No purpose for them aside from wasting time and adding room for error. That's what the dates are for. Or set the periods to automatically change based on the date entered. I am always back dating records especially when reconciling and I wast so much time changing periods back and forth.
by: Michelle M. | over a year ago | Accounting Reports
Comments
No, we need posting periods in order to properly post late invoices. If a vendor sends an invoice in 2 months late, how will you post it properly with the original invoice date to the current period without having a posting period??
Agreed. Moreover, what I think Lindsay P is getting at, more broadly, is that we need it for keeping things segregated when entering any prior-period data before archival of the prior period. When this comes into play changes from company to company, but it certainly applies to all companies when doing year-end accruals. Although you can control for this at year-end, for those who close more frequently (like monthly), you definitely need it to make sure that financials for the prior period don't change until archival should be done.
(Not that I'm worried about Sage removing this feature.) Posting periods is a basic principle of accounting. The lack of posting periods is one of the main reasons I hate QuickBooks. Also, companies that don't use a calendar fiscal year need to have posting periods.