Explaining the Importance of Working with Financial Posting Periods and the Use of Dates in Postings

In Unit 1, Jill learned that when entering documents one of the date fields is relevant for determining the posting period. Do you remember the name of the field?

In the next media you learn:

• About the connection between posting periods and the Journal Entry
• About the connection between posting periods and the Transaction Figures / Reporting

Let's start with the basic information for regular posting periods.

In Financial Accounting, you must regularly report on the development of the business and the figures. In finance, the reported figures often refer to a month or the period from the beginning of the fiscal year to the end of the reporting month. In SAP, the fiscal year is usually divided into posting periods into which the relevant posting transactions are entered.

As a rule, FI postings must be reported in the period in which they belong economically. This means that the financial accounting posting must be entered into the correct period. If this is not possible and the reasons can also be traced for the auditors, it can also be one of the following periods in justified cases.

If the fiscal year for a company starts directly on January 1 of a year, then January is posting period 1, February is 2, and so on. However, if the fiscal year starts at the beginning of another month, it is a "non-calendar" fiscal year.

Here is an example:

• Fiscal Year Start: 1st of April
• Posting Period 1: April
• Posting Period 2: May
• and so on.

When you enter a journal entry, the posting period is derived from the posting date automatically. The accountant does not have to enter the accounting period manually for normal operational postings. SAP updates the transaction figures for each posting period. If you display the balance of an account, the transaction figures for the posting periods are displayed.

Here is an example:

• Start of fiscal year: January
• Posting Date: 6^th of June

Result: The automatically set posting period is 6.

Here is another example:

• Start of fiscal year: 1^st of April
• Posting Date: 6^th of June

Result: The automatically set posting period is 3.

Normally, only the regular posting periods that are currently required for postings are open and postable in SAP for Financial Accounting. This is usually the current month and, if necessary, the previous and/or the following month.

How long a posting can be made to an accounting posting period is determined by the head of accounting and then stored in the system.

Tip: Ask your colleagues which rules apply for opening and closing regular accounting posting periods.

Posting periods can be open/closed differently for postings in the general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, or asset accounting. This results from the business requirements or organizational differences.

During fiscal year closing, you can open special periods for closing postings.

Special posting periods enable postings that do not affect operational business but year-end closing activities to be displayed separately. As a result, all regular posting periods can be compared well with each other. Now that we learned the importance of working with financial posting periods and the use of dates in postings, let’s discuss the utilization of different account assignments.