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This report allows the user to view the details of financial periods, and open or close financial periods directly from the report. The report will also show if there are any reasons the period cannot be closed (e.g. draft manual journals) so the user can remedy these. 


This report also automatically generates manual journals for some calculations and adds them to the general ledger for the accounting period. 


The user must have the Financial Reports permission enabled in order to view this report. 


Table of Contents


Configure optional report settings

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Optional settings Unrealised foreign currency exchange adjustment calculation and Carry forward P&L calculation can be enabled/disabled by going to Settings → General Settings → Financial Settings.


These settings are mandatory for accounting in some countries (e.g. China) but are available for DEAR users in all countries. If one or both of these settings is enabled, you will need to create and map accounts for Unrealised Currency Gains and Current Year Profits (Settings → Reference Books → Account Mapping).

  • Unrealised Currency Gains  [Account settings?] must be mapped to an Unrealized currency gains account
  • Current Year Profits must be mapped to an Equity account. 


View financial periods

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Access the report from Reports → Financial → Financial Periods Report. Financial periods can be filtered by status and by year. 


This summary view shows the period name, period start and end date, lock date (when locked) and open/closed status. It also shows:

  • Accumulated Depreciation:The total amount that the organisation's fixed assets have depreciated in the accounting period. N/A until the period is closed.
  • Realised Foreign Exchange Adjustment:Realised gains or losses are the gains or losses on transactions that have been completed. It means that the customer has already settled the invoice prior to the close of the accounting period. The foreign currency gain/loss is recorded in the income section of the income statement.  N/A until the period is closed.
  • Unrealised Foreign Exchange Adjustment: This is an optional setting, if disabled, this column will not be displayed. Unrealised gains or losses are the gains or losses that the seller expects to earn when the invoice is settled, but the customer has failed to pay the invoice by the close of the accounting period. When preparing the financial statements for the period the seller calculates the gain or loss that would have been sustained if the customer paid the invoice at the end of the accounting period. The unrealised gains or losses are recorded in the balance sheet under the owner’s equity section.  N/A until the period is closed.
  • Carry Forward P&L:This is an optional setting, if disabled, this column will not be displayed. When enabled, the balance of profit and loss (P&L) accounts at the end of the period is carried forward to the retained earnings account.  N/A until the period is closed.
  • Not Authorised Manual Journals: Number of unauthorised journals for that financial period. Any unauthorised journals must be deleted or authorised in order for the financial period to be closed. 
  • Total Number of Business Journals: Number of authorised journals for that financial period. Open the financial period to view details. 


Open a financial period by clicking the Period Name to view more details. Search the transactions by reference, currency, description, account, job, and supplier/customer. 


Transactions can be filtered by date, including selecting a custom date range.


Closing a financial period

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The user can now open and close periods from this view. Before a financial period can be closed, the period must:

  • have no manual journals with status DRAFT
  • run depreciation
  • run unrealised exchange adjustment process (if setting is enabled)
  • run carry forward P&L process (if setting is enabled).


Unauthorised manual journals

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A financial period cannot be locked if it has one or more unauthorised manual journals. The number of unauthorised manual journals is displayed in the summary view of this report. 


Clicking the number in this field will take you to the Journals list, filtered for Draft. You will need to void or authorise all unauthorised journals to be able to close the financial period. 


Run depreciation

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Depreciation must be calculated for the organisation's fixed assets before the financial period can be closed. This can be done by going to Financials → Depreciation.  Please see Fixed Assets - Post Depreciation for detailed instructions on this process. 


Carry forward P&L

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When viewing a financial period's details, you will be able to view the tab Carry forward P&L if that setting is enabled for this organisation. 


Selecting this tab will automatically run the calculation. The calculation will re-run every time the tab is accessed until the financial period is closed.


You will see all revenue and expense accounts, with their balance at the end of the financial period. Accounts can be filtered by revenue and expense, and by account number. The final balances can be edited here, regardless of the calculation results, before posting a journal. 


When the selected period is closed, DEAR creates special journals for carry forward based on the calculations that took place on this tab. You can now return to the period details. 


Unrealised exchange adjustment

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When viewing a financial period's details, you will be able to view the tab Unrealised Exchange Adjustment if that setting is enabled for this organisation. 


Selecting this tab will automatically run the calculation. The calculation will re-run every time the tab is accessed until the financial period is closed.


 You will see all currencies that have been used within the financial period and the exchange rate. The exchange rate can be edited, which will re-calculate the unrealised exchange value. Transactions with unrealised exchange adjustments are listed here, and can be filtered by currency and by account. The final exchange adjustment value can be edited here before posting the journal. 


When the selected period is closed, DEAR creates special journals based on the calculations that took place on this tab. One manual journal is created per currency, including all the accounts with an unrealised exchange adjustment in that currency. 


You can now return to the period details. 


Lock the period

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When all outstanding actions described above have been completed, you can lock the financial period by clicking Lock Period. Once a period is locked, users and system will not be able to authorise journals for this period. 


Returning to the financial periods report will show all the final calculated values. You can click the total number of business journals values to see any new journals that have been posted during this process. 


Export financial period data

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Journals can be exported in CSV format, either in bulk or only selected journals.


Select one or more journals using the checkbox to the left (if exporting selected journals), and click Export


Print or email financial period data

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Journals can be printed or saved in PDF format, or emailed including the document as a PDF attachment, either in bulk or only selected journals.


Select one or more journals using the checkbox to the left (if printing/emailing selected journals), and click Print/Email. One transaction is printed per page of PDF. If PDF size is too large, several PDF files will be generated. 


View documents generated for a financial period

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You can view all documents generated (via the Print and Email functions) by selecting Generated Documents when viewing a financial period's details. 


Generated documents are available to download in PDF format for 7 days. 



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