How to close a financial period in Infor LN
how to close a financial period in Infor LN
Also searched as
- infor ln period close checklist
- infor ln financial period closing procedure
- infor ln reconcile subledger to gl
- infor ln integration transactions period close
Short answer
Closing a period in Infor LN is not a single click; it requires clearing every module's outstanding integration transactions into Financials first, reconciling each subledger (AR, AP, inventory, WIP) to the general ledger, and only then closing the period through Periods and Fiscal Years, which blocks further posting to it. Skipping the reconciliation step and closing early is what causes stuck or orphaned transactions that have to be reopened and reworked later.
Applies to: Infor LN Enterprise Edition, Financials module
Close a financial period in Infor LN
- 1Confirm all transactional modules (Sales, Purchase, Warehousing, Manufacturing, Project) have processed their period activity; no open, unshipped, or unreceived transactions should be dated in the period about to close.
- 2Financials > Integration Transactions: process all outstanding integration transactions from other modules into the general ledger; nothing should remain queued for the closing period.
- 3Reconcile Accounts Receivable subledger balance to the AR control account in the general ledger; investigate any difference before proceeding.
- 4Reconcile Accounts Payable subledger balance to the AP control account the same way.
- 5Reconcile inventory valuation (on-hand quantity times cost) to the inventory control account, and WIP balances if Manufacturing or Project posted work-in-process during the period.
- 6Run and review period-end financial statements (trial balance, P&L, balance sheet) for the period and investigate any account that looks unexpected.
- 7Post any required period-end adjusting entries (accruals, depreciation, allocations) through Financials before closing.
- 8Financials > Periods and Fiscal Years > Periods: close the period, which blocks further transaction posting dated in it.
- 9Communicate the close to other modules' teams so nobody attempts to post a transaction dated in the now-closed period; a blocked posting simply fails and has to be redated to the current open period.
Why reconciliation has to come before close, not after
The general ledger balance for AR, AP or inventory is built from integration transactions posted over the period, not recalculated live from the subledger detail. If an integration transaction is stuck (failed validation, missing mapping, or simply not yet processed), the GL and subledger will disagree even though every individual document looks correct in its own module.
Closing the period before this reconciliation is confirmed clean means the difference gets carried forward silently, and the next period's reconciliation has to explain a two-period-old discrepancy instead of a same-period one, which is significantly harder to trace.
What a closed period actually blocks
Closing a period in Periods and Fiscal Years prevents new financial transactions from posting with a date inside it; it does not retroactively validate or lock the transactional modules that fed those postings. A sales order or purchase order can still exist in the closed period's date range operationally; only the financial posting is blocked.
If a legitimate correction is needed after close, most sites reopen the period through a controlled procedure rather than posting the correction into the next open period disguised as current activity, since the latter distorts the current period's own numbers.
Coordinating close across modules
Because integration transactions originate in Sales, Purchase, Warehousing, Manufacturing and Project, a clean close depends on those modules having finished their own period activity first; Financials cannot reconcile transactions that have not been generated yet. Sites with a hard cutoff for warehousing and manufacturing transactions by a set time before close tend to have far fewer last-minute reconciliation surprises than sites that close Financials while other modules are still catching up.
A documented, module-by-module checklist with named owners for each reconciliation step is what actually prevents the recurring end-of-month scramble, more than any single LN setting.
Common pitfalls
- !Closing the period before confirming zero outstanding integration transactions, then having to reopen it for a stuck posting.
- !Treating a closed period as if the underlying transactional modules are also locked, when only the financial posting is blocked.
- !Posting a correction into the next open period without a clear note explaining it relates to a prior period, distorting current-period reporting.
- !Skipping inventory or WIP reconciliation because it is more work than AR/AP, and missing a material variance as a result.
- !Not communicating the close date to warehouse and shop floor teams, causing a wave of failed postings right after close.
- !Relying on memory instead of a written, owned checklist, which is how the same reconciliation step gets missed every few cycles.
How an ERP-grounded AI assistant handles this
ERPray can run the reconciliation checks a controller normally does by hand, flagging unprocessed integration transactions and subledger-to-GL differences by module before anyone starts the close, and explaining in plain language which specific documents are causing a given difference. That turns a search through several Financials sessions into a direct answer, and it never forgets to check WIP just because AR and AP looked clean.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if I try to post a transaction into a closed period?
LN rejects the posting with a period-closed error; the transaction has to be redated into the current open period, or the closed period has to be reopened through a controlled procedure if the transaction genuinely belongs there.
Can I close Financials while Manufacturing still has open WIP for the period?
Technically yes, but it is not good practice; unposted WIP activity from that period will land in the next period's integration transactions, distorting both periods' variance and cost reporting. Coordinate a manufacturing cutoff before closing.
How do I reopen a closed period to post a correction?
Use Periods and Fiscal Years to reopen the specific period, post the correcting entry, then reconcile and re-close it, following whatever approval process your organization requires for reopening a closed period.
Does closing a period in one company close it for all companies in the multi-company setup?
No, periods are typically closed per financial company, so a multi-entity LN setup requires each company's close to be run and reconciled independently even if the calendar dates line up.
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