Open and close posting periods
Background- A financial document is posted to a period in SAP, e.g., if the date is 1/1/2018, the posting period is 1 if we are using a calendar dependent posting period variant.
The posting period controls which periods we can post to. If the date is 1/1/2018, it won’t make sense for us to post in period 2, 3, etc. we would just post to period 1, or we might still be posting some entries to 12/2017 as we might not have closed the books of 2017 yet.
Enter the tcode OB52 to access the open and close periods transaction.
Enter the posting period variant that is assigned to your company code
If you are not sure of the posting period that is assigned to your company code, check the tcode OBY6, enter your company code and check which posting period variant is assigned here.
After finding out your posting period variant, enter it in the popup box in tcode OB52Â
You will see the values below which show you which periods are currently open in your SAP system.
If you do not see any values on the screen below, then create the values first by clicking on new entries.
This is what all the columns mean
A-This means the account type for which you are opening and closing the periods. E.g., ‘A’ stands for Assets, so for any Asset accounts, you can only make postings from Period 3 to Period 3 of 2018. If you make postings in any other period, you will get an error message.
Account type D stands for customers- If you are posting to a customer, then SAP will check if account type “D” is open for the period in which you are posting.
Account Type K is for vendor accounts. When you post to a vendor master, then K needs to be open.
Account type M is for material accounts
Account type S is for postings to any G/L accounts.
Please note- The account type + should be open for the period in which you are trying to post. E.g. if you are trying to post to a vendor in period 6 and + is only open from period 5 to 5, you will get an error even if “K”( vendor) is open from period 6 to 6.
From acct- If you leave this column blank, then it applies for all accounts in that category.
You can also enter a range of accounts or a particular account if you want that account to have a different period open. e.g., if your asset range is from 7000000-7500000, if you leave the from account field blank, everything in this range can only be posted to in period 3.
But if you want to have account 750000-7500010 open for period 3 and 4, you would enter that range in there, and you would have two lines for “A” one line range will be 750000-7500010 and open for period 3-4, and another line will be blank and open for period 3 only.
To account- The ending range of the account. E.g., 7500010 ( from the range 7500000-7500010)
From per.1- This is the first period that is open for the range specified in the previous column. E.g., if we are opening period 3 to 4, we would enter 3 in this field.
Year -The from year. E.g., we would period 3-4 of 2018 to be open, so we enter 2018 in here.
To per. 1- The ending month for this range. E.g., you would enter 4 in this field if you would need the ending month to be 4.
Year- This is the “to” year. E.g., if you are only opening 2018, then the value in the “From year” and “To year” would both be 2018, but in year-end situations where you want December 2018 to Jan 2019 open, you will enter 2019 in this field.
The columns after this apply for special period postings.
Note-You can do a drop down in that field to see a list of available values in the first column “A.”
Note-It is important to keep these periods in synch with the MM periods. If the posting is generating from MM and the MM period is closed and the FI period is open, you will still get an error. The Tcode for the MM period is MMPV.
To change the periods currently open, just change the value and click on save.
Get Access to 175 OB52 Issues Solutions in this guide
If you get the below errors, Then you need to follow the above steps to fix this error.
If you get the error messages below
Message no. F5903 Posting period 001 2021 not open for variant 0001 and ledger ZL
or Message no. F5201 Posting period xxx xxxx not open, then you need to follow the above steps to fix the issue.
Or Message no. F5286 Period xx/xxxx is not open for Account type X and G/L xxxxxx
What are special periods in OB52?
In Ob52, you will notice that there are three places where you can enter the periods.
From per.1-This is where you enter your regular posting periods.
From Per.2- Enter special periods here.
From Per.3- Postings that are transferred from CO to FI are checked against this interval. This is rarely used. Actually, I have never seen this being used.
Special periods allow you to make any corrections, adjustments to the last posting period. This enables you to create multiple financial statements.
SAP help shows the below diagram
How do you post to a special period?
Normally, when you enter your posting period, the period gets picked up from the posting date.
In the example below, the period is 12
In order to a post to a special period, you have to change the period to anything between 13-16 manually.
Note- that you need to have a special period open in OB52 if you want to post to one.
in the posted document, the period is 13
In FS10N, you will see that it posted to period 13.
Other FAQ
1- Can I get restrictions based on company code in OB52? e.g. users of company 1000 should only be able to control OB52 for company 1000 and not be able to change company 2000. Is this possible?
2-Why are my change logs missing?
3-How to make Ob52 modifiable directly in production?
4-Error message FC 450 - 'For account type 'V', do not
specify account numbers'
5-Missing translation of 'Authorization Group (AuGr)'
Where do I find logs of opening, closing and reopening of periods?
Hi Janine- You can click on utilities-> change logs in OB52 and then run it for the time frame you need. I would first run it wide open to make sure that it is working. If you have access you can enter the table T001B in SE12 and click display and then click on technical information to ensure that this table is logged.
If the logs show nothing, then I would check this with the basis team.
If the current period is 12 in 2015 how to close this?
Hi Nikitha- If you want to close 12 2015, then you would just change the from period to 1 2016 and the to period to 1 2016 or 2 2016, depending on which periods you want to open.
Does that make sense? Please let us know if you need any clarification.
what if I want to close 12 2015 and not open 01 2016. CC closed hence next period not to be openend.
Hi- if the company code is closed,you could remove the posting period variant from its oby6 config.
Hi,
Can I get some more information on the columns “From Per.2” and “To Per.2”. Do these columns represent and allow for additional posting periods to be open in addition to/simultaneously with “From Per.1” and “To Per.1”?
Sorry, I forgot to reply to you. I will update the blog with examples later on.
Per.1 to Per.1 is for your regular postings e.g. you Have period 12-12 2020 open
Let’s say you want certain individuals only to be able to post to period 1 2021, then you can enter a value in the field AUGR and then enter 1 to 1(2021). in the From and to Values of Per.2
This AUGR( Authorization group will be assigned to certain individuals in their master data in SU01- you will need to work with your security team) and these individuals only can post to period 1 2021
Another purpose of using the per.2 field is that if your books are closed for 2020 and you need to make some audit adjustments, then you can enter the from period as 13 in the per.2 field and the to period as 16 in the per.2 field.
This opens up your special periods. When you create a posting, the period field gets picked up from the posting date. e.g if your date is 12/31/2020, then the period is 12. You don’t need to manually change the period. For a special period, you will need to use any date in the last month e.g. we will enter 12/31/2020 and then change the period to 13.
When you run your reports, you will need to run them from period 1-16 to see all the postings.
Hope this helps
Can we get more categories than the standard A/M/S/D/K? say want to create another category of type of vendors/customers?
Is that possible, so more granular control on the postings
Or more categories with GL type or range?
What does ZZZZZZ in second account column stands for?