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Fiscal years and periods

Fiscal years and periods

Overview

This screen lets you define the company's fiscal years and generate the monthly Accounting periods tied to each one. Each monthly period can be open, locked or closed, which controls the time ranges depreciation movements may be posted to. Administrators and accountants responsible for the account's Accounting setup use it.

How to get there

Accounting > Periods Direct URL: /Accounting/periods

Key concepts

Term Definition
Fiscal year The twelve-month period (1 January to 31 December) the company's Accounting is organized around.
Accounting / posting period A monthly division of the fiscal year. Each month becomes an independent period with a start date, an end date and a status.
Open status The period accepts Accounting movements and Depreciation runs.
Locked status The period is temporarily closed to new postings; it can be reopened manually.
Closed status The period is permanently closed. It accepts no new postings and cannot be reopened from this screen.
Generate Periods The action that automatically creates the twelve monthly periods of a fiscal year (skipping months that already exist).

How to use it

Create a new fiscal year

  1. Click New Fiscal Year (top right of the screen).
  2. In the dialog that opens, enter the Year (a four-digit number between 1900 and 2999). The system proposes the current year.
  3. Click Save. The system creates the fiscal year running from 1 January to 31 December, open.
  4. A confirmation notification appears: "Fiscal year [year] created".

Generate a fiscal year's monthly periods

  1. In the fiscal years table, find the year you want.
  2. Click Generate Periods on that row.
  3. The system creates every missing month (1 to 12) as an Open period. Months that already exist are not duplicated.
  4. A notification states how many periods were created.

View a fiscal year's periods

  1. In the fiscal years table, click the Year number (a colored link).
  2. Below the main table, the Posting periods section appears with the selected year's months: month number, start and end dates, and current status.

Lock an open period

  1. In the Posting periods section, find the month you want to lock (Open status).
  2. Click Lock on that row.
  3. The status changes to Locked and the system shows the notification "Period updated".

Reopen a locked period

  1. In the Posting periods section, find the month with Locked status.
  2. Click Open on that row.
  3. The status returns to Open and the system shows the notification "Period updated".

Refresh the fiscal years table

Click Refresh (next to New Fiscal Year) to reload the list from the server.

Fields

Fiscal years table

Field Type Required Description Validation
Year Whole number Yes The fiscal period's calendar year (for example 2025). It appears as a link to view its periods. Minimum 1900, maximum 2999.
Start Date - The fiscal year's start date. Set automatically to 1 January of the year given. Not directly editable.
End Date - The fiscal year's end date. Set automatically to 31 December of the year given. Not directly editable.
Closed Checkbox (yes/no) - Whether the fiscal year is marked as closed in full. Read-only in the table.
Actions Button - The Generate Periods button, which creates the year's months. -

Posting periods section (sub-table)

Field Type Required Description Validation
Month Text - The month name generated by the system (January, February and so on). -
Start Date - The first day of the month. Not editable.
End Date - The last day of the month. Not editable.
Status Tag - The period's current status: Open, Locked or Closed. Read-only.
Actions Button - Lock (when the status is Open) or Open (when it is Locked). No button when the status is Closed. -

New Fiscal Year dialog

Field Type Required Description Validation
Year Whole number Yes The fiscal year to create. Minimum 1900, maximum 2999. Save is disabled if the value is below 1900.

Permissions

Available to users with access to the Accounting module, as configured by your administrator.

Notes

  • Active company: the screen always works against the company selected in the company selector. Switching company reloads the table and clears the active year selection.
  • Depreciation runs: to run depreciation over a month, the matching period must be Open. Locked and Closed periods accept no new postings.
  • Closed periods: the Closed status is assigned by the system outside this screen. From here you cannot close or reopen a period in that state; talk to your administrator if you need to act on a closed period.
  • No duplicates: Generate Periods compares the months that already exist and only creates the missing ones. It can be run several times with no risk of duplication.
  • Paging: the periods sub-table shows up to 12 records per page (one per month).

Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely cause Resolution
No periods appear when you click the year. The periods for that fiscal year have not been generated yet. Click Generate Periods on that year's row.
Generate Periods creates 0 periods. All twelve of the year's periods already exist. No action needed; every month already exists.
The dialog's Save button is disabled. The Year value is below 1900, or the field is empty. Enter a valid year (1900 at minimum).
A period is not available for depreciation. The period is Locked or Closed. If it is Locked, click Open to enable it. If it is Closed, talk to your administrator.
Switching company does not refresh the data. A connectivity problem or an expired session. Click Refresh to force the table to reload.
The screen shows "No fiscal years found". No fiscal year is registered for the active company. Click New Fiscal Year to create the first one.

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