Weekly Review: Partial Month End Module Closing

At month end we tend to close module categories as they are finished. Done with AP? Check the Purchasing box and close the whole module. Every once in a while we get burned though. We balance the bank accounts but leave the whole Financial module open so that we can finish up JE's. Then someone posts a bank transaction into the month we're trying to close. Now the completed bank rec doesn't match the GL any more.

Well, you can get fine grain control of closing periods. Simply pick Fiscal Periods from Administratoin Area Page under Company, just as you always would, and then pick Mass Close. (I know, dumb name if you're using it this way.)

Limit the selections to the Series and Periods you want (Financial, Period 2 for example). Here you can check the boxes to close Bank Transactions, Bank Deposits and Bank Transfers, thus preventing them from posting while leaving GL, Clearing and Quick entries open for final adjusting entries. This works with all the modules (close PO's but leave AP open for example) to give you better control over the close.

A couple of observations:

1) If a series is partially closed at month end, the checkbox for the full series remains unchecked (i.e.: if you close Bank Trx, the main Financial box is still unchecked)

2) The main month end close boxes override the ones checked via Mass Close. So if you close Bank Trx, later close the Financial Module and then reopen the Financial Module for a last minute transaction, you've also reopened the ability to post Bank Transactions for that period

Extra Fiscal Period

Now that I'm back as a consultant, I've started working on my Microsoft Certified Business Management Professional certification for GP. As a customer, I didn't see any reason to keep up my certifications but I'll need them as a consultant. It's too bad that they've retired the Certified Master designation. That title was more fun!

In the process of working on that I came across a little tidbit for those of you who need an adjustment period at the end of your fiscal year. The typical advice has been to leave a one day long, 13th period for end of the year or post audit adjustments. That's still valid of course.

However, the GP training documentation shows another option. You can have two fiscal periods with the same start date. GP places transactions in the first open period. This means that Fiscal December and the adjustment period can have the same dates. As long as Fiscal December is open, transactions go there. Once it's closed, transactions roll into the Adjustment period. This would let you post ordinary entries up to the last day of the year instead of losing that last day.

I'm not sure this will blow anyone's mind but I thought it was cool to see that there is another option.

Update: In the comments, Andy Hall has mentioned that using a 1 day period causes Expense/Deferral issues and overlapping 12th periods cause FRx issues. Japheth also reported having issues with an overlapping 12th period. Well, I didn't say it was perfect ;).

But that's part of the point of this blog. Now you know that you have other options beyond just a 1 day period and you know that there may be issues. So if you need this, you know it's there and you know what to look out for. Frankly, as both a customer and a consultant that's all I ever really asked for!