You will need the Full Write Accounting permission to perform this action.
How do I close an accounting period?
An accounting period in One Church Software is a calendar month. Closing a period finalizes all financial activity for that month so that no further changes can be made to transactions dated within it. Closed periods are listed under Accounting > Closed Periods in the left-hand navigation.
Warning: Closing a period cannot be undone. Make sure all entries are reviewed and reconciled before closing. If something is discovered later, you can correct it with an adjustment in a future period.
What closing a period does
When you close an accounting period, One Church Software:
Moves all income and expense activity into each fund's equity balance, resetting income and expense totals.
Locks all posted transactions dated within the period so they can't be changed.
Deletes any draft entries dated within the period.
Prevents any new transactions from being added with a date in the closed period.
Closing happens in order — the system only allows you to close the next eligible month, so periods must be closed sequentially.
Close a period
In the left-hand navigation, expand Accounting and select Closed Periods. The page opens to the Accounting Periods listing.
Click Close Period. The Close Accounting Period modal opens and lists the actions that closing will perform.
In the Period End field, select the month you want to close. The dropdown only shows months that are eligible to close next.
In the Comments field, add any context or approvals for closing this period. This field is optional, but recommended — your comment is saved to the audit trail and appears in the closed-periods listing.
Click Submit to close the period. The modal closes and the newly closed period appears in the listing.
View closed periods
Closed periods appear in the listing on Accounting > Closed Periods. The table includes these columns:
Period Start — the first day of the closed period.
Period End — the last day of the closed period.
Total Income — the total income recorded during the period.
Total Expenses — the total expenses recorded during the period.
Net To Equity — the net amount moved into fund equity balances when the period was closed.
Description — the comments entered when the period was closed.
Closed On — who closed the period and when.
Use Filter to narrow the listing by any of the columns above or by Closed By. Use Columns to choose which columns appear in the table.
How unclosed periods appear elsewhere in the system
Two places in One Church Software signal when periods are still open so you don't lose track of what needs to be closed.
PRELIMINARY label on accounting reports
Any accounting report that includes entries from a period that has not been closed shows a red PRELIMINARY label in the report header, just under the date and method line. The label is a reminder that the figures may still change before those periods are finalized. Once every period within the report's date range is closed, the label is removed.
Unclosed periods in the System Tasks widget
For users with the Full Write Accounting permission, the System Tasks widget on the home page shows the count of unclosed accounting periods as one of the outstanding tasks. Because periods are monthly, the count grows by one for every month that has finished without being closed.