GL - Close Periods

Overview

The General Ledger ‘Close Periods’ program is used to close selected periods in General Ledger. After running the program, the period income/loss balance is posted to the YTD profit account, (your 'N' type, or net worth account set up in Finance > General Ledger > Account & Journal Information > Accounts.

Important!

This program can be run as each period is closed or at the end of the financial year. If you run it each period however, the income and expense accounts will only reflect current transactions with no brought forward balance.

Fields that require further explanation

Surplus / (Deficit) Account

The program will automatically default to the General Ledger account set up in your chart that has an account type of 'N' = 'Net Worth'.
This is the account that records your year to date profit figure. It is subsequently cleared when the Finance > General Ledger > Special Processes > Year End Close program is run.

Year to Close Periods

Enter the year in which you wish to close either a single period or all periods. Click the 'Display Periods' button and the program will display each month.

Options that could be displayed in the 'Close' column include:

Months that are already closed will display a message 'No Close Required'. This means that a close has already been run for this period and that there have been no journals posted affecting accounts since the close has been run.
A checkbox will be displayed for all periods that have not been closed and there are no un-posted journals.
An empty field is displayed with a corresponding message in the 'Close Journal Number' column 'error – un-posted journals found'.

This means that you cannot close this period because journals have been found that require posting. Click on the message and the program will take you to the 'Post Journals' program. Refer to Finance > General Ledger > Account & Journal Information > Post Journals for details on how to post journals.

Click the 'GO' button to close the periods that have a green tick in the checkbox.

This process will create the General Ledger posting and prompt you with the following message:

'Close Periods completed successfully. Would you like to post these Closing Journals now?'

Click 'OK' and the program will take you to the 'Post Journals' program. Refer to Finance > General Ledger > Account & Journal Information > Post Journals for details on how to post journals.

Alternatively, you can elect to post the close period journals later.