# End of year maintenance tips

This page outlines a few simple things you can do in your Phocas site at the end of each year.

## Defined and custom periods <a href="#endofyearmaintenancetips-updatedefinedandcustomperiods" id="endofyearmaintenancetips-updatedefinedandcustomperiods"></a>

Phocas recommends administrators use the dynamic month option when [setting defined periods](/administration/databases-administration.md#set-defined-periods-for-a-database), as this updates your date range each year. If you haven't used this option, we recommend you manually update any defined periods or custom periods that are based on *Year To Date*, as these won't automatically roll over to the new calendar year.

Select the defined period you want to change by clicking the active link.

<div align="left"><figure><img src="/files/PjdEPXmzCr93ZQElUJgv" alt="" width="544"><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

You can then update the period using either of these methods:

* Manually update the defined period by rolling the current period and previous period start date forward to the next year.
* Use the dynamic month option.

## Dashboards and favorites <a href="#endofyearmaintenancetips-dashboardsandfavoritesmaintenance" id="endofyearmaintenancetips-dashboardsandfavoritesmaintenance"></a>

In addition to defined and custom period maintenance, you might also need to do some maintenance on any custom period views defined in your existing dashboard widgets or favorites. An indication of an obsolete widget period setting is an error message saying, ‘*The Sequence contains no element”*. If you receive this error, check your widget period settings. If you can't identify a problem with the settings, you might need to [contact our Support team](https://portal.usepylon.com/phocas/login).

## ERP <a href="#endofyearmaintenancetips-endofyearerpmaintenance" id="endofyearmaintenancetips-endofyearerpmaintenance"></a>

Many ERPs require yearly maintenance to close out the previous year and begin building the extraction files into the New Year. This typically involves the administration of the following:

1. Year to Date extract feed that manages the extract of sales, purchasing, inventory, etc data for the current year.
2. Historical extract feed that manages the extract of that data for all years in their entirety, previous to the current year.

It is recommended you consult with your ERP administrator regarding ERP maintenance.

This article has been produced by our Support team. If you have any questions, you can [contact our Support team](https://portal.usepylon.com/phocas/login).


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