Period Close

Close each month on the close board with system checks and signed-off close tasks, then close the financial year into retained earnings.

The Month-End Close Board

The Close tab of Ledger & Finance is the month-end close workspace. It shows every company's periods for a financial year on one board, works out from the books what still stands between each period and its close, and lets you close a period only when the checks pass or you record why you closed over them.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the Close tab: the close board, each period's checks, tasks and history

Architect Panel → ERP - Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the same console for architects

Reading the board

Open Close. Choose the Financial year, and under Show choose Every period or Periods to close.
Read the four cards: Periods to close (and how many are ready), Checks failing, Close tasks open (and how many are overdue), and Closed in the year.
The board has a row per period and a column per company you can read, with its currency. Each cell shows Locked, Closed, Not ended (with its end date), Ready or To close, how many checks are failing and how many close tasks are signed off. A company's other books are noted in the cell when their status differs.
Select a cell to see that period's detail below the board. Re-check works every check out again.

If the board is empty, generate the year's periods on the Periods tab first; see General Ledger.

The system checks

Each check reads the books and says Passes, Fails, Review or Not applicable, in a sentence with the figures, and offers an Open button to the place it is put right. Checks marked blocking stop the close when they fail.

Trial balance balances (blocking).
Documents dated in the period are posted (blocking).
Time in the period is approved (blocking).
Bank accounts reconciled to the period end (blocking): each bank connection has a completed reconciliation to a statement dated no more than five days before the period end, or later.
Receivables and payables agree to their control accounts (blocking).
Goods received not invoiced is explained (advisory only: it reads today's position, so it cannot prove a past period end).
Depreciation charged for the period (blocking).
Foreign-currency balances revalued at the period end (blocking).
Last period's accruals reversed (advisory).
VAT return prepared (blocking): passes when a saved VAT return, draft or filed, covers the period end. Mid-quarter it is not applicable, and so is it for a company with no VAT returns in the ledger.

Checks that do not apply, such as depreciation for a company with no fixed assets, show as not applicable and never block. Cash, the sub-ledgers and VAT are read from the company's primary book; the trial balance and depreciation are read from the period's own book.

Closing from the board

Select the period. The detail heading shows the company, month, period number and book.
Read the panel at the top: Ready to close, or a list of what stands between the period and its close.
Use each failing check's Open button to put it right, then Re-check this period.
Press Close and the month name. The same dialog as the Periods tab confirms the checks. Closing over a failing check needs Close it anyway and a reason, which is recorded with what was closed over.
Under Other books, close the same period in each other book the company keeps; each closes on its own.

A period that has not ended cannot be closed, from here or anywhere else.

Worked example

On the third working day of October the group controller opens Close for 2026. The board shows September as To close for all three companies. The UK cell says 1 check failing: the bank check names the deposit account, last reconciled to 31 August. They open Bank Feeds, import and reconcile September, press Re-check this period, and the UK cell turns Ready. The Dutch cell fails on revaluation; they post it on FX revaluation. Both close cleanly the same morning.

Recommendations

Work the board, not memory. The checks read the books, so they catch what a checklist on paper misses.
Close over a failing check only with a real reason; auditors read the recorded reasons.
Close every book's period, not just the primary one.
Re-check after fixing, rather than closing on an old result.

Close Tasks and the Close Checklist

The system checks on the Close tab read the books, but a month end also has work that only a person can confirm: the payroll journal agreed to the payroll report, supplier statements reconciled, the management accounts reviewed. Close tasks hold that work, with an owner, a due date and a sign-off. A period cannot close while one of its tasks is open, unless you close it anyway and record why.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the Close tab: select a period on the board, then its Close tasks section

Architect Panel → ERP - Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the same console for architects

Setting up a company's standing list

Each company keeps a standing list of tasks that recur every month, each due a number of days after the period end.

On the Close tab, select any open period of the company.
Under Close tasks, press Add the suggested tasks. The first time, the suggested list becomes the company's standing list: post the payroll journal and agree it to the payroll report; accrue for costs not yet invoiced; review prepayments and deferred income; review aged debtors and the bad-debt provision; agree supplier statements to the creditors ledger; review the management accounts and explain variances to budget; financial controller sign-off.
Press Standing list… to change it: add a Task, its Owner and Days after the period end, or remove one.
In later months press Add the standing tasks (the button shows how many) to copy the list onto the period.

Working the tasks

Press Add a task for anything that applies to this period only. Give the Task, the Owner (or Finance team (no one person)) and the Due date.
Each task shows its owner, due date and status: open, Overdue or Signed off.
When the work is done, the owner or a finance user with Post access presses Sign off…, adds an optional note, and confirms. Their name and the time are recorded.
A task signed off by mistake can be put back with Reopen… and a reason. A task not yet signed off can be edited or removed.

Each person's own open tasks appear at the top of the Close tab under Your close tasks, with overdue ones marked.

Who can own a task

A task can be given to anyone who can open the company's Close tab: holders of ERP: Finance or ERP: Reporting with access to the company. An owner can sign off their own task even when their role is read-only, which is how a director holding ERP: Reporting signs off the management accounts review.

The close checklist workflow

If an architect has set up a close-checklist workflow for accounting periods, the period's detail shows Start close checklist. Choose the workflow and press Start; starting it needs ERP: Finance with Post access. Processes shows its runs on the period, and Close checklist runs lists them newest first. Without such a workflow the tab says so: an architect adds one from the Workflow Builder's template gallery (Month-end close checklist). See Workflow Builder.

Several books

A company keeping a second book, such as US GAAP beside Local statutory, has the same month in both. Its close tasks live on the primary book's period. The second book's period shows them but cannot close while they are open.

Worked example

In April the controller of a UK company adds the suggested tasks to March and gives the management accounts review to the managing director, who holds ERP: Reporting. Over the first five working days the team signs off payroll, accruals and supplier statements. On day five the managing director sees the review under Your close tasks, signs it off with the note "Variances explained at board", and the period shows Ready.

Recommendations

Build the standing list once, from the suggested tasks, and keep it current.
Name an owner for every task. "Finance team" tasks are the ones that slip.
Add a note when signing off anything judgemental; it is the evidence an auditor asks for.
Keep the controller's sign-off last, due after everything else.

Closing the Financial Year

Closing the financial year moves every profit and loss balance for the year into retained earnings with one journal, and closes any period of the year still open. The next year then opens with balance-sheet accounts only. The close is previewed first, held to the same checks as a month end, and can be undone if the accounts change.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the Periods tab: Year-end close and Reopen year, in the Financial years table

Architect Panel → ERP - Finance:

Ledger & Finance — the same console for architects

Before you start

An account must carry the role Retained earnings (year-end close) on the chart. Without it the dashboard warns that the year cannot be closed. The UK template sets it.
The year must have ended. Until then the Financial years table shows Year-end close after and the date, and the months are closed one by one on the Close tab.
Close the year's months first where you can. The year-end close closes any still open, and holds each of them to its close checks and tasks.

Closing the year

Choose the company and book at the top, open Periods, and find the year in the Financial years table.
Press Year-end close….
Check the Retained earnings account. It defaults to the account with the retained earnings role.
Tick Lock the periods as well if the accounts are final.
Read the preview: the profit or loss for the year, which account it moves to, the period it posts into, and the closing journal line by line with the retained earnings line and totals.
If periods are not ready, the dialog lists them under Not ready to close. Put them right on the Close tab, or tick Close it anyway and give a reason; it is recorded against each period with what was closed over.
Press Close the year. The table then shows the year as closed with a link to its closing journal (type YE).

Reopening a year

If an adjustment is needed after the year is closed, press Reopen year… on that year and give a reason. The closing journal is reversed and the year's last period is reopened, so the profit and loss balances come back. Later years must be reopened first. Post the adjustment, then close the year again: the new closing journal includes it.

Reading figures around the year end

On the Trial balance tab, tick Before the year-end close to see the profit and loss balances as they stood before the closing journal.
The dashboard's Profit year to date is before any year-end close, so it still shows the year's result afterwards.
The income statement and the ERP Analytics revenue and profit measures leave the closing journal out, so the month holding the close does not show the year reversed.

What goes wrong

"No account has the Retained earnings role": set the role on the Chart of accounts tab.
"The year has not ended, so it cannot be closed yet": wait for the last day of the year to pass.
Reopen refused: a later year is closed. Reopen that one first.

Worked example

A company with a 31 March year end closes March on 7 April. Its auditors finish in June. The controller opens Year-end close… for 2025/26; the preview shows a profit of 182,400.00 moving to 3100 Retained earnings in period 12, and every period passes its checks. They tick Lock the periods as well and close the year. In July a late audit adjustment arrives: they unlock period 12, reopen the year with the auditors' reference as the reason, post the adjustment and close the year again.

Recommendations

Close the year once the accounts are agreed, not on the first day of the new year.
Lock the periods when the accounts are signed, so a change needs a deliberate unlock.
Give every reopen a reason the auditors will recognise; it is kept in the period history.
Use Before the year-end close when you need the year's trial balance after closing.