---
title: "Fiscal Year"
space: "ERPNext"
url: "https://www.prilk.com/docs/erpnext/fiscal-year"
updated: "2026-05-14"
---

## Fiscal Year

A Fiscal Year is the 12-month period your books cover. Most Dutch businesses use calendar year (1 Jan – 31 Dec), but you can configure any 12-month period.

### Where to set it

**Fiscal Year → [year]** (e.g., "2026") — set during Setup Wizard, edited later from this record.

| Field | What |
|---|---|
| **Year** | The label (free text: "2026", "FY 2025-2026", "2026 (1 Jan – 31 Dec)") |
| **Year Start Date** | First day of the period |
| **Year End Date** | Last day |
| **Companies** | Which Companies use this Fiscal Year (one Fiscal Year can serve multiple Companies if same dates) |

### Adding next year's Fiscal Year

Before the new year starts, create the next Fiscal Year:

1. **Fiscal Year → New**
2. Year label, Start Date (e.g., 2027-01-01), End Date (2027-12-31)
3. Save

Now ERPNext can post transactions to that year.

### What the Fiscal Year drives

- **Reports** — default date ranges on P&L and Balance Sheet
- **Period Closing** — the year-end procedure operates on this
- **Document numbering** — Naming Series can include `.fy.` for fiscal-year codes (e.g., `INV-.fy.-####` → `INV-2526-0001`)

### Year-end closing

At the end of each Fiscal Year:

1. Reconcile all bank accounts
2. Run the VAT Return for Q4
3. Verify P&L and Balance Sheet match expectations
4. Run **Period Closing Voucher**:
   - **Posting Date** — last day of the year
   - **Closing Account Head** — Retained Earnings (or your equivalent)
   - Submit
5. This zeros out Income and Expense accounts and transfers the net to Retained Earnings

After closing, you can still **view** old data but generally shouldn't **post** to closed periods. ERPNext can be configured to block backdated postings via **Accounts Settings → Period Closing Voucher Restrict**.

### Tax-period closing vs fiscal-year closing

These are different:
- **VAT Return** quarterly — see [VAT Return](/docs/erpnext/vat-return)
- **Fiscal Year closing** annually — this page

Both happen, on different schedules.

### Mid-year changes

You can switch to a different Fiscal Year structure (e.g., April–March), but it's invasive — talk to your accountant. The cleanest path:

1. Close current Fiscal Year early at month-end with Period Closing
2. Set up the new Fiscal Year starting next day
3. Going forward, everything uses new structure

### Multiple Fiscal Years open

ERPNext supports multiple Fiscal Years simultaneously. Typical scenario:
- Current year (2026) — open, posting
- Next year (2027) — open, allows post-dated transactions and Sales Orders with delivery in 2027
- Previous year (2025) — technically open until you close it; in practice, no new postings

### Common situations

- **Forgot to create next year before Jan 1** — create now; backdate any January transactions
- **Year-end audit adjustments** — your accountant gives you journal entries to post on Dec 31; post in the open period before running Period Closing
- **Restating prior year** — generally don't reopen a closed Fiscal Year; instead, post correction entries in the current year with notes