Defining Posting Periods in Financial Accounting

Each company code is assigned a Fiscal year Variant. As an overview, a fiscal year variant defines the number of periods and their start and end dates. The fiscal year variant does not specify whether a posting period is open or closed. Fiscal year variants are detailed in a separate course.

The posting period variant is the object used to control the opening and closing of fiscal periods. A posting period variant consists of an ID and description. This is then assigned to one or more company codes. If multiple company codes have the same posting period variant, the periods will be managed simultaneously within those company codes.

After creating the posting period variant, it then needs to be assigned to a company code in the global company code settings. This is the posting period variant the will be used for the leading ledger and defaulted for any additional ledgers. It is possible to define non-leading ledgers with different posting period variants if needed.

Usually the current posting period is open and all other periods are closed. At the end of a period, in general, the current period is closed and the next period is opened. You open a posting period by entering a range in the posting period variant that encompasses this period. You can have as many posting periods open as desired.

The detail of the posing period variant contains several lines for each account type.

• + (Overall / Header) - This line item covers the document in total. This item is mandatory for every posting period variant. This is checked first for every posting and is checked against the posting date of the document. Therefore, this item must be open for, at least, the same periods as any account type. If all account types are to be treated the same way, then this would be the only line you would need.
• Detailed Account Type - Posting periods can be handled differently for each account type. For example, during period-end close, you may choose to close any customer or supplier entries before any entries only to G/L accounts. You can also maintain an interval of accounts that may be open or closed, however that is usually only reserved for G/L accounts.
  • As a reminder the different account types are:
  • D - Customer
  • K - Supplier
  • A - Assets
  • S - G/L Accounts
  • M - Material
  • V - Contract Accounts

As we have learned, there are 2 sections to a document, the header and the line items. The posting period variant controls both of those sections. As documents are posted, a posting date is entered, as the system starts to check the document, the first item checked would be the posting date against the current posting period variant. If the date falls in a fiscal period that is closed, the system will respond with an error that posting in the period is not possible.

If the posting date check passes, the system continues to check the line items. For each account that is entered on a line item, it is checked against the posting period variant table and the system will return the result. For example, the document posting date may be valid, however supplier accounts may have been closed. If a supplier invoice for supplier T10000 is entered, the system will return a message that for the fiscal period and supplier account T10000, the ledger is not open.

The posting period variant contains three separate intervals. The first two intervals related specifically only to finance.

Interval 1 or sometimes call the Adjustment Interval is used to open periods that are outside of the normal business processing. An authorization group can also be applied to restrict the users that can post to the relevant period for adjustment interval.

Interval 2 or sometimes called the Normal Interval is used to open the current period where business transactions are being posted. This interval applies to every user in the system and cannot be restricted.

As an overview example, period 7 is at an end. We would need to change Interval 2 to period 8 so that everyone can continue to post ongoing business. However, during the first week of the new period, our analysts are reviewing the previous period and may need to make entries in period 7 in order to correctly reflect the data in the general ledger. In Interval 1, we can open period 7 for posting. If we want to restrict users that can post to period 7, we would also add an authorization group. This restricts ability to post to period 7 to only those user who have the authorization group entered in permission object F_BKPF_BUK in their security profile. Once period 7 is final, we could then change this interval to period 8 in advance for the next period close.

Period interval 3 is used for postings from Management Accounting (Controlling (CO)) to Financial Accounting (FI). If the third interval is not filled, the entries in intervals 1 and 2 are also valid for these postings.

Postings in FI (CO-relevant) and postings in CO (FI-relevant) need Open periods in FI (Posting Period Variant) and the CO Period Lock which is only the CO posting transactions and is maintained separately in the system.