Working with Inventory Periods

Inventory periods define a period of time in which you can post changes to inventory. An inventory period is defined by the date on which it ends, or the ending date. When you close an inventory period, you cannot post any changes to inventory, either expected or invoiced, before this ending date, and you cannot post any new values to inventory before the ending date. If you have open item entries in the closed period, meaning positive quantities that have not yet been applied to outbound transactions, you can still apply outbound quantities to these entries, even if the period is closed.

The following sections describe how to:

Creating Inventory Periods

To create an inventory period, do the following:

  1. Open the Inventory Periods window.

  2. Click F3 to create a new line or click in an empty line.

  3. In the Ending Date field, enter the last date in the inventory period you want to define. When the period is closed, you will not be able to post inventory changes before this date.

  4. Give the inventory period a descriptive name in the Name field. When you define an ending date, the program automatically creates a name consisting of the month and year of the ending date. You can change this or add to it, depending on your needs.

Closing Inventory Periods

The Closed field indicates whether or not the inventory period is closed to inventory value changes. You cannot edit this field.

You can close any inventory period, provided that the following is true:

This means that all outbound transaction quantities, such as those from sales orders, outbound transfers, sales invoices, purchase returns, or purchase credit memos, must be applied to existing quantity in inventory.

To close an inventory period, do the following:

  1. Before closing an inventory period, run the Adjust Cost – Item Entries batch job to ensure that all cost adjustments are posted.

  2. Run the Close Inventory Period – Test report to determine if there are any open outbound item entries within the inventory period or any items whose cost has not yet been adjusted.

  3. Run the Post Inventory Cost to G/L batch job to ensure that all costs are posted to the general ledger.

  4. Open the Inventory Periods window, and select the inventory period you would like to close.

  5. Click Close Period. The program shows a warning that, once the inventory period has been closed, you cannot post inventory changes before the ending date. The cost of all items must be adjusted with the Adjust Cost – Item Entries batch job before you close the inventory period.

  6. Click Yes to confirm that you want to close the period, or click No to cancel the closing.

  7. The program closes the inventory period and shows a confirmation message when it is finished.

Re-Opening Inventory Periods

Once you have closed the inventory period one time, you cannot delete the inventory period. You can, however, re-open it, if you would like to allow posting before the ending date of the inventory period. Re-opening a period also re-opens all inventory periods with ending dates later than the period you re-open.

To re-open an inventory period, do the following:

  1. Open the Inventory Periods window, and select the inventory period you would like to re-open.

  2. Click Re-Open Period. The program asks if you are sure that you want to re-open the period.

  3. Click Yes to confirm that you want to re-open the inventory period, or click No to cancel the re-opening.

  4. The program re-opens all inventory periods with ending dates later than the period you selected and shows a confirmation message when it is finished.



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