Posting Period Maintenance

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Before you can maintain module posting periods, you must have set up at least one calendar because posting period structures are defined when calendars are created.

Posting periods are defined for reporting, and will reflect the nature of your business in terms of your reporting requirements. Transactional data is entered and captured within Greentree using the periods associated with modules, and many of Greentree Desktop's standard reports provide output filter options based on a calendar and period(s). This is particularly useful when you are performing period end reconciliations, or complying to regulatory reporting requirements, for example, tax returns.

When you have defined your period structure in the Calendar Maintenance form, you can use the Posting Period Maintenance form to maintain the status of periods, for example set them as open, current, or closed for enabling transaction entry.

When a period is Open, you can post transactions to it, and edit prior transactions. You should set periods to Open or Closed based on your business requirements. For example, you can have a requirement to enter transactions with a historical date, or a future-date, and have them post into the period. As long as the period that the transaction date is for is Open, you can do this.

When the Posting Period Maintenance form is first accessed, you must select the calendar of the periods you are maintaining.

Colours are used to indicate the status of the calendar year, based on the periods that it consists of. The colour legend displays at the base of the form. For example, none of the years are Permanently Closed, calendar years 2007/2008 - 2010/2011 are Open, calendar year 2006/2007 is the Current period, and calendar years 2003/2004 - 2005/2006 are Closed. An explanation of each status is outlined below, in reference to the Maintain Periods form.

To maintain periods within each calendar year, double click on the calendar year in the table shown above. This displays the Maintain Periods form. The same colour codes are used to indicate the status of each period within the calendar year.

To change the status of any period, click the period line, and right-click the mouse. The available options are: Set as First Open Period, Set as Last Open Period, and Set as Current Period. The Permanently Close Prior Periods option is read-only because it is not applicable to a period with May's status.

An overview of why and when to apply each menu option is outlined below:

Set as First Open Period

When you assign this status to a period, Greentree will update all prior periods to a status of Closed. You would close a period if you do not want any additional transactions to be posted to that period, and do not want to enable any edits to transactions for those periods. The option to Set as First Open Period is available for any Open or Closed period prior to, and including, the Current Period.

Set as Last Open Period

When you assign this status to a period, Greentree will update all subsequent periods to a status of Closed. The option to Set as Last Open Period is available to select for any Open or Closed period beyond, and including, the Current Period.

Set as Current Period

You can select this status for any period that has a status of Open. This indicates that the period is the Current Period, for reporting. Today's date should fall in the period defined as being Current. You should update the current period based on actual calendar dates, so that it always does reflect the current period. Examples of reports that are calculated using the defined current period include Aged Customer and Supplier Balances, Cash Flow reports, and the like.

For Accounts Receivable, Greentree creates an ARPeriodSummary and ARAgingPeriodSummary for each AR Customer (if it does not already exist) when the Current Period is changed. Changing the Current Period could take longer than for other modules.

Permanently Close Prior Periods

When you assign this status to a period, Greentree updates all prior periods to a status of Permanently Closed. When a period is permanently closed, you can't post any transactions to it, or edit any prior transactions for those periods. The option to Permanently Close Prior Periods is available for any period that is Closed prior to the current period.

Click Close on the Maintain Periods form to save your status changes and return to the table of calendar years. If you want the changes you have made to apply to more than one company, there is an option to select multiple companies on the right side of the Set Posting Periods form. Make your selections before savings your changes. To save changes, press F2 or click the Save icon.

• Calendar Maintenance

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