New Year in SAP Business One

Every year, it's time for the turn of the year in SAP Business One. Everything you do only once a year is of course little practiced. That's why we've put together a small series on year-end closing in SAP Business One. Without claiming to be complete, it should be a little support for the rare routine year-end closing in SAP Business One.

This article was updated 12/19/2020

1. posting periods at the turn of the year in SAP Business One

Please remember to start the new financial year (i.e. new Posting periods) in good time.
You can find the booking periods in:

Administration → System initialization → Posting periods

Note: please remember to set the due date of the new periods in the future, depending on your payment terms beyond the new year. Otherwise, SAP Business One will not be able to determine net due dates of invoices beyond the current year. In new versions of SAP Business One, you can use the "create new periods with due date until next fiscal year" option for this purpose:

SAP Business One posting period mask 2 — *`SAP Business One "New Period...`*

If your version of SAP Business One does not include this feature yet, please enter the "Due date by" manually when creating new periods - see further steps.

To create new periods click on the button "new period". After that the following window will appear:

SAP Business One posting periods mask 3 — *`SAP Business One "New Period" 2`*

`periodic code`

Enter a code for the posting period. This code can be up to 20 characters long.

`period name`

Enter a name for the posting period. This name can be up to 20 characters long. The name of the period that includes the current date is displayed at the top of the Main Menu window.

`Sub-periods / number of periods`

Shows the number of posting periods corresponding to the entry selected in the "Sub-periods" field. This field is active only if the value Days is selected in the "Sub-periods" field.

`period indicators`

The period indicator refers to each document series (row) that can be linked to one or more posting periods. Each document series must be linked to an indicator in order to activate document numbering for each fiscal year, starting at 1.

Select the period indicator to link it to the accounting period. The period indicator can also be linked to several periods in the same company.

`posting date from... to ...`

Specify the posting period for the new period. Suggested in the Posting date from... field is the day after the end date of the last existing posting period and in the To... field the same day one year later.

`due date from... to ...`

Specify the due period for the new period. The due period can be longer than the posting period.

`document date from ... to ...`

Specify the voucher period for the new period. The voucher period can be longer than the posting period.

`start of fiscal year`

Specify the start date of the fiscal year to which the period belongs.

`business year`

Specify the start date of the fiscal year to which the period belongs.

Versino Financial Suite for SAP Business One Finance

2. blocking posting periods in SAP Business One

To avoid misunderstandings:

There is no month-end closing run or similar in SAP Business One.
There is a period-end closing, but it is performed purely at the fiscal year change for the year-end closing.

As mentioned, there are no month-end closing transactions in SAP B1 and they are not necessary, so you should definitely refrain from using them, ending balances of the accounts at the end of the month as a carryover to the new month! The balances are presented automatically.

Nevertheless, it may be necessary to make adjustment postings at the end of the month for the (flat-rate) stock value correction or other corrections. However, these are normal journal entries that must be created manually if necessary.
At the latest with the printout of the monthly income statement However, you should "close" the system so that no employee posts anything to this closed month without your knowledge.
And that's exactly what every posting period (= month) the two fields "active" and "blocked"

Call via "Administration >System initialization >all settings >Posting period> orange arrow of the desired period".
Assign the required status to the posting period:

"Unlocked" - all users can post all types of transactions and documents in this period according to their permissions. This status is assigned to new posting periods by default.

"Unlocked except Sales" - all users, according to their permissions, can post all types of transactions and documents, except documents in the Sales module, in this period. Assign this status after the period expires if there are still open purchase documents, such as late purchase invoices, and other transactions that need to be posted for this period.

"Period Close" - only users with full period close authorization can post all types of transactions and documents in this period. Assign periods this status when the period has expired, all late transactions have been posted, and only the year-end close process remains.

"Locked" - no documents or transactions can be posted in this period. Assign this status to the period after all adjustments have been posted and the year-end closing process for this period is complete.