryover. Configuration of the Resource and Account Type columns depends on the how the Account type has been configured, in particular the Method to apply for this account type in ARA table parameter. Figure 4 shows how the ARA table varies with this parameter and Table 3 explains the variations.

The columns shown in the Figure 4 are:

• Resource - The water available in the system;
• Carryover - The proportion of water that is carried over to the next water year; and
• There is an additional column for each Account Type, and it is configured as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 4. Annual accounting, Allocation tab

Table 3. Annual accounting, Allocation, Variations

Trigger Priority

Figure 5 shows the Trigger Priority tab. Priorities are separated into two: Timestep Beginning and Timestep End. You can re-order the priority of triggers.

Figure 5. Annual accounting, Priority Trigger

The next section deals with how to configure the different items shown in Figure 1.

Adding an off-allocation system 

Off-Allocation Systems are assigned at the top Annual Accounting level. To add an off-allocation system, right click Annual Accounting and choose Add Off-Allocation System. Refer to the Off Allocation node for more information.

Account Type

An annual accounting system may contain several account types (as defined by you). Each account type can also include many accounts. To add an account type, as shown in Figure 1, right click on the annual accounting system and choose Add Account Type.

In the Account Type level, you can use the:

• Configuration tab to configure the account type (shown in Figure 6);
• Accounts tab to view a summary of all accounts in the account type; and
• Non-Debit Accounts tab to view and configure all non-debit accounts in the account type.

The next section describes each of these tabs.

Configuring an account type

Figure 6 shows the configuration parameters required for an account type. These are explained further in Table 4.

Figure 6. Annual accounting, Account type, Configuration

Table 4. Annual Accounting, Account Type, Configuration

Table 5. Input parameters for the ARA Table options.

Accounts

Choose the Accounts tab to view a summary of all the accounts configured in the account type. The Accounts table is similar to that shown in Figure 2, with parameters summarised in Table 2.

Non-debit accounts (for NSW)

This tab allows you to work with Non-debit accounts. Enable the Enable Non-Debit Accounts checkbox, which allows you to edit the remaining parameters (as shown in Figure 7). These are:

• Availability Threshold - The allocation level at which the water user gets access to the account;
• Repayment Threshold - The allocation level at which repayments need to be made. As the water user approaches its maximum allocation, repayments need to be made;
• Carry-Over Discount - A discount implemented on the water that is carried over to the following water year. Note that this applies only when Murrumbidgee is chosen as the Balance Calc Method; and
• Balance Calc Method - choose either Murray or Murrumbidgee. This will affect the value assigned to the first two parameters.

Figure 7. Annual accounting, Account type, Non-Debit Accounts

Once an account type has been created, you can create the following using the contextual menu (as shown in Figure 1):

• Accounts
• Triggers; and
• Usage limits

These are explained in further detail next.

Adding an account to an account type

To add an account to an account type, you must configure Number of Shares, the Initial Account Balance and Previous Usage parameters (as shown on the left side of Figure 7). To link the account to a host, choose the water user, Bulk licensing or Environmental demand node under Associated Account Host. The associated account host column lists all the available nodes in the project. Once these have been configured, you will notice that the value configured for the Number of Shares relates to the Demand distribution item of the water user node (shown on the right side of Figure 7). Refer to Demand distribution for details on configuring the water user node. Notice also that the Account Distribution table (in the node's feature editor) shows details of the resource assessment system.