Any transaction in Oracle can be posted to the General Ledger only if the periods are open. Periods in Oracle have five status tags. Depending upon the status tag of the period, you can enter / post a journal in GL. These five status tags for periods in Oracle are: Never Opened, Future Enterable, Open, Closed and Permanantly Closed. Let me take you through each of these period status tags.

1. Never Opened - If a period is 'Never Opened', journals cannot be entered.

2. Future Enterable - In case of 'Future Enterable', journals can be entered, but same cannot be posted. In the Oracle Set of Books you can define number of Future Enterable periods.

3. Open - With this tag, journals can be entered or posted in Oracle GL. Period opening can be done using the Open and Close periods window.

4. Closed - In case of this tag, journals can neither be entered or posted. A period has to be opened for transactions to be entered and posted in GL.

5. Permanantly Closed - Once a period is permanantly closed, it can never be re-opened. This is normally done for periods for past 4-5 years. My advice is unless you are absolutely sure, do not permanantly close your periods.

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