> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ardoiseeduc.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Financial years and accounting periods

> How Ardoise organises financial years, periods, closing and the current/previous year comparison.

<Note>This page concerns Ardoise School in the OHADA scope, subject to enabled modules and permissions. School, school accounting and payroll are not offered in Austria. Check local requirements; CountryConfig does not certify compliance.</Note>

## The accounting year

A **financial year** is the accounting reference period, generally a year (for example 1 January to 31 December). All financial statements are produced **for a given year**.

## Periods

A financial year can be split into **periods** (often monthly). Each period can be:

| Status | Meaning |
| - | - |
| **Open** | Entries can still be posted to it |
| **Closed** | No further entry possible; the period is frozen |
| **Locked** | Permanently frozen; cannot be reopened |

## Why close a period?

Closing a period:

* freezes validated entries (they can no longer be changed by accident);
* guarantees that the financial statements reflect a validated period.

<Warning>
  Once a period is **closed or locked**, no entry can be posted to it. If you need to correct a past period, contact your accountant: corrections go through a reversing [manual entry](/en/comptabilite/operations), never by modifying history.
</Warning>

## Closing, locking or reopening a period

The accountant manages periods from the **Accounting periods** tab of the Accountant portal. The screen lists the periods, filterable by financial year, with their status and the available actions:

| Current status | Actions offered |
| - | - |
| Open | **Close** |
| Closed | **Reopen** or **Lock** |
| Locked | None |

The three actions are not equivalent:

* **Close** freezes the period; the accountant can still reopen it.
* **Reopen** undoes a close, for example to post a correction before closing again.
* **Lock** freezes permanently: a locked period can no longer be reopened. It is the year-end position.

Ardoise decides server-side which transitions are legal. A refused action returns the exact reason, shown at the top of the screen.

## Closing the financial year

At the end of the year, **closing** records the result (profit or loss) in equity. This is an accountant's operation; it should not be done lightly.

## The comparative year

Financial statements often show two columns:

* **N**: the current year;
* **N-1**: the previous year.

Ardoise resolves the previous year automatically from the years you have defined, to make the comparison possible.

## In summary

1. Create your **financial year** and its **periods**.
2. Record operations as you go, in open periods.
3. **Close** each period once validated, from the **Accounting periods** tab.
4. At the end of the year, carry out the **year-end closing** with your accountant, then **lock** the periods.


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