Period Close

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Open Period Close

Open Finance > Close & Reconcile > Period Close. You can also search for Period Close in the command palette. Opening the page needs permission to close periods. The page shows open, pending approval, and closed accounting periods. It also suggests recent periods that are still open so accounting can review them before new activity drifts into old dates. Search periods by name or date, and filter by All, Open, Pending approval, Closed or Will refuse. Will refuse lists periods whose checklist would refuse a close today.

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What Should Be Done First

• Post or delete draft journal entries that belong in the period.
• Approve or reject journal entries waiting for approval.
• Complete bank reconciliation for cash accounts that need review.
• Review open vendor bills and AP aging.
• Review outstanding AR and collections items.
• Review marketplace clearing balances and pending payouts.
• Run reports and compare expected balances before locking the period.

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Choose The Close Path

• Close: closes the period directly when your role has close permission and the checklist passes.
• Request Close: moves the period to pending approval so another authorized user can review it.
• Approve Close: completes a requested close. The approver must be different from the requester when separation of duties applies.
• Withdraw Request: takes back a pending close request.
• Reopen: unlocks a closed period for a legitimate correction, then requires the period to be reviewed and closed again.
• Close Fiscal Year: closes every period of a fiscal year and marks the year end closed.

Close Period and Close Fiscal Year need permission to close periods, Request Close and Withdraw Request need permission to request a close, Approve Close needs permission to approve a close, and Force Close (Admin) needs permission to force a close. Buttons you cannot use stay visible but disabled.

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Close A Period

1. Open Finance > Close & Reconcile > Period Close.
2. Use the suggested period or click Close Period for a custom date range.
3. Enter the period name, start date, and end date when using a custom range.
4. Click Review Checklist or Close.
5. Review every checklist item.
6. Use the checklist links to fix blockers before closing.
7. Acknowledge non-blocking warnings only after they are understood.
8. Close the period or request approval, depending on your permission model.

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Checklist Items

The pre-close checklist looks for accounting work that can change the period. Some items block the close. Others are warnings that accounting can acknowledge after review.

• Unposted journal entries: blocking items that need to post, be deleted, or move to a later period.
• Entries pending approval: blocking items that need an approve or reject decision.
• Bank accounts needing reconciliation: warning items for cash accounts that still need bank statement review.
• Open AP bills: warning items that can affect liabilities and expense timing.
• Outstanding AR: warning items that can affect receivables review, collections, and bad-debt decisions.
• Clearing-account drains: marketplace clearing balances that should have a pending payout or a reviewed reason. Clearing-account issues shown on the checklist block an ordinary close.
• Receivables reconciliation difference: a difference between receivables detail and its control account is shown as a warning, not a blocker. Open GL Reconciliation takes you to the breakdown.

If a checklist item cannot be read, the checklist says so. An unreadable check is never reported as clean. For a period that ended more than 180 days ago, the close and reopen dialogs ask you to tick I understand this is an old period and I want to close it (or reopen it) before the button enables. Treat warning rows as review work, not as decoration. A warning can still point to an item that accounting policy requires you to resolve before final close.

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Which Vendor Bills Count Toward a Period

A vendor bill counts toward the period of the date it sits in the ledger, its posting date. For a bill you enter, that is its effective date. Period Close counts bills by that date, not by the bill date on the vendor’s invoice. A bill dated September 28 with an effective date of October 2 counts toward October, not September.

• Open vendor bills in a period. The reasons under Close will refuse on a period’s row, and the Will refuse filter, count the open and partly paid vendor bills whose posting date is inside the period, for example “(n) open vendor bills in window ($amount)”. Closing the period applies the same count. The Open AP bills row in the checklist dialog is a warning that counts every open bill.
• The payables comparison. When a requested close is approved, Arcus compares the unpaid balance of the open vendor bills posted by the period’s end date with the payables control account. A difference above the drift threshold (10 dollars by default) is counted in the confirmation, for example Period closed (1 subledger warning). A bill counts from its posting date, so both sides of the comparison ask the same question.

To set or move a bill’s posting date, see Bill Dates and GL Posting.

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Marketplace Clearing Review

Period close checks marketplace clearing balances because platform activity often posts before the bank payout arrives. A pending payout can explain a clearing balance. An old balance with no pending payout needs review before close.

• Open the payout link from the checklist when a clearing row appears.
• Confirm the platform, payout date, net amount, and posting status.
• Match posted payouts to bank feed deposits during bank reconciliation when the bank transaction arrives.
• Document any expected timing difference before acknowledging the warning.

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Blocking Issues Versus Warnings

• Blocking issues must be fixed before a normal close can proceed.
• Warnings can be acknowledged only when accounting has reviewed the risk.
• Admin force close may appear for authorized users when policy allows an override.
• Force close reasons are required and become part of the audit trail.

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What Closing Does

• Locks the date range so ordinary backdated postings cannot change prior financial results.
• Records who closed or approved the period and when the action happened.
• Stores an integrity snapshot so later changes can be audited if the period is reopened.
• Feeds period-close review status into accounting dashboards and month-end routines.

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Reopen A Closed Period

Reopening allows new postings inside a previously closed date range. Use it only when the business has a legitimate correction that cannot be posted in the current period.

1. Find the closed period row.
2. Click Reopen.
3. In Reopen Period, enter a clear reason for reopening.
4. If the period ended more than 180 days ago, tick the acknowledgement. If you requested or approved this period’s close yourself, choose the person who authorized the reopen.
5. Click Reopen Period.
6. Make the correction, then review the period again and close it when complete.

A period whose fiscal year is closed cannot be reopened as an ordinary period.

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Close The Fiscal Year

Close Fiscal Year is available once every period in that fiscal year is closed. Clicking it explains what will happen before you confirm:

• Every revenue and expense account balance is swept into Retained Earnings through one closing journal entry.
• The closing entry posts even though the year’s periods are already closed, because it is the entry that closes them at the year level.
• The last period of the year (December, on a calendar fiscal year) moves from Closed to Year-End Closed.
• The Balance Sheet shows the booked Retained Earnings balance going forward.
• Running it again is safe: Arcus reuses the existing closing entry instead of posting a duplicate.

Closing the fiscal year is significant and not easily undone: reopening a period after its fiscal year is closed needs a separate, manual workflow rather than the ordinary Reopen button.

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Common Problems

• Close button is disabled: review blockers, permissions, pending checklist load, or warning acknowledgment.
• Journal entries block close: post, approve, reverse, or delete the entries before closing.
• Clearing account blocks close: review marketplace payouts and confirm whether a pending payout explains the balance.
• Cannot approve close: another user may need to approve if separation of duties is enabled.
• Need to correct a closed period: use reopen with a reason, or ask accounting leadership whether to post a current-period adjustment.

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