Overview of General Ledger Periods Cycle

Accounting periods (or called GL Periods in Oracle Applications) is one of the most important aspects in a General Ledger. It defines how the transactions will be grouped together based on dates (usually their actual transaction dates) and also defines the accounting calendar. This concept applies to both Oracle Fusion and Oracle E-Business Suite. Below is a simple diagram depicting GL Period Cycles:

A quick sample is below:

Period Month	Period Status	Remarks
May 2018	Permanent Close	Can never be re-opened and Posting not allowed
June 2018	Soft Close	Can still be re-opened in case of Omission/Incorrect Data. Need to have Financial Statements re-stated.
July 2018	Open Period	Allows transactions, Receiving and Posting
August 2018	Future Enterable Period	Allows transactions and Receiving but no Posting
September 2018	Never Opened	No transactions and receiving allowed

Below is a quick checklist to follow when closing periods from a GL Perspective:

1. Import data into the Interface from other sources (Subledgers, Third-Party Applications, etc.)
2. Transfer transactions from the Interface into the General Ledger
3. Verify that all Journals are already Posted
4. Perform Allocations
5. Perform Revaluation for Trade Accounts containing foreign currency transactions
6. Reconcile Account Balances
7. Translation of Balances to the Parent Currency
8. Consolidation of Subledgers to the Corporate Ledgers
9. Run Analytics and Financial Analysis
10. Close the Period and Open the Next Period

Some companies never do a permanent close in case they need to do some corrections.

What they sometimes do is they only close out the all the periods of a certain calendar year when the external auditors are satisfied and provide a clean audit report for the said year.

It all depends on your accounting policies and strategies that fit your legislation and accounting methods.

Below is a quick demo on Opening and Closing Periods in Oracle Fusion Applications:

More details on Opening and Closing Accounting Periods posted on the Oracle Documentation.