Posting Periods in SAP Finance

Postings in SAP are controlled by the â€˜openingâ€™ or â€˜closingâ€™ of posting periods. Normally, the current posting period is open for document posting and all other periods are closed. At the end of the period (month), this posting period is closed and the new one is opened for postings. This way it provides better control.

It is, however, possible to keep all the periods or select periods open. Use the transaction OB52 to maintain it.

A Posting Period Variant is useful in opening/closing posting periods across many Company Codes at one time. You define a posting period variant and assign it to various Company Codes. Since the posting period variant is cross-Company Code, the opening and closing of the posting period are made simple. Instead of opening and closing individually for different Company Codes, you just need to open or close the posting period variant.

It is possible to selectively control the opening and closing for various types of accounts. Usually, a + is mentioned in the top-most entry indicating that all the account types are allowed for posting. Now, for the GL(S) accounts, you will need to specify the period which needs to be opened. This ensures that all the account types are open for the current period, indicated by +, and only the GL accounts are open for the previous period. Select account types can also be opened or closed for a specific period; select accounts within an account type can also be opened or closed.

Use of Special Period in SAP

Besides the normal posting periods, SAP allows for defining a maximum of four more posting periods, which are known as Special Periods as these are used for year-end closing activities. This is achieved by dividing the last posting period into more than one (maximum four) period. However, all the postings in these special periods should fall within the last posting period. The special periods cannot be determined automatically by the system based on the posting date of the document. The special period needs to be manually entered into the â€˜posting periodâ€™ field in the document header.

Posting periods are defined in the Fiscal year variant and the SAP system usually proposes the current date as posting date. To prevent the documents getting posted on to an incorrect posting period, you can close certain posting periods.

Special posting periods that subdivide the last regular posting period for closing operations. Irrespective of how we have defined our fiscal year, we can also use special periods. Special periods subdivide the year-end closing period. They therefore merely divide the last posting period into several closing periods. This enables us to create several supplementary financial Statements.

A fiscal year usually has 12 posting periods. In General Ledger Accounting, we have defined four special periods so out total accounting periods will be 16 for Greaves Cotton Limited and Premium Energy Transmission Limited.

Opening the posting periods?

You open the posting period by entering a range in the posting period variant that encompasses this period and you can have as many periods open as desired. As many periods as required can be opened simultaneously. However, only two periods can be open at the same time during closing. Posting periods can also be handled differently for different account types. At line level, the system checks the account type of the posting key to ensure that the period is open for assigned account types.

Posting period variant that contains the open periods must be maintained manually. SAP system uses on posting transaction for several different postings, e.g: G/L acc posting, Customer/Vendor invoice posting, Vendor/Customer credit memo postings. Please note, if you do not define a doc type the system proposed the standard, for example, KR for Vendor Invoices.

Closing the Posting Periods

Period end closing in Controlling has always been a challenge. Variance calculation and its explanation have invariably sent shivers down the spine of all SAP consultants. WIP calculation too has at times been complex to understand.

We are delighted to present to you the complete Period end steps in Cost Object Controlling. In this document, we will cover this whole process including variance calculation and WIP by taking a single process order and churning it all through.

During the first period of the new fiscal year, postings can still be made to the last period of the previous year. Note that you must, therefore, close inventory adjustment postings for the previous year before the end of the first period of the new fiscal year.

If at the time of a fiscal year change, you reset the number range in the new fiscal year, you must maintain separate number range intervals for the previous year and for the current year for one month to allow postings to the prior period.

If only one number range interval exists for both years and you make any postings to the previous period, the system will assign numbers that already exist in the previous year. This would lead to an update termination.

Posting to the Previous Periods

Define Posting Periods

From the IMG screen: Financial Accounting Ã¨ Financial accounting global settings Ã¨ Document Ã¨ Posting periods Ã¨ Define variants for open posting periods

From this screen, click New entries.

Now enter variant numbers and names, up to 16 entries (PV_ _ ) IDES Posting Periods.

Now click Save, then click Back twice to return to the IMG screen.

Open and Close Posting Periods

Still at the IMG screen: Financial accounting Ã¨ Financial accounting global settings Ã¨ Document Ã¨ Posting periods Ã¨ Open and close posting periods

Click on New entries, enter PV01 (or selected variant number), Select Valid for all accounts in next column