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Last reviewed: 2026-08-02

Financial Periods

Purpose

Financial periods define the time boundaries for reporting, posting, and controls.

Canonical rules

  • A financial period belongs to one company.
  • A financial period has a start date and end date.
  • Financial period dates are inclusive company-local business dates governed by the company's accounting time zone.
  • When timestamp selection is required, the period resolves to the half-open interval from local midnight on its start date through local midnight immediately after its inclusive end date.
  • A period may be planned, open, soft-closed, hard-closed, or reopened.
  • BooksPlus fiscal calendars are period-driven.
  • A company sets a fiscal year end date and fiscal period pattern before BooksPlus generates fiscal periods.
  • Fiscal quarters and fiscal year boundaries are derived from generated fiscal periods.
  • Monthly fiscal periods are the default launch pattern.
  • Monthly fiscal year end days may be day 1-27 or the final day of the selected month.
  • For a standard 12-period calendar, each fiscal quarter consists of three fiscal periods.
  • The fiscal year end date must equal the end date of the final fiscal quarter and final fiscal period.
  • Soft close supports review and reporting.
  • Hard close prevents ordinary posting except through authorized correction procedures.
  • New soft-close and hard-close transitions require a current eligible CloseRun under the Close Run Contract; a direct status edit is not a close decision.
  • Corrections may post to open or reopened periods.
  • A soft-closed period may accept a correction only through the dedicated reversal or adjustment posting mode and protected correction action.
  • A hard-closed period accepts no new entry until separately reopened.
  • A correction may target an entry in an earlier or closed period without changing that target period; the correction posting date controls the new entry's period.
  • Reopening a period requires the protected Close reopen boundary, authority, reason, step-up confirmation, and audit trail.
  • Parent and constituent period close readiness follows the period-driven calendar rule in the Close Run Contract.
  • Activated fiscal calendars are controlled records.
  • Once accounting activity exists in a fiscal period, period boundaries may not be changed without administrative authority, audit trail, and period-impact review.

User implications

  • Users post transactions to an open period.
  • Users choose the fiscal year end date and fiscal period pattern, then review generated periods before activation.
  • Soft close signals that the period is under review.
  • Hard close means normal posting is blocked and corrections need authorization.

Developer implications

  • Validate company ownership and non-overlapping dates.
  • Resolve timestamp cutoffs through the Business Time Contract rather than a workflow, host, source, or user time-zone default.
  • Generate fiscal months first, then derive fiscal quarters and fiscal year boundaries from those periods.
  • For standard generated calendars, fiscal months and fiscal quarters are direct children of the fiscal year.
  • Respect period status during posting and reversal flows.
  • Keep routine, reversal, and adjustment posting-mode eligibility distinct.
  • Record reopen authority and reason.
  • Keep low-level period transition mechanics behind Close finalization and reopen orchestration.
  • ../contracts/financial-period.contract.md
  • ../contracts/close-run.contract.md
  • ../contracts/business-time.contract.md
  • ../contracts/accounting-correction.contract.md
  • ../../user/period-close.md
  • ../../truth/accounting/close.md