What This Does
Closing a fiscal period makes that month’s books final for one business unit. After you close the period, staff cannot post new batches into that month. The close also recognizes any deferred revenue due for the month by moving it from deferred revenue to recognized revenue. If your association tracks inventory costs, the close also books cost of goods sold for that period’s activity.
When to Use It (and Not)
Close a period after you confirm that everything for the month has been posted and reviewed. Do not close while batches in that period are still open, or while an earlier period is still open, because Rhythm closes periods in order.
If your association uses deferred revenue, review the Deferral Waterfall report before you close the period. The report shows how much revenue should be recognized for the period, so you know what to expect after the close finishes.
Tip
If you find unexpected or duplicate entries while you review a period’s subledger activity, report them to Support before you close the fiscal period. After the period is closed, Support may not be able to investigate or correct that specific issue.
Prerequisites
- You have finance power-user or administrator access to reach Month End Close and to close or reopen a period.
- Every batch in the current period must be posted, downloaded, or archived. Any batch that is still open, in error, or otherwise unfinished blocks the close.
- Every fiscal period before the current one must already be closed.
Steps
- Go to Finance & Billing › Month End Close. If your association has more than one business unit, use the working business unit control to choose the business unit you want to close.
- Rhythm selects the current period, which is the first period for that business unit that has not been closed, and shows its status.
- Check the status card. Ready to Close means every batch in the period is finished. Not Ready to Close shows how many batches are still open and must be posted, downloaded, or archived before you can close.
- Review the batches listed under the period, then post, download, or archive any that are still open.
- Once the status reads Ready to Close, select Close Current Fiscal Period.
- Confirm that you want to close the current fiscal period when Rhythm asks.
Variants
- Checking a different period's status without closing it. Choose another period from the Fiscal Period dropdown to see whether it is Open or Closed and review its batches. If the fiscal year does not follow the calendar year, the dropdown also shows each period’s corresponding calendar month and year, so you can tell which period you are choosing. You can close only the current period from this page, not an earlier or later one.
- A business unit that tracks deferred revenue. Closing the period moves any revenue due that month out of deferred revenue and into recognized revenue. If deferral was not turned on for a product when an order was processed, turning it on later does not create deferral entries for that order retroactively. Deferral applies only to orders processed after it is enabled.
- A business unit that tracks inventory costs. Closing the period also books cost of goods sold for the period’s stock activity, as long as every costed product has its accounting set up. If a product’s accounts are not set up, the close stops instead of posting to the wrong account. Set up that product’s financial configuration, then try again.
Result
The close runs in the background, and the page shows a waiting message while Rhythm works. When it finishes, the period’s status becomes Closed, and the next period becomes the new current period.
Side Effects
A closed period is final for everyday work. Staff cannot post new batches into that month unless the period is reopened first. Deferred revenue recognized during the close, and cost of goods sold booked during the close, are added in new batches for that period.
Run or download the deferred revenue batch only after every batch for the month is posted and the period is closed. Downloading that batch is separate from closing the period. It keeps deferred revenue recognition in sync with your accounting system, so do not skip it. If the download times out, the close itself has still succeeded; retry the download.
Tip
The Trial Balance report shows subledger entries for a period only after the period is closed. If a Trial Balance for a past month looks incomplete, check whether that period has actually been closed yet.
What to Do If It Fails
- Close Current Fiscal Period is disabled. The status card explains why, usually because one or more batches in the period are still open. Post, download, or archive those batches, then try again. If two open batches reference each other, search for both and close them together. That clears the circular dependency and lets the close proceed.
- An empty batch won't delete, and it's blocking the close. A batch with no entries can still be tied to a membership billing run. Open the batch’s record, choose Relationships from its record identifier menu to open Database Relationships, and find the related billing run. Delete that billing run to free the batch for deletion. If you need to keep the billing run for your records, set the batch’s status to Archived instead so the month can close.
- Rhythm says an earlier period must be closed first. Periods must close in order. Go back and close the earlier period before this one.
- A costed product's accounting setup is incomplete. The close stops without posting anything. Set up that product’s accounts in its financial configuration, then close again. If the first error you see is generic, try closing again; a later attempt sometimes shows a more specific message naming the exact setup problem.
- The close fails with a message that a close process is already running. This can happen when an earlier close for the period is still running or got stuck, or when the period has an unusually large amount of activity to process, such as many thousands of batches. Wait a while and check the period’s status again. If it still has not cleared, contact Support.
- The page shows the period as open, but closing it says it's already closed. Refresh the Month End Close page for the latest status before trying again. The page can show an out-of-date state.
- You see a generic error, or the close seems to fail, but nothing looks wrong. When your association has a large number of batches or transactions to process, the close can take a while. It may show a delay or a generic-looking error before it actually finishes. Refresh the page and check the period’s status before assuming it failed.
- You see an "unknown error" when you close. Refresh the page, or navigate away and back, then select Close Current Fiscal Period again. It often completes successfully on a later attempt. If it keeps happening, contact Support.
- Deferred entries still look unrecognized after the period closes. The close may not have created the deferred revenue batch, or it may have created one that is missing expected deferred-account lines even though the underlying entries exist. Contact Support with the period and the affected entries.
- Deferred revenue subledger entries for a membership look overstated after closing. Check whether those entries respect the membership’s term relative to when it was purchased. A mismatch there can create more entries than expected.
- Closing seems to finish, but a batch didn't post the way you expected. Refresh the Month End Close page to see the latest state, then review the batch directly. If something still looks wrong, contact Support.
- An already-closed period appears to have an open batch against it, and the timestamps don't fit the usual explanation. As a general rule, a closed fiscal period should not have open batches remaining against it, and reopening the period is normally what is needed to correct that. In some cases, the reported timing does not cleanly match that explanation, which can point to a timing-specific or edge-case condition around when the batch was posted relative to the close. If reopening and reviewing the period does not resolve it, contact Support with the exact batch and timestamps involved.
- A close still won't complete after every blocking batch and setup issue is resolved. In some cases, finishing a close needs Support’s help rather than being fully self-service. Contact Support with the period and business unit.
Tip
Rhythm runs the close in the background and lets you know when it finishes. You do not need to keep the page open, but you should come back to confirm the result before moving on.