Annual accounting

Add annual accounting

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.

Managing an annual accounting system

The tree menu on the left-hand side of the Resource Assessment Explorer (Figure 1) allows you to view all components in your resource assessment system, including any continuous accounting or continuous sharing systems.

In addition to standard functionality (eg. Rename, Delete), you can also do the following from the appropriate context menus (Figure 1):

• Add a new off allocation system, account type, account, trigger or usage limit by selecting and right-clicking the parent of the new component. 
• Duplicate the selected component; 
• Add Note to the selected component to enter a text-based message, or note, to be associated with the component. Refer to About notes for more information.

By default, components of the same type are listed in the order in which they were created, you can rearrange their order by clicking and dragging an item up or down. This allows you to group items logically, eg. group accounts by location, or triggers by purpose. Note that the order of components is to aid organisation, it has no effect on the resource assessment system.

Figure 1. Annual Accounting, Tree menu

Add an off-allocation system 

Off-Allocation systems are assigned to the annual accounting system at the top Annual Accounting level. To add an off-allocation system, right click the annual accounting system (eg Annual Accounting 1, Figure 1) and choose Add Off-Allocation System. Refer to the Off Allocation node for information on how to configure the off-allocation system. 

Account types

An annual accounting system may contain several account types (as defined by you). Each account type groups together accounts that are governed by the same set of rules (such as usage limits), or have the same priority of access to water.

To add an account type, right click on the annual accounting system and choose Add Account Type. Once defined, account types can be re-arranged in the tree by dragging and dropping to the required order. This will affect the control execution order and the ARA table column placement.

In the Account Type pane, you can use the:

• Configuration tab to configure the account type (shown in Figure 2);
• Accounts tab to view a summary of all accounts in the account type;
• Carryover tab to configure carryover; and
• Non-Debit Accounts tab to view and configure all non-debit accounts in the account type.

The next sections describe each of the tabs.

Account type configuration

Figure 2 shows the configuration parameters required for an account type. These are explained further in Table 1.

Figure 2. Annual accounting, Account type, Configuration

a

Table 1. Annual Accounting, Account Type, Configuration

Table 2. Input parameters for the ARA Table options.

Accounts

Choose the Accounts tab to view a summary of the account host, entitlement and initial balance for all accounts within the selected account type. These parameters are summarised in Table 5 (see Account Configuration). A similar table containing a summary of accounts in all account types, is visible in the Accounts tab for the annual accounting system (see Figure II).

Carryover

This tab allows you to configure several parameters related to carryover, such as spill and its associated parameters (Figure 3). Spill is water released in excess of the downstream requirements. Table 3 explains the configuration parameters.

Figure 3. Annual accounting, Account type, Carryover

Table 3. Annual accounting, Carryover parameters

Non-debit accounts (for NSW)

This tab allows you to work with non-debit accounts. First enable the Enable Non-Debit Accounts checkbox, which allows you to edit the remaining parameters (Figure 4). Parameters are explained in Table 4.

Figure 4. Annual accounting, Account type, Non-Debit Accounts

Table 4. Annual accounting, Account type, Non-Debit Accounts

Accounts

Accounts allow a water user to request resources. They specify the entitlement that a particular water user has for that particular account type. The entitlement is used to apportion the available water between the accounts when new water allocations are made.

Adding an account

In Source, accounts are grouped together under account types, so to add an account, you first to need to add an account type. Right-click on the annual accounting system menu item and choose Add Account Type. Then, there are three ways to add an account:

• Right-click on an account type in the tree menu, choose Add Account from the contextual menu. 
• Select an account type, choose the Accounts tab, and then select Add Account. This will open the Add New Account dialog (similar to that in Figure 5) where you can assign the accounts' host, entitlement and initial balance (defined in Table 5). Click OK.
• Select the annual accounting system, choose the Accounts tab, and then select Add Account. This will the Add New Account dialog (Figure 5) where you can assign the accounts' type, host, entitlement and initial balance (defined in Table 5). Click OK.

 Figure 5. Annual accounting system, Accounts tab, Add New Account

Account configuration

Regardless of which method you use to add an account, to further configure or edit the account, select it from the tree menu, where it will be listed underneath its account type (Figure 6) These parameters are described in Table 5. Note that Entitlement and Initial Balance can also be edited on the Accounts tab of either the account type or annual accounting system.

Entitlement applies to the account regardless of the start date, but all other parameters on this tab only have effect when the model run commences on a date other than the first day of the water year.  If a simulation is started part way through the water year the initial values in the Initial Values at Start of Run group box will apply.  Carryover Scalar and Carryover at Start of Water Year are assumed values at the start of the water year that the run commences and do not change within the water year.

Figure 6. Annual accounting, Account type, Add account

    

Table 5. Annual accounting, Account type, Account parameters

Annual accounting system configuration

As shown in Figure 8, you can do the following at the top Annual Accounting level:

• Configure annual accounting using the Configuration tab;
• View summary information of all accounts added with the Accounts tab;
• Set the available resource vs allocation (ARA) 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.

Configuration

This tab provides an overview of the annual accounting system (Figure 8); configuration parameters are explained in Table 7.

Figure 8. Annual Accounting, Configuration

Table 7. Annual accounting, Configuration tab

Accounts

This tab provides a summary of all the accounts in the annual accounting system in the Accounts table. Its parameters are outlined in Table 5 (see Account Configuration) You can add an account from this tab by selecting add account, see Adding an account and Figure 5. Account Entitlement and Initial Balance can be be set by using a fixed value, data source or function (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Annual Accounting, Accounts tab

Allocation

The Allocation tab contains the available resource vs allocation table (ARA table), which shows the quantity of resources required to achieve the specified allocations, including provision for carryover. Parameters to specify in this dialog are outlined in Table 8.

You can copy cells of the ARA table by selecting the cells so that they are highlighted blue, and then pressing Ctrl+C. You can then paste the contents elsewhere in the ARA table or to another program by pressing Ctrl+V. When you paste the cell contents into another program the name of the column(s) will also bepasted. You can also paste values from an external program into the ARA table. 

Figure 10. Annual accounting, Allocation tab

Freezing columns 

In the allocation tab you can freeze the columns so the user can scroll right to the multiple account types without losing the ability to compare the columns. 

The number of columns that are able to be 'frozen' can be configured from the numeric input to the 'Freeze column' numeric drop down. Also the user can go back to the previous settings with Reset View. 

As the user adds new account types this table will still populate the columns with the newly added.

The users can right-click on any desired column and click 'Freeze column' to freeze specific column. The 'frozen' column will move to the left side of the table next to the existing frozen columns.

Table 8. Annual accounting, Allocation parameters

Table 9. Annual accounting, Allocation (Variations)

Trigger Priority

Triggers are used to initiate or cancel certain actions for an account and various triggers can be added at different levels in annual accounting. There are several types of triggers - refer to Types of triggers.

Once defined, triggers appear in the Trigger Priority tab (Figure 11) and are separated depending on their time of execution: Timestep Beginning or Timestep End. They can be prioritised by clicking and dragging to the desired location.

Figure 11. Annual accounting, Priority Trigger