Get started with accounting periods
An accounting period is a range of time for performing, aggregating, and analyzing accounting functions. In QuickStart, you can create fiscal years, quarters, months, and custom periods, such as weeks. Most companies use a combination of fiscal years, quarters, and months for financial reporting.
There are two ways to access your accounting periods:
- Open Menu. Under Accounting, select Accounting periods.
- Search for accounting periods using the global search field.
The Accounting periods page lists your accounting periods, including their start and end dates, status, period details, and available actions for each period.
From the Accounting periods page, you can create new periods, edit your fiscal calendar, and export your accounting periods as a CSV file.
During your initial account setup, QuickStart creates 3 fiscal years based on the date you setup your account: previous, current, and next. For example, if you create an account in 2024, QuickStart creates fiscal years for 2023, 2024, and 2025.
At the close of each subsequent fiscal year, QuickStart can create future fiscal years based on your accounting preferences. QuickStart can also automatically create one adjustment period at the end of each fiscal year. The adjustment period is created during the automatic creation of accounting periods. You can configure your accounting period preferences on the Accounting preferences page. For more information, see Get started with accounting period preferences.
You can lock or close accounting periods from the Accounting periods page. Transactions posted to closed periods can’t be deleted or voided. However, fields that don’t impact the general ledger can still be edited in closed and locked periods.
In addition to standard accounting periods, you can also use adjustment accounting periods for making entries that shouldn’t affect standard accounting periods.