Period Close is a helpful feature that will allow you to lock down an accounting period. You may have reconciled your books for a certain year and want to ensure that changes cannot be made. With Period Close, only users with an Administrator role can access this screen, select a date range, and easily close it by following the steps below.
Closing an Accounting Period:
Period Close can be accessed from Fund Accounting -> More -> Period Close.
From your Period Close Management page, you will see the current status of your accounting. If this is your first time using this functionality, you'll see that your accounting is open (unlocked). If you have previously closed a period, you will see the date that your accounting is closed. To close a period, you will enter the date that you want transactions locked to and click Close Period. In the example below, the period is closed to 12/31/2016, which means that any transactions from that date and before are locked down.
You will now see this action listed in your Period Close History. The history section will track any activity, whether closing or opening a period, for tracking and audit purposes.
Once a period is closed, transactions cannot be added, or edited within that period. If you click on a transaction that is included in a closed period, you will see an alert at the top of the transaction and will also see that the fields are disabled. The only change that can be made is the transaction Comment and the split Comment. If a change needs to be made to the transaction, you will need to open the period to the day before the transaction.
If you attempt to enter a transaction in a closed period by manually entering a date, the date box will remove the date and show in red and if you utilize the calendar view, you will notice that any day before the closed period will show crossed out:
Opening an Accounting Period
(Only available to Administrators):
If you need to edit a transaction that is included in a closed period, you will need to open the period to do so. Aplos makes this easy. To reopen a period, simply enter a date that is one day before the date of the transaction you need to edit.
For example, if you need to edit a transaction that occurred on March 23rd, you would go to the Period Close screen, enter March 22nd, and click "Open Period." This action will unlock all transactions from March 22nd onward, allowing you to make the necessary changes. Once your adjustments are complete, you can go back and re-close the period to the original date to maintain the integrity of your records.
Special Case: Adjusting Starting Balances
Starting balances are crucial as they form the foundation of your financial records. If you need to make changes to your starting balances after a period has been closed, there's a specific process to follow. The system treats starting balances as the very first transaction, dating them to January 1, 1900, to ensure they precede all other transactions.
To adjust your starting balances, you must open the period to December 31, 1899. By doing this, you will be able to make changes to those amounts.
It's important to note that if a register's starting balances remain grayed out even after opening the period, it may be due to a closed bank reconciliation for that register. In such cases, you would need to address the bank reconciliation status as well.
In conclusion, the Period Close feature is an invaluable tool for maintaining accurate and reliable financial data in Aplos, giving you the control you need to ensure proper accounting management.
If you have any questions about this functionality, please feel free to contact our Customer Care Team.