When you record a document, you enter the posting date. When you post the document, the system uses the posting date specified to automatically determine the posting period. The posting period consists of a month and a fiscal year.

These are both displayed in the document overview. The posting period determined is entered in the document and the transaction figures for this period are updated.

If you want to display the balance of an account, the transaction figures are displayed separately according to posting periods. This process is illustrated below:

If you use the Special Purpose Ledger, you can define different posting periods per ledger. Only the posting period defined for the general ledger is stored in the document.

In order for the system to determine posting periods, you must fulfil the following prerequisites:

For postings to the previous fiscal year, the system carries out the following adjustments:

• For balance sheet accounts, the system adjusts the carry forward balance of the accounts concerned in the current fiscal year.
• For profit and loss accounts, the profit or loss carried forward to the retained earnings account is adjusted.