A common complaint with QuickBooks is that users can mistakenly post transactions in periods for which they did not intend. NetSuite supports two types of accounting period locking depending on how the system has been configured to help minimize this problem:
- Explicit Fiscal Periods
- No Fiscal Periods
Defining explicit fiscal periods is how most accounting departments will configure their systems. For example, if your accounting department uses a calendar month reporting cycle, you will define these accounting periods within a fiscal period. NetSuite supports a mechanism to define which of these periods are open or closed for AP/AR and GL type transactions. You can close a past period to keep new transactions from posting to periods that have been reconciled and reported on. You have, as an administrator, the capacity to post into these closed periods should you need to.
This does not mean that you can prevent posting a transaction to an unintended future period. NetSuite uses the transaction date as the posting date. You don’t specify explicitly the posting period when you create transactions. If you use a transaction date that is beyond the current posting period, you will end up with future transaction. Some may view this as a feature; others may not.
Likewise, the “No Fiscal Periods” definition mimics the way QuickBooks is setup. Here, you don’t have specific interim periods besides your fiscal year definitions. NetSuite, like QuickBooks, supports a feature to prevent posting to the past utilizing a “Lock Transactions” on or before a specified date mechanism.
Our recommendation is to use :close period” or “lock transaction” features in your practice. However, it should be augmented with a practice (or control) to look for transactions that may have been posted to a future period. The practice can be part of the regular reconciliation and reporting cycle (e.g., monthly). The control can easily be done using a financial reporting function based on future dates. If any unintended transactions are found posted to a future period, you can modify them to fit the appropriate periods by changing their transaction dates. You are not required to reverse out the transactions. Also, NetSuite supports a full audit trail to track how transactions have evolved.
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- Manage Accounting Periods
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- Lock Transactions
Marty Zigman
Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.
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Hi,
We are currently installing Netsuite across approx 20 offices and 6 finance departments. We have just realised that the closing of periods in Netsuite relates to all subsidiaries at once i.e. we cannot close the A/R ledger in Australia whilst keeping it open in the U.K.
Any thoughts on how to address this issue?
Regards
Thanks Mark for the post. Are you using One World? Are you on different accounting periods for each subsidiary?
Hi Mark:
How do you close a new period that you started by mistake in Netsuite? I started FY2010, but shows only the year.
I wanted the period to show the quarters for 2010. So I wanted to delete the FY2010 and start over for the new Accounting Period for 2010 showing the quarters too.
Your help is appreciated.
Imad
Hi Imad,
I am curious. Did you try the “New Period” option to define Quarters that are Sub Periods of the Year?
Marty
I think I did New Year instead. So now I ended up with FY2010 year period that i can not delete!
I need to delete FY2010 yr and redo so I can have 2010 in periods (quarters).
Not finding out how to delete the year!
Imad,
Try now the New Period button so you can define periods within the New Year. Does that do it?
Marty
Hi Marty,
I want to create a button in NetSuite that will only be visible on a Closed Period Invoices. Is there a way to do this considering the Allow Non GL Changes is checked?
Regards,
Dyner
You can a button to any form in View mode. What do you want the button to do?
Marty
Hi Marty,
have you ever tried to prevent closing of periods via script? E.g.
We have a use case where we need to have our R2R team for each region to be able to Lock AR/AP/All, but prevent them from re-opening closing whole period.
Unfortunately Manage Accounting period permission includes both Locking and Closing.
Just wondering if you ever tackled something like this.
Hello Jiri,
Unless something new has emerged, my understanding is there is no API access to these NetSuite close/open accounting period functions…
Marty
Hi Marty,
thanks for the feedback, appreciate it. It’s inspiring that you are sharing all the knowledge.
By the way, is your company by any chance doing performance related projects? If yes, I would be happy to get in touch (if our management will approve of course)
Hello Jiri,
Related to performance, please reference this article:
https://blog.prolecto.com/2024/02/23/navigating-netsuite-infrastructure-upgrades-and-optimizing-for-return-on-investment/
Related to high performance NetSuite application, please reference this article:
https://blog.prolecto.com/2022/06/11/take-control-watch-how-netsuite-can-be-amazingly-high-performance/
Please reach out to me here for private conversation related to your specific concern:
https://www.prolecto.com/contact-us/
Best. Marty