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Close and Reopen Accounting Periods

Updated

What this does: Locks a finished month so its numbers can’t change, lets you reopen it to fix something, and reports on closed periods.

Applies to: GrowthZone staff with permission to manage billing and finance settings.

Before you start: Turn on closed-period security: in General Billing Settings, set Accounting Security Level to Closed Period Enabled and set Allow Deletion for (days). See General Billing Settings: every setting explained.

Time needed: About 5 minutes each month.

General Billing Settings page with Accounting Security Level set to Closed Period Enabled and the Allow Deletion for (days) field boxed

Close an accounting period

Close each month in GrowthZone when you close it in your accounting software.

  1. Go to Finance, Administrative section, click Billing Settings and select Closed Periods. The log lists every closed period, its close date and who closed it.
    Closed Periods page showing the log of previously closed periods with the close date and the staff member who closed each one
  2. Click the Add button.
    Closed Periods page with the ADD button boxed
  3. Check Period Begin Date. It defaults to the day after the last closed period.
  4. Enter the Period End Date: the last day to include.
  5. Click Close Period(s).

Checkpoint: The new period appears in the Closed Periods log.

Reopen a closed period

Reopen a period to correct a past transaction or to create a refund.

  1. Go to Finance, Administrative section, click Billing Settings and select Closed Periods.
    Closed Periods log with the row for the period to be reopened highlighted
  2. Click Reopen on the period’s row. A summary of the period opens.
    A single Closed Periods row with the Reopen button boxedClosed period summary with the Open Period(s) button boxed
  3. Click Open Period(s), then click Yes to confirm.

Run the Closed Period Report

This report shows each period and the beginning and ending balance of each account when it was closed.

  1. Go to Reports, click All Reports and open Closed Period Report.
  2. Enter your filters and click Run Report.
    Closed Period Report criteria screen with the RUN REPORT button boxed

What a closed period locks

After you close a period, you can’t do these things for dates on or before the close date:

  • Invoices: create one dated before the close date; add or remove lines or change balances on open invoices; delete or void them. Late Fee items are the exception: they post on the day you add them.
  • Payments: delete, void or create one dated before the close date.
  • Credits: create one dated before the close date.
  • Refunds: delete, void or create one dated before the close date.

How closing works with the deletion window

The Allow Deletion for (days) window and the close date both limit changes. Whichever limit comes first applies. For example, with a 30-day window:

Date What happens Can the payment be changed?
1/1 Payment is created. Allow Deletion for (days) is 30, so the deletion window runs to 1/31. Yes — inside the 30-day window, no period closed.
1/2 The period is closed with a close date of 1/2. —
1/3 Staff try to change the payment. The 30-day window still has 28 days to run, but the close date has already passed. No — the close date is earlier, so it wins.

Allow Deletion for (days) never reaches past a period close. Closing a period never reopens a deletion window that has already ended.

Common pitfalls

  • Not closing GrowthZone with your accounting software: numbers shift when someone records late invoices or changes last month. Close both at the same time.
  • Misreading the deletion window: a transaction inside the window is still locked if its period is closed.

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