Closing Fiscal Years Tutorial

From General ledger, Overview, use the available tasks and tools to post transactions, process batches, and close periods before finalizing fiscal year closure.

Tip: Review Why Close Fiscal Years?

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to:

  • Prepare data to make sure it's ready for closure.

  • Post transactions and batches across periods.

  • Close previous periods.

  • Generate verification reports to identify open items.

  • Complete the fiscal year closure process confidently and accurately.

You'll also learn how to maintain data integrity and avoid common issues — such as unposted transactions and incomplete batches — that happen when prematurely closing a fiscal year. Follow the next steps to ensure your financial data is fully reconciled and ready for year-end closure.

Preserve fund details

Settings, General ledger, GL setup, Funds

Before closing fiscal years, review each applicable fund to confirm the financial data you want to preserve.

To retain specific details after closing, edit the fund and select what you need under Preserve details during closing.

Be aware that data for the unselected characteristics isn't carried forward when you close the fiscal year. For more details about editing funds, see Funds.

Tip: Periodically review funds before closing fiscal years, especially when changes have occurred or you have new reporting needs. While reviewing isn't required, it's a best practice to ensure your data is accessible after closing.

Process Needs attention tasks

General ledger, Overview

Under Needs attention, resolve the tasks that need immediate action. For example, post transactions in out-of-balance batches and review and process pending batches to begin your workflow.

Tip: Out-of-balance and pending batches are pre-filtered lists of journal entry batches. When selected, you'll see an initial list based on specific criteria. You can adjust the filters as needed for more tailored results.

Post transactions and batches

General ledger, Overview

Use Closing assistant to review and post transactions for each subledger in an open period you need to close. For example, under Fiscal period select an open period. Next, select Review [x] unposted transactions for a subledger such as Payables.

Tip: Each subledger batch includes up to 99 transactions when accessed from the Closing assistant. If a subledger contains 100 or more, continue posting them in batches until all transactions have been processed.

Under General ledger, process all unposted batches too.

Fore more details about using Closing assistant, see Closing assistant. For more details about posting transactions, see Post Subledgers.

Reconciliation

TBD

Close periods

General ledger, Overview

After posting all transactions and batches, use Closing assistant to close periods. Under General ledger, select Close fiscal period.

Closing a period prevents future transactions from being posted to it. However, you can reopen the period later if needed.

Warning: Before closing a fiscal year, close all periods within that year.

Generate reports

Analysis, Reports

Generate and review these recommended reports to confirm your financial data is accurate and reconciled before closing out the applicable fiscal years.

Soft close or hard close

When closing a fiscal year, you have two options to prevent future changes.

  • Soft close (pre-close)— Prevents posting to the fiscal year (you can always re-open if needed)..

    Note: When you soft close, your financial statements reflect accurate fund balances because reports simulate a close when run.

  • Hard close — Permanently prevents posting to the fiscal year (can't be re-opened)..

    Note: To hard close, at least two other fiscal years must remain open. Hard closing isn't allowed when it's the only open fiscal year.

Closing fiscal years

General ledger, Overview

Tip: Review Why Close Fiscal Years?

When you're ready to close a fiscal year, under Fiscal years, select the number above Open fiscal years.

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Wrapping up

Remember, you must have at least two open fiscal years at all times. If you need to add a new fiscal year before closing an existing one, go to Settings, General ledger, Fiscal years. From here, you can add one in either of two ways.

  • Select New fiscal year from current under Current fiscal periods.

  • Select Add under Manage all fiscal years.

For more details, see Add a fiscal year.