Accounting Periods and Processing Cycles

An accounting period is a consistent unit of time that is used to record business activities and monitor profits. It provides a framework for measuring business activity and evaluating your firm's financial position.

You set up a processing calendar, which defines accounting periods, in Utilities > Period Setup. When you set up your processing calendar, you must indicate whether your accounting periods are monthly (12 periods per fiscal year) or every four weeks (13 periods per fiscal year). By knowing when new periods begin and end, Vision ensures that transactions are posted in the appropriate sequence and in the appropriate period.

Open and Close Accounting Periods

At the end of one accounting period and at the beginning of a new accounting period, you must open a new period to begin processing in that period.

All posting and processing updates affect the period in which you are performing the task (that is, the period currently open when you process the transaction). The dates of the posting file or processing run do not determine the period that will be affected.

• To open a new period, use Utilities > Open New Period. This utility lets you modify both accounting and fiscal periods. When you open a new period, the current period becomes the prior period.
• To close a period, use Utilities > Period Setup. Although it is not necessary to close a period in Vision, Deltek suggests that you close a period after you process all data and print all reports for the period.

Audit Trail Implications

When you open a new accounting period, Vision records the opening of the period on the Posting Log Review report. The entry appears as an AL transaction type, indicating an audit log posting. Use this information to track all changes that update your database during a specified accounting period.

The AL transaction is recorded for the period in which you perform the action. For example, if you open a new period on June 30, 2017, for July 1, 2017, Vision displays the AL transaction on the June Posting Log Review report (because you opened the new period in June, not July).