Appendix A – Accounting Date Concepts

Accounting Date

Accounting date is applicable to all journals entered directly in the General Ledger, budget journals entered to the Commitment Control ledger and transactions entered in the source modules. The accounting date determines the operational accounting period to which the transaction will be posted.

The accounting date is represented by the following fields:

• GL Journal Date within the General Ledger

GL Journal Date within the General Ledger

• Budget Journal Date within Commitment Control

Budget Journal Date within Commitment Control

• Accounting Date within the source modules - AP/AR/AM

Accounting Date within the AP Module

Accounting Period

The accounting period within Florida PALM indicates the specific timeframe the transaction is recorded, posted and stored. The periods are defined by the accounting calendars. There are three different types of accounting periods within Florida PALM:

• System Driven (0 & 999)
  • Period 0 is the automated opening period for the new fiscal year. Beginning balances for all real accounts are posted here to start the new fiscal year.
  • Period 999 represents the end of the fiscal year finalized balances. These balances are automatically updated during the closing process. The balances from all periods are summarized and closed into this period.
  • Only used by the General Ledger.
  • These periods are not visible or selectable by a user.
• Operational Accounting Period (1-12)
  • Operational accounting periods represent one-month timeframes within the fiscal year. For the State of Florida our period 1 represents the month of July, period 2 represents the month of August, etc.

 Adjustment Period (998)

• The adjustment period represents a designated timeframe that is available to perform balance adjustments that should not be reflected in the current transactional period.
• Only used by the General Ledger.
• Enterprise controls the opening and close of this period.

 Adjustment Period (997)

• The adjustment period represents a designated timeframe that is available to perform balance adjustments that should not be reflected in an agency’s current transactional period or the adjustment period 998.
• Only used by the General Ledger.
• Enterprise controls the opening and close of this period.
• Only used by DFS

Accounting Calendar:

• The accounting calendar is a system configuration which defines the operational accounting periods for each fiscal year (FY). 
• Represents the State of Florida FY that runs from July 1 through June 30 i.e., appropriations year.
• Controlled at an enterprise level by DFS.

GL Accounting Calendar with Define Periods