Using Posting Period Variants to Control the Opening and Closing of Posting Periods

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to manage posting period variants to control the opening and closing of posting periods

Posting Period Variant

Introduction

Greg has heard about the posting period app that finance uses to open and close the posting periods. However, he needs more insight into how and when the posting periods are opened and closed at period end. 

Posting Periods

Within the Fiscal Year:

Within the fiscal year, the current posting period is usually open for postings from all areas. With the month-end closing the posting period is closed for the subledgers, and for the monthly closing operations the posting period is still open for (specific) accounts in General Ledger Accounting.

The business will continue with posting transactions in the new posting period for all areas. After finalizing the closing-end activities, the previous period is closed for all postings and thus ensures that the internal and external reporting is accurate and complete.

Fiscal Year End:

During the year the normal posting periods (1-12) are used for posting in finance. In addition, it is possible to use up to a maximum of 4 special periods for your fiscal year. The special periods are optional and can be used at the fiscal year end to record adjustment type postings. For example, an audit adjustment could be posted to one of the special periods (e.g., 13) and is thus kept separate from the normal posting periods.

Posting Period Variants

The SAP system uses posting period variants to manage the opening and closing of posting periods.

The figure illustrates the posting period variants the tasks that will manage account intervals, controlling posting periods, and assigning to company codes per ledger.

Posting Period Variant - Account Intervals and Account Types

The posting period variant enables you to control the open/closed posting periods differently for each account interval in relation with the following account types: 

  • + (Valid for all account types)
  • A (Assets)
  • D (Customer)
  • K (Suppliers)
  • M (Materials)
  • V (Contract accounts)
  • S (G/L accounts)

The image illustrates the structure of a Journal Entry Document, header and item details to show the posting period check is performed when a journal entry is entered in the SAP system. This feature simplifies the monitoring of period statuses across various account types.

For a better classification of the available account types, we will first explain how the posting period check is performed when a journal entry is entered in the SAP system.

1. Posting Period Check – Document Header:

The system uses the posting date that you specify during document entry in the document header to determine to which posting period the document is posted. If the posting period is not assigned to the generic account type "+" (Valid for all account types), no posting is possible in this period.

Therefore, the account type + must be open for all periods that are supposed to be open for any other account type, and the posting period variant must contain at least the account type +.

2. Posting Period Check – Line-Item Level:

At the line-item level, the SAP system checks the account types A (Assets), D (Customer), K (Suppliers), M (Materials), V (Contract accounts) and S (G/L accounts) to ensure that the period is open for the assigned account type.

For account types A, D, K, M and S you must specify at least one of the following G/L account interval/s, if you want to restrict postings to a particular posting period:

  • 0 – 9999999999 or
  • 0 – ZZZZZZZZZZ (in case you use alphanumeric G/L account numbers)

These account intervals always contain general ledger accounts.

Note:

Subledger account types will be managed by the corresponding reconciliation G/L accounts.

Posting Periods

Introduction

After familiarizing himself with the period check at document level, Greg learns about opening and closing normal posting periods and special periods using the Manage Posting Periods app.

Posting Period Intervals Normal and Adjustment

You have two period intervals to manage the open/close periods for Finance postings:

  • Normal:

    The Normal interval period usually covers the accounting periods 1 to 12. Usually, we only have one posting period open, or two when we perform the month end close for the previous period.

     
  • Adjustment:

    The Adjustment interval period comprises of additional posting periods (from 13 to 16) which are optional and are exclusively used at the year end to record postings that are usually adjustment postings or audit adjustments that you can easily identify by posting to these periods.

The main difference between these two intervals is that the Adjustment period interval can be used to restrict access to specific users. This means that at month-end or year-end closing for example, you can open some posting periods for specific users only (especially the special periods). All the other users would only be able to post according to the settings in interval Normal.

It is recommended to use period interval Adjustment for postings in special periods and interval Normal for posting processes in regular periods.

When posting to special periods (13 – 16), you must take the following into consideration:

  • The posting date must fall within the last regular posting period. (e.g., period 12).
  • You must enter the special periods in the document header in the period field since the special periods cannot be determined automatically by the system.

In general, posting periods are open in the SAP system for the periods specified in the posting period variant and closed for periods that are not specified.

Note: The available posting periods are defined in the fiscal year variant.

Example 1:

Initial Situation:

  • Company Code 1010 uses the following fiscal year variant: Fiscal Year = Calendar Year (12 posting periods, 4 special periods).
  • Posting period variant 1010 is used to manage the posting periods
  • The current posting period is 03/2023
  • Contract Accounting is not used

The accounting department determines that subledgers should be closed at the end of a posting period. However, the general ledger accounts should stay open longer to enable general ledger month-end closing postings.

You achieve this by making the following entries in the assigned Posting Period Variant "1010":

Posting Period Variant 1010
Account TypeAccount Range (From - To)Open Periods
Normal (From - To)Adjustments
(From - To)Author Group
+ 02/2023 - 03/2023  
S0 - ZZZZZZZZZZ02/2023 - 03/2023  
K0 - ZZZZZZZZZZ03/2023 - 03/2023  
D0 - ZZZZZZZZZZ03/2023 - 03/2023  
A0 - ZZZZZZZZZZ03/2023 - 03/2023  
M0 - ZZZZZZZZZZ03/2023 - 03/2023  

Account Types: + (Valid for all account types), A (Assets), D (Customer), K (Suppliers), M (Materials), and S (G/L accounts).

Example 2:

The accounting department of company code 1010 determines for year-end closing 2022 that:

  • the General Ledger, all subledgers and postings from Materials Management should be open for the current period only.
  • users to whom the authorization group YEC is assigned must be able to make postings in the special period 13/2022 for the G/L account 12102000 used to prepare the balance sheet.

The current period is 01/2023.

You achieve this by making the following entries in the assigned Posting Period Variant "1010":

Posting Period Variant 1010
Account TypeAccount Range (From - To)Open Periods
Normal (From - To)Adjustments
(From - To)Author Group
+ 01/2023 - 01/202313/2022 - 13/2022YEC
S0 - 1210199901/2023 - 01/2023  
S12102000 – 1210200001/2023 - 01/202313/2022 - 13/2022YEC
S12102001 – ZZZZZZZZZZ01/2023 - 01/2023  
K0 - ZZZZZZZZZZ01/2023 - 01/2023  
D0 - ZZZZZZZZZZ01/2023 - 01/2023  
A0 - ZZZZZZZZZZ01/2023 - 01/2023  
M0 - ZZZZZZZZZZ01/2023 - 01/2023  

Account Types: + (Valid for all account types), A (Assets), D (Customer), K (Suppliers), M (Materials), and S (G/L accounts).

Manage Posting Periods SAP Fiori App

With the Manage Posting Periods SAP Fiori app, you can open and close posting periods to make sure that postings to the accounts occur in the correct posting periods. You can also choose to schedule the opening of the periods to run once or multiple times according to your business requirements.

The figure shows the Manage Posting Periods App that enables effortless management of accounting period statuses. Users can easily open or close posting periods, ensuring timely and accurate financial processing.

This app allows you to navigate to the Manage Posting Period Variants SAP Fiori app and to manage the account intervals and the account types.

Manage Posting Periods

Practice yourself using the interactive simulation to open and close posting periods by using the SAP Fiori app Manage Posting Periods.

Create a Supplier Invoice - Checking Closed Posting Periods

Practice yourself using the interactive simulation to check the closed posting period from the previous exercise.

Manage Special Periods

Practice yourself using the interactive simulation to open and close special periods by using the SAP Fiori app Manage Posting Periods.

Post General Journal Entry into a Special Period

Practice yourself using the interactive simulation to post a journal entry into a special period by using the SAP Fiori app Post General Journal Entries.

Posting Period Interval - CO-Related

To control postings from Controlling (CO) to Financial Accounting (FI), you can use the separate period interval CO-Related.

The image illustrates that to manage postings from Controlling (CO) to Financial Accounting (FI), you can utilize the separate period interval CO-Related. This feature ensures accurate synchronization between CO and FI modules.

You can use this period interval to make CO-FI postings to Financial Accounting during period closing, for example.

This period is not valid for any other postings. Such postings are checked using the other period intervals.

If this third interval is not filled, the entries in intervals Normal and Adjustments are also valid for these postings.

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