Editing and Deleting Years and Periods

The year list page displays a list of financial years for your current companyClosed The company in which you are working. This is represented by the company queue to which you, and new instances of objects you create, are assigned. and view. From this page, you can view detailed information and access its periods.

  • Choose a predefined view from the drop-down list to select the records to display. Alternatively, you can select Create New View to define your own list view.
  • Click a Name to view the financial year details.
  • Click Edit to edit the financial year details.
  • Click New Year to create a new financial year.
  • Click any column heading to sort the records using that column’s data.

See "Viewing Custom Object Lists" in the Salesforce Help for more information on using list views.

Displaying Year Details

Once you have located a financial year on the home or list pages, click the year name to display detailed information.

Editing Year Details

To update a financial year, click Edit on the button bar, and then change the year fields you want to update.

Note:

You cannot make any changes to a year once you have created a subsequent year. If you do this, you must delete all years, except the first, and start again.

Editing Period Details

The period details are displayed as a related list on the Year detail page, and as a separate Periods tab.

To update an open accounting period, click Edit next to the period entry that you want to edit on a periods related list or list view.

The application will stop you from doing the following:

  • Create a gap or an overlap between adjacent periods.
  • Amend the period details for a year where a subsequent year exists.
  • Create a period of less than a day.
  • Amend a period where the Hard Close option is selected.
  • Amend an open period that affects a period where the Hard Close option is selected.
  • Amend a period that has documents associated with it.
  • Amend a period that has no documents associated with it and that affects a period that does have documents associated with it.
  • Change the start date of the first period.
  • Amend the period details of a special period, apart from the Hard Close option and the Period Group picklist.
Note:
Changes to the calendar year or fiscal year can only be done by Customer Support.

To prevent gaps, if you change the end date of a period, the application automatically amends the next period start date. The opposite happens when you change a period start date. The period calculation basis is set to "Custom".

Similarly, if you change the end date of the final period, the application automatically amends the end date of the financial year and the special periods 100 and 101. The period calculation basis is set to "Custom".

In the same way, if you create a new period with dates outside of the year definition, the application automatically amends the end date of the financial year and the special periods 100 and 101. The period calculation basis is set to "Custom".

Closing and Reopening a Period

Once transactions have been posted to a period, almost all of its details are fixed. The exceptions to this are the Soft Close and Hard Close options, which allow you to close the period for all GLAs or for specific GLA Groups (AP, AR, Cash, or Other).

Soft Close

Soft Closing a period means that nothing else can be posted to the GLAs apart from Journals and Currency Revaluation. This can be applied to all GLAs, or to specific GLA groups - AR, AP, Cash or Other groups.

Hard Close

Hard Closing a period means that nothing can be posted, including journals.

The Hard Close option was already included in previous releases, but was implemented as different checkboxes available to select across different GLA Groups:

  • Final Close: Hard Close All GLA groups
  • AP: Hard Close the AP GLAs group
  • AR: Hard Close the AR GLAs group
  • Cash: Hard Close the Cash GLAs group

The new Hard Closing options also include the ability to close the period for other GLAs that are not included in the AP, AR, or Cash groups, as “Other.”

Closing a Period

To close an accounting period, navigate to the Periods tab. Here you can select the Soft Close or Hard Close options as appropriate, across multiple GLA groups.

For example, if you wanted to Soft Close your first trading period for the Accounts Receivable group, you would select “AR Receivable Group” under the heading “Soft Close Options.”

If the Hard Close option is selected for All GLA groups within a period, this overrules any existing Soft Close selection for the same period. Additionally, the Hard Close selection for specific GLA groups overrules the corresponding Soft Close selection for the specific GLA group.

For example, if the AR GLA Group has the Soft Close selection currently assigned, selecting the Hard Close option for the same GLA group automatically overrides this.

Note:

  • Options for closing a period are available whether you are in single-company mode or multi-company mode. The companies displayed in this tab are dependent on the user's profile and which companies they are permitted to access. Only the companies you have been granted access to can be displayed.

  • You can also use Period Close Template to close periods. For more information, see Using a Period Close Template.

Validations

The tables below show how the validation process applies to the Soft and Hard closing options. This controls which documents can be saved and posted to each GLA group. These differences occur due to the different points at which GLAs are included in the process of creating new documents.

Y - Yes
N - No

Soft Close Option SIN, SCR, PIN, PCR, CSH Journals
Save Post Save Post
AR GLAs Group Y N Y Y
AP GLAs Group
Cash GLAs Group
Other GLAs Group
All GLAs N

 

Hard Close Option SIN, SCR, PIN, PCR, CSH Journals
Save Post Save Post
AR GLAs Group Y N N N
AP GLAs Group
Cash GLAs Group
Other GLAs Group
All GLAs N

 

Note:

The following abbreviations denote the different types of documents created and posted to GLA groups. These codes make up part of the reference number they are assigned when created in FinancialForce Accounting.

SIN - Sales Invoice

SCR - Sales Credit Note

PIN - Payable Invoice

PCR - Payable Credit Note

CSH - Cash Entry

When saving documents other than Journals, GLAs are not directly associated with the documents. At the point of posting these documents, GLAs are then assigned to the Transactions. This is why the validations that check the GLA group are only applied when these documents are posted and not when they are saved.

When creating journals, GLA groups are associated with both the document and the Transaction. Due to this the validations check which is the relevant GLA group, and if it can be saved to that group. This validation process only applies to Hard Closing periods by GLA group, as Journals can still be posted with the Soft Close options selected.

When it comes to the All GLAs option for both the Soft and Hard closing options, saving documents is not possible. The exception to this is saving Journals with the Soft Close option selected for all GLA groups.

Deleting Years and Periods

  • You cannot delete a financial year or period that has transactions associated with it.
  • You cannot delete a period that has been closed (either to particular GLA groups or to all general ledger accounts).
  • You cannot delete a financial year or period where a subsequent year or period exists. Only the most recent ones can be deleted.
  • If you successfully delete a year, its associated periods are deleted as well.
  • You cannot delete the first period in a year, even if it is also the most recent one. You must have at least one trading period in a year.
  • If you delete the most recent period, the app automatically amends the year end date and special periods 100 and 101 to reflect the change. The period calculation basis is set to "Custom".