Accounting Periods & Period Close FAQ

What are accounting periods?

Accounting periods divide your financial timeline into discrete chunks — typically months — so you can close the books, generate reports, and carry forward balances in an orderly way. Each period has a defined start date, end date, and status.

CryptaCount supports four period types:

Type	Example	Use Case
Monthly	2025-01 (Jan 1–31)	Standard monthly close — most common
Quarterly	2025-Q1 (Jan 1 – Mar 31)	Quarterly reporting
Annual	2025 (Jan 1 – Dec 31)	Simple annual close
Custom	Any date range	Non-standard fiscal years or special periods

How do I set up accounting periods?

Navigate to Accounting → Periods and create periods for your fiscal year. For monthly close:

Set the start and end dates for each month
Assign a fiscal year label (e.g., “2025”)
Optionally set a period number (1–12 for monthly)

Periods must not overlap within a workspace, and they should cover the full date range of your transactions without gaps.

What is the period lifecycle?

Every accounting period moves through a defined lifecycle:

OPEN → SOFT_CLOSE → CLOSING → CLOSED → LOCKED

Status	What It Means
Open	Normal operations. Transactions can be synced, journals created and posted, adjustments made.
Soft Close	No new transactions. Adjustments and corrections still allowed. Use this when the month is over but you’re still finalizing entries.
Closing	Close initiated. Validation checks are running.
Closed	Books are closed. No modifications. Can be reopened if needed.
Locked	Permanently sealed. Cannot be modified or reopened. Use for audited periods.

How does the monthly close workflow work?

The monthly close follows four steps:

1. Initiate

Move the period from Open to Soft Close when all transactions for the month have been synced and you’re ready to finalize.

2. Check

Run close checks to verify data integrity. CryptaCount runs 11 automated checks that validate your books are ready to close.

3. Validate

Review the check results. All blocking checks must pass before you can close. Warning checks can be waived with a reason.

4. Complete

Close the period. CryptaCount:

Sets the period status to Closed
Records who closed it and when
Carries forward ledger balances to the next period
Prevents further modifications to transactions and journals in this period

What do the close checks verify?

Check	What It Verifies	Type
Double-Entry Balance	Every journal entry has balanced debits and credits	Blocking
Event Classification	All blockchain events have been classified (no UNKNOWN types)	Blocking
Event Posting	All classified events have corresponding journal entries	Blocking
Pending Approvals	No journal entries stuck in draft/pending state	Blocking (waivable)
Exchange Rate Coverage	Exchange rates exist for all transaction dates	Blocking (waivable)
Trial Balance	Total debits equal total credits across all accounts	Blocking
Opening Balance Match	Opening balances match the previous period’s closing balances	Blocking
On-Chain Reconciliation	Book balances match on-chain blockchain balances	Waivable
Lot Consistency	Cost lot totals match inventory records	Blocking
Negative Balances	No GL accounts with inappropriate negative balances	Waivable
Derivatives Mark-to-Market	All open derivatives positions valued at period-end mark price	Waivable

How do I waive a failing check?

If a waivable check fails and you’ve determined the issue is acceptable:

Review the check details to understand what failed
Click Waive on the specific check
Enter a justification explaining why the waiver is acceptable
Your user ID and timestamp are recorded with the waiver

Waived checks are preserved in the close record for audit trail purposes. Non-waivable blocking checks (Double-Entry Balance, Trial Balance, Opening Balance Match) cannot be overridden — they must be fixed.

What is the year-end close process?

Year-end close is an additional step on top of the final monthly close. It generates a closing journal entry that:

Debits all Revenue accounts to zero (reversing their credit balances)
Credits all Expense accounts to zero (reversing their debit balances)
Posts the net income or loss to Retained Earnings

This resets the income statement for the new fiscal year while preserving the cumulative effect in the balance sheet.

The closing journal is created in Draft status so you can review it before posting. You need a Retained Earnings GL account configured in your chart of accounts — if one doesn’t exist, CryptaCount will prompt you to create it.

Can I reopen a closed period?

Yes, if the period is in Closed status (not Locked).

Reopening:

Requires a reason — this is recorded in the audit trail
Resets all close checks back to pending
Returns the period to Open status
Increments the reopen counter on the period record

After making corrections, you’ll need to run the close checks again and complete the close process from the beginning.

Periods in Locked status cannot be reopened. Lock a period only after it has been audited and you’re certain no changes will be needed.

How do opening balances work?

Opening balances for a period are the closing balances of the previous period. CryptaCount handles this automatically during period close:

When you close a period, balances are carried forward to the next period
The Opening Balance Match check (CHK007) verifies this continuity

For the first period in a workspace (when there’s no prior period), you have two options:

Start from zero — if the workspace is brand new and this is the first period of activity
Import opening balances — if the entity has pre-existing balances from another system

To import opening balances, create opening journal entries that establish the starting position of each GL account.

What happens if I post a transaction to a closed period?

CryptaCount prevents posting journal entries to closed or locked periods. If a transaction’s date falls within a closed period, you’ll need to either:

Reopen the period to post the adjustment
Post the adjustment in the current open period with a reference to the original transaction date

This protects the integrity of closed books while still allowing corrections.

Can I have custom period lengths?

Yes. While monthly periods are the most common, you can create periods of any length using the Custom period type. This is useful for:

Non-calendar fiscal years (e.g., April–March)
4-4-5 or 4-5-4 week-based accounting calendars
Short periods during the first year of operations
Extended periods for entities with low transaction volumes