8.3 The Payables Period Close Process: Unaccounted Transactions, Sweep and Close Exceptions

The published objective for this domain is Understand the Accounts Payable Analysis, Reporting, and Period Close process. This section covers the close. Section 8.5 covers analysis and reporting, and section 8.2 covers reconciliation.

Oracle's close checklist

Oracle's guidance: you can close an Oracle Fusion Payables period after accounting entries are created for period transactions and you transferred the accounting entries to general ledger. The recommended activities are:

1. Complete and approve all transactions and payment files.
   • Run Import Payables Invoices, review the import corrections spreadsheet for rejections, and resubmit.
   • Approve unapproved invoices if approval is enabled. Your invoice options may require validation or accounting first.
   • Resolve holds and validate invoices.
   • Optionally submit a payment process request, then complete all payment files.
   • Submit the invoice and payment registers.
   • Run Update Matured Bills Payable Status.
   • Run Apply Missing Conversion Rates.
2. Reconcile payments to bank statement activity in Cash Management. Make sure payments are cleared if you account for payments at clearing.
3. Transfer all approved invoices and payments to the general ledger.
   • Run Create Accounting with Transfer to General Ledger set to Yes.
   • Run Post Journal Entries to General Ledger to transfer anything already accounted in Final mode but not yet transferred.
   • Review the output of both processes.
4. Submit the Unaccounted Transactions and Sweep process to move unaccounted transactions to another period, if your accounting practices allow it.
5. Close the current Payables period and review the Payables Period Close Exceptions Report.
6. Reconcile Payables activity using:
   • Payables Trial Balance
   • Payables Posted Invoice Register
   • Payables Posted Payment Register
   • Payables to Ledger Reconciliation (section 8.2)
   • Payables Open Items Revaluation
7. Open the next Payables period, run interface processes and run reports.
   • Interfaces include Create Mass Additions for Assets and Transfer Costs to Cost Management.
   • Run the tax and withholding reports: Tax Reconciliation by Taxable Account, Tax Audit Trial, Use Tax Liability, Financial Tax Register, Payables Tax by Ledger Extract, the withholding tax reports and letter.
   • Run the Key Indicators report.

The Payables Unaccounted Transactions and Sweep Report

This Oracle Analytics Publisher report has two jobs:

• Identify all unaccounted invoices and payments and the reasons they can't be accounted.
• Optionally sweep them to another period.

Before running it, validate invoices and create accounting, so the report shows only the real problems.

The report sections are Unaccounted Invoices and Unaccounted Payments, each with the exception reason. The invoice section shows the PO number when there are matching holds. It also lists incomplete Supplier Portal invoices the supplier hasn't submitted yet.

What the sweep does and doesn't do

• It changes accounting dates on unaccounted transactions so the current period can close. Oracle's example: invoices whose holds can't be resolved before close.
• It doesn't roll forward accounted transactions, or accounted transactions with errors. For those, correct the accounting error and run Create Accounting again.
• It doesn't release holds or validate anything. The transactions arrive in the new period still needing the same work.

Sweep or resolve?

Sweeping is an accounting-policy decision. Oracle says to sweep "if your accounting practices permit it". A practical policy:

• Resolve before close: material items, items with expiring discounts, and fixable accounting errors such as an end-dated account.
• Sweep: genuinely blocked items, such as invoices waiting for a disputed price correction.

The Payables Period Close Exceptions Report

The Payables Period Close process generates this report automatically. You can also run it yourself with Ledger, a date range and Period Name. It has three sections: Summary (exceptions per business unit, with whether you can access each), Details, and Corrective actions. The exception types are:

• unaccounted invoices;
• unaccounted payment activity;
• bills payable requiring the maturity event and accounting;
• incomplete payment process requests;
• open intercompany transactions;
• unsubmitted and incomplete Supplier Portal invoices;
• other exceptions.

The report also offers to sweep transactions to the next period. Your business unit access affects whether you can close the period or resolve its exceptions, so a user without access to one business unit in the ledger can't clear that unit's exceptions.

Supplier Portal invoices that block the close

Suppliers sometimes leave invoices unsubmitted or incomplete in Supplier Portal. Users with Cancel Payables Invoice (AP_CANCEL_PAYABLES_INVOICE_PRIV), typically AP managers and supervisors, can cancel them without contacting the supplier. Find them on Manage Invoices, the Period Close Exceptions Report, or the Unaccounted Transactions and Sweep Report.

Subledger-wide view

The Payables reports are specific to Payables. Before closing General Ledger, controllers also check that no subledger has unprocessed or untransferred accounting events, usually with a subledger period close exceptions report and the Create Accounting output.