Period management and locking

Period statuses

Every period moves through four statuses in a fixed lifecycle. The status governs what actions are available to users.

• OPEN: the period is active. Data imports, reconciliations, journal entries, and close tasks can all be worked. This is the primary working state. A period remains OPEN from the moment it is created until the close process formally begins.
• IN_CLOSE: the close window has started. All data is expected to be imported, and the team is working through the close checklist. The transition from OPEN to IN_CLOSE can be triggered manually or automatically based on the close window start date. Once IN_CLOSE, new data imports require explicit approval from a controller-level user to prevent late-arriving data from disrupting in-progress reconciliations.
• LOCKED: all entities are certified, and an administrator has locked the period. No modifications of any kind are permitted. Reconciliations, journal entries, task statuses, and certification records are all frozen. This is the state your auditors expect to find.
• ARCHIVED: the period is archived for long-term storage. Archived periods are read-only and are excluded from active filters and dashboards. Data is retained indefinitely but moved to cold storage for performance optimization.

Opening a new period

Opening a period is a deliberate action performed by a controller or administrator. Navigate to Close > Periods and click Open Period. You will configure:

Period details

• Period name: automatically suggested based on the fiscal calendar (e.g., “March 2026”, “Q1 2026”, “FY 2026”). Editable if your naming convention differs.
• Period type: MONTHLY, QUARTERLY, or ANNUAL. This determines which task templates are included based on their frequency settings.
• Start date and end date: the accounting period boundaries. For March 2026, this would be 2026-03-01 through 2026-03-31.
• Entities: which legal entities are included. For monthly closes, this is typically all active entities. For quarterly or annual closes, you may include consolidation entities that are excluded from monthly cycles.

Task generation

When you confirm the period opening, Arvexi runs the template deployment engine. This evaluates every active task template against the period type and entity list, generating the full close checklist. The process takes a few seconds for typical configurations (50-200 templates, 5-50 entities) and produces a summary showing how many tasks were created, broken down by type and entity.

Carry-forward data

Opening a new period automatically carries forward specific data from the prior period:

• Reconciliation formats: the format definitions (columns, validation rules, auto-reconciliation rules) carry forward unchanged. Account assignments persist.
• Prior period balances: closing balances from the prior period become opening balances in the new period. This establishes the baseline for variance analysis.
• Reconciling items: outstanding reconciling items (items that did not clear in the prior period) roll forward automatically. Each rolled item is flagged with its age so reviewers can track stale items.
• Cortex calibration data: confidence scoring adjustments and calibration corrections from the prior period carry forward, so Cortex starts the new period with the latest tuning.

The close window

The close window defines the calendar dates during which the close process runs. It is distinct from the accounting period dates. For example, the March 2026 accounting period ends on March 31, but the close window might run from April 1 through April 5.

Configuring close window dates

• Window start date: the date the close process begins. On this date (or when an administrator manually triggers it), the period status transitions from OPEN to IN_CLOSE.
• Window end date: the target date for completing all close tasks and certifications. This is a target, not a hard cutoff. Tasks remain workable past this date unless the period is locked.
• Hard close deadline: an optional absolute deadline. If set, Arvexi sends escalation notifications to controllers for any entities not yet certified as the deadline approaches (configurable: 24 hours, 8 hours, or 2 hours before).

Close window dates are used to calculate the day offsets for task due dates. A task with a day offset of 3 is due on the third business day after the window start date.

Locking a period

Locking is the definitive action that freezes a period. Only users with the Administrator or Controller role can lock a period. The lock action is available once every entity in the period reaches CERTIFIED status.

What locking prevents

• Posting, editing, or reversing journal entries for the locked period.
• Modifying reconciliation balances, matching, or variance explanations.
• Changing close task statuses or adding new tasks.
• Importing data with an effective date within the locked period.
• Resetting or modifying the certification chain.

The lock event is recorded in the audit log with the user, timestamp, and a confirmation hash of the period's state at the time of locking.

Unlocking a period

Unlocking is an exceptional action. It should be rare. The most common reason is a late-discovered error that requires a correcting journal entry in a prior period.

• Only users with the Administrator role can unlock. The Controller role alone is not sufficient.
• The administrator must provide a written reason for the unlock. This reason is permanently stored in the audit log.
• When a period is unlocked, its status reverts to IN_CLOSE (not OPEN). All entity certifications are reset to IN_PROGRESS, requiring re-certification after corrections are made.
• A notification is sent to all controllers and the CFO role (if configured) when a period is unlocked.

Partial unlock

Arvexi supports partial unlocks at the entity level. Instead of unlocking the entire period, an administrator can unlock a single entity within a locked period. Only that entity's reconciliations, journal entries, and tasks become editable. All other entities remain locked. The partial unlock also requires a documented reason.

Archiving a period

Archived periods are moved out of the active workspace. They remain fully queryable but are excluded from dashboards, dropdown filters, and the default period list. Archiving is a housekeeping action. It does not delete any data.

• Only LOCKED periods can be archived. You cannot archive an OPEN or IN_CLOSE period.
• Archived periods appear in a separate Archived Periods view, accessible from the period management page.
• An archived period can be unarchived if needed, returning it to the LOCKED state. Unarchiving does not unlock the period.
• Data retention: archived data is retained according to your organization's configured retention policy (default: indefinite). Arvexi does not automatically purge archived periods.

Period lifecycle summary

The complete lifecycle of a period follows this sequence:

1. Create and OPEN: administrator opens the period, configures entities and close window dates, and triggers task generation.
2. Data import and preparation: trial balances and subledger data are imported. Reconciliation formats populate with current-period balances.
3. Transition to IN_CLOSE: the close window starts. The team works through the checklist: reconcile accounts, post journal entries, run Cortex sweeps, resolve findings.
4. Certification: each entity moves through the certification workflow (submit, review, certify).
5. Lock: once all entities are certified, the administrator locks the period.
6. Archive: after the audit is complete and the period is no longer needed in the active workspace, the administrator archives it.

Calendar view and close tracking

The Close > Calendar view provides a visual timeline of all periods with their close windows, deadlines, and current status. Controllers use this view to:

• See which periods are currently in close and their progress percentages.
• Identify bottleneck entities that are behind schedule.
• Plan future close windows based on historical close duration data.
• Track close cycle time trends | Arvexi records the duration from IN_CLOSE to LOCKED for every period, building a historical baseline that helps you set realistic targets.

Best practices

• Open periods early: open the next period as soon as the prior one is locked. This allows data imports to begin accumulating before the close window starts.
• Keep only one period IN_CLOSE: having multiple periods in the IN_CLOSE state creates confusion about which period the team should focus on. If a prior period is still in close, resolve it before starting the next.
• Use the hard close deadline: setting a deadline creates accountability. The escalation notifications surface stalled entities before they become blockers.
• Archive quarterly: archive periods once the associated audit cycle is complete. Keeping years of periods in the active workspace slows down the UI and makes filters less useful.
• Document all unlocks: if you need to unlock a locked period, ensure the reason is thorough. Auditors review unlock events closely and expect clear justification.