Periods and Closing

A journal belongs to an accounting period as well as to a date. Periods are what let the business say a month is finished and have that mean something.

What closing does

Closing a period stops further postings being dated into it. That is the whole mechanism, and it is enough — the figures reported for that month can no longer change, so a statement produced from them stays true.

Without it, a late invoice dated into a closed month silently changes a figure somebody has already circulated. That is the problem periods exist to prevent.

A late transaction after close

Post it into the current open period rather than reopening the old one. Reopening a closed period invalidates everything already reported from it; posting into the current period is visible, explicable and leaves the closed month intact.

Where the timing genuinely matters for reporting, an accrual in the closed period and a reversal in the new one is the accounting answer — and both are ordinary postings, so both are visible.

Before you close

• Check every feed has been processed and the inbox is empty.
• Confirm documents that should have posted have reached the status that posts them.
• Run the calculated-field recalculation sweep if there have been imports.
• Review the trial balance for the period and confirm it balances and looks sane.

Closing is a decision, not a routine

Do not automate it on a schedule. Closing asserts that the figures are final, and that assertion should be made by a person who has looked at them. Automating it means the assertion is made by a timer.

Reporting from closed periods

Because amounts were translated at post time and postings are immutable, a report over a closed period is reproducible indefinitely. That is the payoff for the discipline: the number you quote in March is the number the system still gives in December.