Question for the finance experts of Aspire users! We have been closing the month in Aspire for roughly a year and a half, and do it by the second Friday of the following month. We’ve not yet had to ever reopen a month for any reason, but I do recall during implementation it was stressed to us that’s it’s not a good idea because things can get messy very quickly. I also read somewhere that if I have to reopen a closed month that’s several months ago, all the months after that have to be re-closed (or something to that nature; can’t remember the exact verbiage).
So, my question is- what are all of the reasons why people avoid reopening closed months? What risks and/or challenges does it pose? Is it time consuming? Does the benefit of being able to make corrections in previous months outweigh the risk/challenges from reopening a closed period?
Re-Open Closed Month
+16The mechanics in Aspire close the system from beginning of time through the last selected close date. Opening a previous period then requires you select the last day of the month prior to the period you wish to “Open”. this allows for edits to be made in the system from the “last closed date” forward in time. For Example, I want to open May of 2026 to make a correction. You would go to the EOM report select the 3 dot menu, select close month and change the date to April 30, 2026. This would open the system from May 1st through today. This represents the biggest risk, when the period(s) are open a ny user could take an action on a ticket, PR, Inv, etc with a previous period date making a cost and/or revenue impact on a previously reconciled and closed period.
If you are going to open a period to make corrections I always recommend (and have personally) do so outside normal business hours and request the team to refrain from working in the system during the time it is open.
THe lessor possible risk is that in the process of Open and then reclose one or more of the math equations run by the system upon close could create a data error. I have never seen it happen but it was always represented to me as a possible concern.
Hope this helps. let me know if you’d like to discuss further,
The only other best practice I’ll add is to open and/or close one month at a time. This was the advice I got from Aspire...back in 2018. So if you’ve closed all months through July 2026 at this point and need to make a revision to May 2026, then you’ll want to open July, then open June, then open May. It's a three-step process. You don’t want to just open back up to May in one fell swoop. Same with closing each month back up...do it one month at a time (versus three months all at once). I hope this makes sense!
+16We open when we need to make a small correction but then close the month right away.
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