The period indicators shown at the bottom of the screen, and the stock period settings, work together to control where transactions are posted across your ledgers. Understanding how these relate to each other will help you post correctly after a year end.
What do the periods at the bottom of the screen mean?
The periods displayed at the bottom of the application relate to the Nominal ledger. The Nominal ledger is always shown as C (current), and the Sales and Purchase ledgers are shown relative to it.
When posting a transaction, the year and period relevant to that specific ledger should be used — not the Nominal ledger period. For example, if the Sales ledger shows as N (next year relative to the Nominal), using C1 for a sales invoice will post to year C in the Sales ledger and year N in the Nominal.
📌Note: The Debtors and Creditors ledgers, and their reports, process relative to the year of that ledger. For example, if you run the aged debtors report at C12 after a Sales ledger year end, it relates to the year you are currently processing in — run it at L12 to see data from before the year end.
How do Debtors and Creditors ledger transactions default to a period?
Transactions in the Financials, Debtors, and Creditors ledgers default to the closest open period based on their date and the posting permissions of the user's security profile.
The permitted period range can be found via the System area, under Application Configuration, System Configuration, in the Ledger Defaults tab. Security profiles can also be found in the System area.
How do stock periods work?
The Stock Periods setting defines the default period that the following entries will post to when raised:
Invoice register entries.
Sales, purchase, or works orders.
Stock movement journals.
Stock Periods can be found via Stock, Stock Periods.
📌Note: Each entry bases its posting on the state of the corresponding ledger in the Financials section of the software, rather than the Nominal ledger. Stock Periods work independently of the Period End process in the ledgers and must be maintained manually.
Worked example
The following example shows how periods interact across the ledgers when they are at different stages of the year end process.
Scenario
The financial year runs from 1st April to 31st March, with each period spanning one month. The current date falls into the April after the year start. There is still a need to post journals and purchase invoices into March of the current year, but new purchase orders and stock movements need to default to April of the next year.
Period ends have been run in the Financials and Creditors ledgers up to period 12 of the current year. The Debtors ledger has had a year end run and sits in period 1 of the following year.
Ledger periods shown at the bottom of the screen
Ledger | Period shown | Explanation |
Sales | N1 | The Sales ledger is in the next year relative to the Nominal. |
Purchase | C12 | The Purchase ledger is in the same year as the Nominal. |
Nominal | C12 | The Nominal is always shown as C and is the base for the two ledgers above. |
Stock periods
Stock period | Period shown | Explanation |
Nominal Ledger | N1 | Stock movements default to April of the next year, but can be changed to C12 to post to March of the current year. |
Purchase Ledger | N1 | As for the Nominal, the default is April but can be changed to March if required. |
Sales Ledger | C1 | The Sales ledger is in the next year relative to the Nominal, but stock periods relate to the year within the Sales ledger itself — so this shows as C rather than N. The same would apply to the Purchase Ledger if it were a year ahead of the Nominal. |
How transactions post in this scenario
Transaction type | Date | Posts to | Explanation |
Financials journal or Creditors ledger transaction | March | C12 | Period C12 is open in these ledgers. |
Debtors ledger transaction | March | C1 in Sales (N1 in Nominal) | C1 is the nearest open period in the Sales ledger. This corresponds to N1 in the Nominal. |
Financials journal or Creditors ledger transaction | April | N1 (or C12 if no permission to post ahead) | Posts to N1 based on date if the user has permission to post ahead; otherwise defaults to C12. |
Debtors ledger transaction | April | C1 in Sales | C1 is the correct period based on the date for the Sales ledger. |