> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Period Close Status > Current open accounting period and whether the close is on track, in progress, or overdue against the close calendar. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Card class:** [Hero](/nerve-centre/overview#card-classes-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) > Current open accounting period and whether the close is on track, in progress, or overdue against the close calendar. ## At a glance > The live status of the current accounting close: which period is open, how far through the close checklist it is, and whether it is on track, in progress, or overdue against the target close date. This is the executive at-a-glance answer to "are we closed yet, and if not, are we on schedule." Sage Intacct tracks each reporting period's open/closed state and the close action timestamp; the card reads the open period against the workspace close calendar and the gating tasks (reconciliations, sub-ledger close, eliminations) to render a single status the owner and CFO can read in two seconds. | | | | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | The current open period in Sage Intacct, its days-elapsed since period end against the target close date, and the state of the gating close tasks. Intacct's period management exposes the open/closed state per book and entity; the card overlays the workspace close calendar and the live reconciliation and sub-ledger signals to derive on-track / in-progress / overdue. | | **Threshold** | Default `overdue` alert when the open period is more than 5 days past its target close date. Configurable per workspace. Fast-close businesses tighten to 2-3 days; year-end closes are given a longer target. | | **Status states** | `On track` (within target, gating tasks progressing), `In progress` (close started, some tasks outstanding), `Overdue` (past target close date), `Closed` (period hard-locked). | | **Gating tasks** | Bank reconciliation, AR/AP sub-ledger close, inventory valuation, intercompany eliminations, accrual posting, VAT/tax provisioning. The card reflects which gates are still open. | | **Currency** | Not applicable. This is a status indicator, currency-independent. | | **Entity scope** | Card respects the dashboard entity filter. In Multi-Entity Console the consolidated close status is the headline; per-entity status is a drill. | | **Dimensional cut** | Drillable by entity and by book (primary vs tax vs budget book). | | **Time window** | `RT` live status of the current open period. | | **Alert trigger** | `overdue > 5 days`, sentiment `close_overdue`. Configurable per workspace. | | **Roles** | owner, finance | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Sage data by reading the current open period against the close calendar and the live state of the gating close tasks. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A UK omnichannel retailer on Sage Intacct, two entities (UK Retail Ltd in GBP, IE Retail Ltd in EUR), consolidated monthly. Annual revenue \~£18M across Shopify, a BigCommerce B2B portal, and physical stores. Target close is business day 6 (BD6). Snapshot taken 9 Jun 26, which is BD7 of the May 26 close. Default overdue alert at 5 days past target. | Gating task | State on 9 Jun 26 | Owner | Blocking? | | ----------------------------------- | ----------------------------- | ------------- | -------------------- | | Bank reconciliation (GBP) | Complete | Treasury | No | | Bank reconciliation (EUR) | Outstanding | Treasury | Yes | | AR sub-ledger close | Complete | AR clerk | No | | AP sub-ledger close | Complete | AP clerk | No | | Inventory valuation | Complete | Ops finance | No | | Intercompany eliminations | Outstanding | Group finance | Yes | | VAT provisioning | Not started | Tax | Pending eliminations | | **Period Close Status (this card)** | **Overdue (BD7, target BD6)** | | | Five things to notice: 1. **The status is Overdue and the card immediately tells you why, which is the whole point of a hero close card.** The May 26 close is at BD7 against a BD6 target, so it has slipped by one business day. A plain "overdue" flag would prompt a round of "what's holding it up" emails. This card already shows the two blocking gates: the EUR bank reconciliation and the intercompany eliminations. The CFO does not need to chase; the card has named the bottleneck and the owner. The fix is to get Treasury onto the EUR bank rec and group finance onto the eliminations, in that order, because VAT provisioning is itself waiting on the eliminations. 2. **The blocking chain matters more than the count of open tasks.** Three tasks are outstanding, but only two are actually blocking, and one of those (eliminations) is blocking a third (VAT provisioning). So the critical path is eliminations, not the longer list. Reading the dependency is what turns a status card from a scoreboard into an action tool. On this account the Controller reordered the day's work around clearing eliminations first, which unblocked VAT and let the close finish at BD8 rather than drifting to BD10. 3. **A one-day slip is not yet an alarm, and the card's threshold reflects that.** The default overdue alert fires at 5 days past target, not at the first day. This is deliberate: a close that runs a day or two long for an explainable reason (a late carrier invoice, a bank feed delay) is normal operational variance, not a crisis. The card shows the status honestly (Overdue at BD7) but does not escalate to an alert until the slip is material. A business that wants a tighter signal can lower the threshold; a business with a lumpy close can raise it. 4. **This card is the live companion to the trailing close-rate metric.** Where [Period Close On-Time Rate (12mo)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/period-close-on-time-rate-12mo) tells you how reliably you have closed on time over a year, this card tells you whether this close is about to add another miss to that record. Read together they let the CFO answer the board's two questions at once: "are we usually on time" and "are we on time right now." On this account the trailing rate was strong, so the one-day slip read as ordinary variance rather than a deteriorating trend, which is the reassuring interpretation and the correct one. 5. **The gating-task view connects the close to its upstream causes across other cards.** The outstanding EUR bank reconciliation links straight to [Days Since Last Bank Reconciliation](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/days-since-last-bank-reconciliation); the outstanding eliminations link to [Sage Intercompany Balance](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/sage-intercompany-balance); the pending VAT provisioning links to [Current VAT Return Status (MTD)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/current-vat-return-status-mtd). The status card is the hub; the gating cards are the spokes. A finance team that wires these together can move from "the close is late" to "the close is late because the EUR bank feed lagged two days and eliminations are queued behind it" without a single status meeting. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Period Close Status | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Period Close On-Time Rate (12mo)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/period-close-on-time-rate-12mo) | The trailing trend behind this live status; together they answer "usually" and "right now." | | [Days Since Last Bank Reconciliation](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/days-since-last-bank-reconciliation) | Unreconciled cash is the most common close blocker. | | [Transaction Imbalances](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/transaction-imbalances) | Imbalances must clear before the period can hard-close. | | [Sage Intercompany Balance](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/sage-intercompany-balance) | Out-of-balance intercompany blocks the consolidated close. | | [Accrual Reversals (last close)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/accrual-reversals-last-close) | A rushed overdue close tends to lean on plug accruals that later reverse. | | [Current VAT Return Status (MTD)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/current-vat-return-status-mtd) | VAT provisioning is a gating close task in the UK. | | [Smart Coding Queue Depth (24h)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/smart-coding-queue-depth-24h) | An uncoded transaction backlog stalls reconciliation and the close. | | [Sage Health Score](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/sage-health-score) | Close status feeds the overall GL health composite. | ## Reconciling against Sage **Where to look in Sage Intacct:** The native Sage Intacct views to run side by side with this card: > **General Ledger → Setup → Manage Reporting Periods** for the open/closed state of the current period per book and entity > **General Ledger → All → Close Checklist** (where configured) for the gating tasks and their completion state > **Cash Management → Reconciliation** for the live bank reconciliation status that gates the close > **Consolidation → Eliminations** for the intercompany elimination state that gates the consolidated close > **Reports → General Ledger → Trial Balance** as-of the open period to confirm it balances before the close action > **Interactive Custom Report (ICR)** on period state and elapsed-days-since-period-end against the configured target close date In Intacct the period's open/closed state is authoritative and timestamped, and the close checklist (where the team uses it) records each gating task. The card overlays the close calendar to derive on-track / overdue. For Multi-Entity Console accounts the consolidated close is the headline event; check Manage Reporting Periods at the consolidation level as well as per entity, because a subsidiary can be fully closed while the group close waits on eliminations. Common reconciliation pitfalls: * **Soft close shows "closed" internally but the GL is open**: a team that has soft-closed the sub-ledgers may consider the period done while Intacct still shows the GL open for adjustments. The card distinguishes the two; align the field map to whichever your team treats as "closed." * **Reopened periods read as open again**: a period reopened to post a late correction flips back to open and the card reflects that. If your governance treats the original close as final, expect a brief disagreement until the reopen is re-closed. * **Per-book divergence**: the tax book may still be open while the primary book is closed. The card reports the primary book by default; a tax-book reader sees a different status. **Why our number may legitimately differ from a Sage Intacct period view:** | Reason | Direction | Why | | ----------------------------- | --------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Soft vs hard close** | Either | Card reads the hard close (GL locked) by default; a soft-closed team considers the period done earlier. | | **Reopened period** | Either | A reopen flips the status back to open; the card reflects the live state, not the original close. | | **Book in scope** | Either | Tax and budget books close on their own cadence; card reports the primary book unless configured otherwise. | | **Target date definition** | Either | Business-day counting depends on the workspace holiday calendar; a mismatch shifts on-track / overdue by a day. | | **Entity scope** | Either | Card respects the dashboard entity filter; consolidated status can differ from any one entity's status. | | **Checklist coverage** | Either | If the close checklist is not configured in Intacct, the card infers gating state from live reconciliation and sub-ledger signals, which may differ from a manual checklist. | | **Mid-close snapshot timing** | Small | A snapshot taken mid-task may show a gate as outstanding that completes minutes later. | **Cross-connector reconciliation:** | Card | Expected relationship | What the comparison reveals | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Days Since Last Bank Reconciliation](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/days-since-last-bank-reconciliation) | Causal | A high day count is usually the gate holding the close open. | | [Sage Intercompany Balance](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/sage-intercompany-balance) | Causal | An out-of-balance intercompany position blocks the consolidated close. | | [Transaction Imbalances](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/transaction-imbalances) | Gating | Any non-zero imbalance must clear before the period can hard-close cleanly. | | [Revenue Gap vs Commerce](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/revenue-gap-vs-commerce) | Diagnostic | An unexplained gap between commerce and GL revenue often surfaces at close and stalls it. | | [Period Close On-Time Rate (12mo)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/sage/period-close-on-time-rate-12mo) | Trailing context | This live status either confirms or breaks the trailing on-time streak. | The cross-connector value is that a close is gated by signals living all over the stack: cash that has not been reconciled to the bank feed, an intercompany position that does not net to zero, a revenue gap between what Shopify and Amazon reported and what posted to the GL. This card is the single place a CFO can see the close status and click straight to the gate that is holding it up, which is the difference between a status meeting and a status card. ## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **What does "on track" actually mean?** The current period is within its target close date and the gating tasks are progressing at a normal pace. It is a forward-looking judgement, not just a date check: a close at BD3 with every reconciliation outstanding may still read as at-risk even though it is technically inside target. The card combines elapsed days with gating-task state to give an honest read. **Why is the period showing overdue when finance says it is closed?** Almost always a soft-vs-hard-close difference. If the team has soft-closed the sub-ledgers but the GL is still open in Intacct for adjustments, the card reads it as still open. Align the field map to whichever state your team treats as "closed," or hard-close the period once adjustments are done. **Can a period show open after we closed it?** Yes, if it was reopened to post a correction. Reopening flips the period back to open and the card reflects the live state. A high reopen rate is itself a signal worth tracking, because it usually means the original close was premature. **How does the card know which tasks are blocking?** Where the Intacct close checklist is configured, the card reads it directly. Where it is not, the card infers gating state from live signals: the bank reconciliation status, the sub-ledger close state, the intercompany balance, and pending VAT provisioning. The inferred view is good but a configured checklist is more precise. **Does year-end close get treated differently?** It should. Year-end carries audit prep and statutory work, so it deserves a longer target close date. Set the year-end target in the workspace calendar so the card does not flag a normal year-end close as overdue. With a single all-periods target, expect year-end to read overdue most years. **What is the right overdue threshold?** The default alert is 5 days past target, which tolerates ordinary variance while catching a genuinely stuck close. Fast-close businesses tighten to 2-3 days; businesses with a lumpy or seasonal close raise it. The status itself (on track / in progress / overdue) updates continuously regardless of the alert threshold. **Sage Intacct vs Sage 50 / 200 on close status?** Intacct's period state and close checklist are first-class, timestamped objects, which makes this card precise and live. Sage 50 and Sage 200 manage period close differently and expose less granular state, so the equivalent on those products relies on different signals. This connector targets Intacct; reach out about availability elsewhere. **How does multi-entity affect the headline status?** The consolidated close is the headline. A subsidiary can be fully closed while the group close waits on intercompany eliminations or a late-reporting entity, so the group status can read overdue when every entity looks done. The card shows the consolidated status with per-entity drill so you can find the laggard. **How fresh is the status?** It is a real-time read of the open period and the live gating signals, refreshed at typical Intacct cadence (around 5 to 15 minutes). Because gating tasks complete throughout the day, the status can move several times during an active close, which is exactly what you want from a live card. **Should the alert page the CFO?** That is a workflow choice. Most teams route the overdue alert to the Controller, who owns the close, and surface the status card on the executive dashboard for the CFO. Paging the CFO on every one-day slip creates noise; the 5-day default threshold is set so that an escalation means something. **Implementation Partner role on this metric?** The Partner usually configures the close checklist, the target close-date policy, and the reconciliation gates. If this card disagrees with the Partner's view of close status, the cause is almost always a soft-vs-hard-close definition, an unconfigured checklist, or a business-day calendar mismatch. Align all three in the Vortex IQ field map and involve the Partner early. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Period Close Status* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Sage and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.