Accounting Periods

Overview

You can close an accounting period to lock it down and ensure no more changes occur in that period. Zuora even shows you all the unresolved transactions (such as draft invoices) that need your attention before you close your accounting period. You have complete visibility into the data by running trial balances as many times as you want.

Process flow

Zuora Finance users can use Zuora to manage the entire process of closing an accounting period.

Set up your accounting periods: Create accounting periods in Zuora to match your financial periods. This allows Zuora to align all transactions to your accounting periods, and shows you how your business performed across multiple accounting periods.
Map your accounting codes: Accounting codes are used as offsetting general ledger (GL) account to your accounts receivable (AR) account. Make sure you associate accounting codes with charges in the product catalog, with payment methods and credit balance adjustments. This ensures that Zuora summarizes all transactions according to groupings that make sense for your business. For example, for an annual subscription charge, you might use the accounting code "2000 - Deferred Subscription Revenue" that represents a deferred revenue account in your GL. This means when an invoice is posted, you are debiting AR and crediting "2000 - Deferred Subscription Revenue."
Set the accounting period to Pending Close. This will automatically trigger a trial balance run, which shows you the latest AR summary data, and also shows any unresolved transactions.
Fix the required and optional actions for your trial balance: If there are any unresolved transactions in your accounting period, you can (or must) fix them before you close the accounting period.
After reconciling transactions, if required, you are ready to close your accounting period. On the accounting period detail page, click more > Close this Accounting Period.

Upon setting the accounting period to Close, a trial balance run will be automatically triggered. After this trial balance run, you can export detailed information about the accounting period and use that to create summary journal entries in your accounting system.

If necessary, you can re-open a closed accounting period. There are strict rules about reopening accounting periods, so we recommend that you read about how this works in Zuora.

Accounting period statuses

Accounting periods can be Open, Pending Close, or Closed. The table below describes each of the statuses.

Some of the actions mentioned in the table descriptions require certain Finance permissions to be enabled. See Finance Roles for more information about the permissions.

You cannot apply Change Status to Pending Close or Close this Accounting Period actions on an accounting period with a pending revenue schedule. If the problem persists even after you address the pending revenue schedule, submit a request at Zuora Global Support for assistance.

Accounting Period Status	Description
Open	Accounting periods are Open by default after being created. When an accounting period is set to Open: Transactions can be entered into the accounting period. Existing transactions in the accounting period can be updated. Revenue can be distributed into the accounting period. Revenue already distributed into the accounting period can be updated. You can set the accounting period to Pending Close or Closed.
Pending Close	You can either manually set the accounting period to the Pending Close status or Zuora will set the accounting period to this status in certain conditions. When an accounting period is set to Pending Close: For users who have the Manage Close Process permission enabled, the accounting period behaves like an open period. For users who do not have the Manage Close Process permission enabled, the accounting period behaves like a closed period. However, these users can still run trial balances. You can re-open the accounting period or close the accounting period. Automatically Set to Pending Close When you close an accounting period, if any revenue schedules are still being processed, the accounting period will be in the Pending Close status. When all the revenue schedules are processed, the status of the accounting period is then automatically changed to the Closed status. Manually Set to Pending Close You must have the Manage Close Process permission enabled before you can set an accounting period to Pending Close. To set an accounting period to Pending Close manually, go to Finance > Accounting Periods, click the accounting period name, and then click more > Change Status to Pending Close. Pending Close is an intermediate phase before closing an accounting period. It can be useful to set a period to Pending Close before running a trial balance and reconciling transactions to ensure that no additional changes occur during the close process. You can set an accounting period to Pending Close even if the period contains draft invoices, draft payments, processing payments, or processing refunds.
Closed	You must have the Manage Close Process permission enabled before you can close an accounting period. To set an accounting period to Closed, go to Finance > Accounting Periods, click the accounting period name, and then click more > Close this Accounting Period. If any revenue schedules are still being processed, the accounting period will be in the Pending Close status. The accounting period will change to the Closed status when all the revenue schedules are processed. When an accounting period is Closed: Transactions cannot be entered into the accounting period. Existing transactions in the accounting period cannot be updated. Revenue cannot be distributed into the accounting period. Revenue already distributed into the accounting period cannot be updated. You can re-open the accounting period if necessary.

Accounting Period Status

Description

Open

Accounting periods are Open by default after being created.

When an accounting period is set to Open:

Transactions can be entered into the accounting period.
Existing transactions in the accounting period can be updated.
Revenue can be distributed into the accounting period.
Revenue already distributed into the accounting period can be updated.
You can set the accounting period to Pending Close or Closed.

Pending Close

You can either manually set the accounting period to the Pending Close status or Zuora will set the accounting period to this status in certain conditions.

When an accounting period is set to Pending Close:

For users who have the Manage Close Process permission enabled, the accounting period behaves like an open period.
For users who do not have the Manage Close Process permission enabled, the accounting period behaves like a closed period. However, these users can still run trial balances.
You can re-open the accounting period or close the accounting period.

Automatically Set to Pending Close

When you close an accounting period, if any revenue schedules are still being processed, the accounting period will be in the Pending Close status. When all the revenue schedules are processed, the status of the accounting period is then automatically changed to the Closed status.

Manually Set to Pending Close

You must have the Manage Close Process permission enabled before you can set an accounting period to Pending Close.

To set an accounting period to Pending Close manually, go to Finance > Accounting Periods, click the accounting period name, and then click more > Change Status to Pending Close.

Pending Close is an intermediate phase before closing an accounting period. It can be useful to set a period to Pending Close before running a trial balance and reconciling transactions to ensure that no additional changes occur during the close process. You can set an accounting period to Pending Close even if the period contains draft invoices, draft payments, processing payments, or processing refunds.

Closed

You must have the Manage Close Process permission enabled before you can close an accounting period.

To set an accounting period to Closed, go to Finance > Accounting Periods, click the accounting period name, and then click more > Close this Accounting Period. If any revenue schedules are still being processed, the accounting period will be in the Pending Close status. The accounting period will change to the Closed status when all the revenue schedules are processed.

When an accounting period is Closed:

Transactions cannot be entered into the accounting period.
Existing transactions in the accounting period cannot be updated.
Revenue cannot be distributed into the accounting period.
Revenue already distributed into the accounting period cannot be updated.
You can re-open the accounting period if necessary.