Month-End Close

Month-end close is the controlled process finance teams use to finish a reporting period, review completeness, resolve exceptions, and restrict further posting into that period.

Use this guide when preparing a period for close, resolving close blockers, reopening a period, or explaining why a transaction cannot post into a closed period.

Workspace Reference

Workspace	How Users Reach It	What Users Usually Do There
Fiscal Periods	Administration -> Financial Setup -> Fiscal Periods	Run readiness checks, close periods, reopen periods where allowed, and review close status.
GL Journals	Accounting -> Operations -> GL Journals	Resolve unposted, failed, rejected, scheduled, or pending accounting batches before close.
GL Reconciliation	Accounting -> Operations -> GL Reconciliation	Clear reconciliation exceptions for cash, bank, wallet, settlement, and control accounts.
Financial Reports	Accounting -> Operations -> Financial Reports	Review trial balance, statements, and period movement before close.
Service Workspaces	Loans, Deposits, Billing, POS, Wallets, Shares, Assets, Inventory, Payroll, and Payments	Confirm service-generated postings and operational close dependencies are complete.

Close Stages

Pinkapple supports staged period control.

Stage	Meaning	User Impact
Open	Normal posting is allowed.	Users can continue ordinary financial activity.
Soft Closed	Routine posting is restricted.	Only authorised adjustments or reopen workflows are allowed.
Hard Closed	The period is final for ordinary operations.	Users must post corrections in a later period unless policy allows otherwise.
Locked	The period is preserved as final historical record.	No ordinary posting changes should be expected.

Most month-end work focuses on moving a period from open to soft closed after readiness checks pass.

Close Readiness

Before closing a period, run the close readiness review from the fiscal period or accounting period workspace.

The review should identify blockers such as:

• unposted journals or batches
• pending approvals
• failed automated postings
• unreconciled control accounts
• open till or cashier sessions
• incomplete bank, wallet, or settlement reconciliation
• missing exchange rates for foreign-currency balances
• unresolved intercompany activity

Each blocker should be assigned to a responsible user or team before the period is closed.

Month-End Checklist

Use this practical checklist before closing:

1. Confirm all routine transactions for the period have been entered.
2. Confirm billing, payments, POS, wallet, loan, deposit, asset, payroll, and settlement postings are complete where applicable.
3. Review unposted or rejected journals.
4. Complete required approvals.
5. Close open till or cash sessions.
6. Reconcile bank, cash, wallet, and settlement balances.
7. Review control-account and sub-ledger alignment.
8. Run foreign-currency revaluation where applicable.
9. Review intercompany balances where applicable.
10. Save or export key reports required by finance policy.
11. Add close notes if the period close form requires them.

Closing A Period

When blockers are resolved:

1. Open the period management workspace.
2. Select the open period.
3. Use the row action or close action provided by the page.
4. Review the readiness result.
5. Add a clear close note where required.
6. Submit the close action.

After close, ordinary users should no longer post routine activity into that period.

Reopening A Period

Reopening is a governed action. Use it only when the organisation approves a correction in the closed period.

A good reopen reason should explain:

• what needs correction
• why it belongs in the closed period
• who approved the reopen
• which transaction or report is affected
• when the period should be closed again

After reopening, finance should complete the correction promptly and close the period again.

Period-End Actions

Depending on setup, finance may run additional period-end actions.

Action	Purpose
Accrual reversal review	Confirms expected reversing entries are handled.
Foreign-currency revaluation	Updates foreign-currency balances for reporting rates.
Intercompany elimination	Removes internal balances from consolidated reporting.
Recurring journal review	Confirms scheduled journals for the period were created and posted.
Balance snapshot review	Confirms period-end reporting values are preserved for review.

Run these before closing when they are part of the organisation’s finance process.

What To Do When Close Fails

Blocker	What To Check
Pending approvals	Approver queue, approval levels, and substitute approvers.
Unposted journals or batches	Draft, rejected, failed, or scheduled posting status.
Control-account mismatch	Missing sub-ledger mapping or source workflow imbalance.
Open till sessions	Cashier session status, till counts, and variance approvals.
Missing exchange rates	Currency setup and period-end exchange-rate records.
Reconciliation differences	Bank, wallet, settlement, cash, or payment exceptions.

Do not force close a period while material blockers remain unresolved.

Permissions And Responsibility

Period close should be limited to finance users with the appropriate role. Common responsibility split:

• preparers complete entries and reconciliation
• reviewers clear exceptions
• approvers approve journals or adjustments
• finance managers close and reopen periods
• auditors review the resulting trail

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Better Practice
Closing before approvals complete.	Run readiness checks and clear pending approvals.
Reopening without explanation.	Capture a specific reason and supporting reference.
Ignoring failed automated postings.	Resolve failures before close.
Treating soft close as final audit close.	Use the correct close stage for the organisation’s policy.
Letting reopened periods stay open.	Correct the issue and close the period again promptly.

Related Pages

• Posting Dates And Periods
• GL Reconciliation
• Audit Trail And Controls
• Financial Reports