---
title: "Fiscal-year Management"
description: "**Audience:** admin · **Last updated:** 2026-06-07 · [Edit on GitHub](https://github.com/phreesoft/bizuno/edit/main/docs/04-modules-in-depth/01-phreebooks/05-fiscal-year-management.md) # Fiscal-year Management This page explains how Bizuno models fiscal years and periods, how to add years and adjust period dates, and — at a high level — what closing…"
url: "https://www.bizuno.com/docs/fiscal-year-management/"
updated: "2026-06-18"
category: PhreeBooks
---

# Fiscal-year Management

**Audience:** admin · **Last updated:** 2026-06-07 · [Edit on GitHub](https://github.com/phreesoft/bizuno/edit/main/docs/04-modules-in-depth/01-phreebooks/05-fiscal-year-management.md)

# Fiscal-year Management

This page explains how Bizuno models fiscal years and periods, how to add years
 and adjust period dates, and — at a high level — what closing a year does.

> **The close procedure has its own page.** Fiscal-year close is one of the two
>  operations that can genuinely destroy your books (the other is restoring the
>  wrong backup). The step-by-step checklist, pre-flight backup, and recovery
>  guidance live in [Administration → Fiscal-year close](/docs/fiscal-year-close/).
>  Read that before you close anything. This page is the model and the routine
>  maintenance.

---

## The model: years and periods

Bizuno divides time into **fiscal periods** (normally 12 per year, month-aligned)
 stored in the `journal_periods` table:

| Field | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `period` | Sequential period number (1, 2, 3, …) — global, not reset per year |
| `fiscal_year` | The fiscal year this period belongs to |
| `start_date` | First day of the period |
| `end_date` | Last day of the period |

Period numbers are **continuous** across years — they don't reset to 1 each
 January. Period 13 is simply the first period of the second fiscal year. (This is
 why [closing a year renumbers everything](#what-closing-does) — it collapses the
 oldest year's periods off the front so numbering starts at 1 again.)

### How a transaction gets its period

Every posting carries a `journal_main.period`. Bizuno derives it from the
 `post_date` by finding the period whose date range contains it
 (`calculatePeriod()`):

```sql
SELECT period FROM journal_periods
 WHERE start_date <= post_date AND end_date >= post_date
```

**The `post_date` is authoritative; `period` is derived from it.** That principle
 matters for the self-heal behavior below — if the two ever disagree, the date
 wins.

---

## Adding a fiscal year

Use *PhreeBooks → Tools → Fiscal Year* to add the next year (`fyAdd`). It appends
 a fresh block of period rows (start/end dates) to `journal_periods` and seeds
 opening-balance rows in `journal_history` for every GL account so the new periods
 are ready to post into.

### Automatic extension (7.3.9+)

You usually don't have to add years by hand. When a transaction's `post_date`
 falls **beyond** the last defined period, `ensureFiscalYearCovers()` extends the
 fiscal calendar forward automatically (up to a 10-year cap) so the post succeeds.
 This most often fires from **recurring entries** that project into a year you
 hadn't set up yet — Bizuno just builds the runway rather than failing the post.

---

## Editing period dates

You can adjust a period's `start_date` / `end_date` from the same Fiscal Year tool
 (`fySave`) — for example to align Bizuno's months to a 4-4-5 calendar, or to fix a
 period that was set up wrong.

**The guard:** a period's dates are **editable only if nothing has posted at or
 beyond that period.** Once transactions exist in a period, its dates lock (the UI
 shows them read-only) — moving them would re-bucket already-posted history.
 Adjacent dates are kept contiguous, so editing one period's boundary nudges the
 neighbor to avoid gaps.

---

## What closing does

Full detail is in the
 [admin close page](/docs/fiscal-year-close/); the model-level
 summary:

Closing a fiscal year **permanently deletes the closing year's transaction
 detail** and rolls it into summary. Specifically it:

- **Rolls** income-statement accounts (types 30/32/34 and equity-that-closes 42)
   into **Retained Earnings** (type 44) — the year's profit becomes an opening
   equity balance.
- **Deletes** the `journal_main` / `journal_item` / `journal_history` /
   `journal_periods` rows dated within the closed year (the detail is gone; the
   aggregate survives in opening balances).
- **Renumbers** everything that remains — the surviving periods are shifted down
   so numbering restarts at 1, and `journal_item.reconciled` period stamps shift
   with them.
- **Preserves** master records: contacts, the chart of accounts, inventory items
   (their *history* is trimmed, the SKUs stay), and all current/future-dated
   transactions — including recurring entries dated after the close.

### The self-heal pass (7.3.9+)

Because the renumber step does a blind "subtract N from every period," any row
 whose `period` had **drifted** from its `post_date` would be shifted further
 wrong. To prevent that, close now runs a JOIN-based **re-stamp** after renumbering:

```sql
UPDATE journal_main jm
  JOIN journal_periods jp
    ON jm.post_date >= jp.start_date AND jm.post_date <= jp.end_date
  SET jm.period = jp.period
 WHERE jm.period <> jp.period
```

It re-derives every remaining row's period from its date — repairing historical
 drift (e.g. quality tickets or work orders that were saved without a clean period
 stamp, or future recurs inserted before their year existed). It's idempotent: a
 no-op on clean data. Rows whose `post_date` falls outside any defined period are
 left alone.

---

## Guidance

- **Don't close aggressively.** Closing is for trimming truly old years, not
   routine month-end. Once a year's detail is deleted you can only run summary
   reports against it — drill-down is gone. Many shops keep several open years.
- **Close is gated** behind the top admin permission (`admin` level 4) and refuses
   to touch the current or a future year.
- **Back up first, and test the backup.** Restoring the correct backup is the
   *only* real recovery from a bad close. See the
   [admin close checklist](/docs/fiscal-year-close/) and
   [Backup and restore](/docs/backup-and-restore/).

---

## Related

- [Fiscal-year close](/docs/fiscal-year-close/) — the operational checklist
- [Fiscal periods vs. calendar dates](/docs/fiscal-periods-vs-calendar-dates/)
- [Backup and restore](/docs/backup-and-restore/)
- [Chart of Accounts](/docs/chart-of-accounts/) — what closes into Retained Earnings