Last reviewed: 2026-06-16

Close

Purpose

Close is a review and control process for financial periods.

Close is a review and control process.
Soft close supports month and quarter reporting.
Hard close protects year-end results.
Close should surface exceptions before approval.
Close checks should classify issues as blockers, warnings, or informational items.
A hard close must not finalize while blocker-level checks remain unresolved unless an explicit waiver policy allows it.
Waivers must be explicit, attributable, and auditable.
Close evidence must be stored or referenced durably when policy requires reports, reconciliations, snapshots, or signoff.
Close may coordinate accounting work, but ledger effects must still post through the central posting path.
Reopen should require authority, reason, and audit trail.

Soft close indicates a period is ready for reporting.
Hard close stops ordinary posting and requires authorized correction procedures.

Implement soft and hard close states separately.
Preserve exception information before approval.
Capture reopen authority and reason.
Preserve close-run identity, target period, checks, waivers, approvals, and evidence references.
Keep inventory valuation, report rendering, and document storage rules in their owning areas; close coordinates their results.