Specifying financial periods for general ledgers

You can segment accounting periods by specifying the start date and close date of a financial period.

Before you begin

You must define at least one financial period.

About this task

The transactions must occur during an open, valid financial period. The requirements of the accounting system that you use determines the format of the financial period.

Procedure

  1. In the Chart of Accounts application, select the organization for which you want to define a financial period.
  2. Select the Financial Periods action.
  3. In the Financial Periods window, click New Row.
  4. Enter the name or number for the period.
  5. Specify start and end dates for the financial period: If there is no financial period, the current date and time displays in the From field. If financial periods exist, the From field displays the date and time shown in the To field of the most recent period.
  6. Optional: Specify a close date. After this date, you cannot charge additional transactions to the accounting period.

Results

To prevent gaps and overlaps in time between contiguous periods, if you change the date of an existing period, the surrounding dates are reset. If you use financial periods, then a financial period stamp is added to all transactions when they are generated.

What to do next

You use the Actual Close Date field to close the financial period.


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