format_list_bulleted Topic Overview

Month-End Close

Month-end close is performed to finalize a snapshot of transactional activity for a General Ledger (GL) period. Most processes run at month-end are also run on a daily and/or weekly basis. For month-end, these processes are performed for the last time for a particular month to ensure that all transactions are posted and reflected on reports. The month is officially closed when all of the month-end processes are complete (including posting).

The month being closed remains open for six additional business days in the new month in order to process all prior month transactions. Additionally, many iJournals and core journals can only be generated after the last calendar day of the month.

The following is a summary of activities that occur during the six-day period:

  • Accounts payable (AP) activity for the prior month is completed by the end of the first day of the new month.
  • End-of-month payroll data is received by Systems and Reporting Operations (S&RO) on the third business day.
  • iJournals (including uploads) are imported daily.
  • Costing and burdening are performed daily in Grants Accounting (GA).
  • GL journals are also imported and posted daily.
  • The GL Mass Allocation processes for endowments and student loans are run at month-end, since they depend on the above items to be done first.
  • Also, in GA, the revenue process is run at month-end primarily to save space in the GL tables (this is an Information Technology Systems and Services (ITSS) preference, not a system requirement).

The majority of month-end activity involves cleaning up transactions that are still pending from iJournals, and processing incoming transactions.

Departments also calculate interest on monies owed to various funds or agencies at month-end or year-end close by referring to Resource: Money Fund Rate.

Refer to Resource: Month-End Close Deadlines for a table showing the date and time that each system closes each month. 

Day 1
Month-End Close Begins

Who What
  • Sponsored Projects, Fund Accounting and Capital Accounting
  • Beginning 7 a.m., blackout period for closing PTAs (i.e., change from "Active" to "Closed")
  • S&RO
  • Office of Development (OOD) Gift File processed and posted in GL
  • Schools and Departments
  • Owning organization code change requests due to Central Offices
  • Learn about System: PTA Manager 
  • AP Processors
  • 8 p.m., Oracle AP module closed. No invoice payment transactions allowed

 

Day 2

Who What
  • S&RO
  • Contributed capital process generated; journal entry submitted and posted

 

Day 3

Who What
  • Sponsored Research, Capital Accounting and Fund Accounting
  • Approved owning organization code change requests due to S&RO from Central Offices
  • S&RO
  • Payroll, PeopleSoft Feeders and Student Commitment Feeder Files processed in Oracle

 

Day 4

Who What
  • Staff with iJournals Public, Specialist and Central (including Feeders) responsibility
  • 5 p.m. cutoff for creating or uploading iJournals AP Accruals
  • 5 p.m. cutoff for creating or uploading Feeders and all other iJournals
  • Learn about System: iJournals
  • Labor Distribution (LD) Adjusters
  • Transaction Approvers
  • S&RO
  • All prior month iJournals not approved by the 6:30 p.m. deadline are swept to the current month
  • GL Mass Allocation process run for student revenue
  • Central Offices
  • Capital Accounting (fixed assets) journal entries submitted and posted

 

Day 5

Who What
  • Core Journals Users (Controller's Office and Office of Research Administration, ORA)
  • 3 p.m. cutoff for creating and approving Core Journals
  • S&RO
  • GL Mass Allocation process run for endowments and student loans
  • Owning organization changes and PTA attributes processed
  • Streamline Billing Program ran previous night; generate Draft Revenue processed.
  • Staff with iJournals fund transfers and iBudgets responsibility
  • 12 p.m. cutoff for creating or uploading fund transfers or iBudgets
  • Transaction Approvers
  • 3 p.m. cutoff for approving iJournals fund transfers
  • Account Receivable (AR) Processors
  • 12 p.m. cutoff for AR Applied Payments
  • 11:59 p.m., Oracle AR Module closed and no receivable transactions allowed
  • Capital Accounting
  • 11:59 p.m., Oracle Fixed Asset (FA) Module closed

 

Day 6

Who What
  • S&RO
  • 11:59 p.m., Oracle GA and GL modules closed

 

Day 7

Who What
  • Sponsored Projects, Fund Accounting and Capital Accounting
  • Oracle Financials Reporting Users
  • Daily expenditure reports and fund reports available online, reflecting month-end close transactions

 

Last Updated: Dec 21, 2023