Lesson 2 of 5
Planning a mock close
12 min
Listen to this lesson
A mock close runs the real close calendar in a test system, with real close owners, on a period that contains enough realistic transactions. It is a rehearsal for the business and a test of the system at the same time. Plan it like a small project: calendar, owners, data, expected results and evidence.
Choose the period and the data
Close programs run on posting dates and periods, so pick a period in QAS that you can fill and close completely. Many projects use the current or a recent calendar month in QAS so that system dates and posting dates line up. Load or create enough transactions to exercise every close task: sales and purchases for plants 1710 and 1720, a receivable in a foreign currency, open purchase orders with goods received but not invoiced, new and retired assets, internal orders with costs to settle, and at least one intercompany flow if your scope has one.
Build the close calendar
- Day -2PrepareOpen next period for operations; confirm exchange rates for the key date are loaded
- Day 0CutoffLast goods movements, billing and supplier invoices; close operational posting for the period
- Day +1SubledgersDepreciation run; GR/IR review; inventory checks; post accruals
- Day +2ControllingAllocations, then settlements of orders and projects
- Day +3Valuation and reclassForeign currency valuation; GR/IR and receivables/payables regrouping for the balance sheet
- Day +4Reconcile and reportSubledger to G/L checks, trial balance, balance sheet and P&L reviewed
- Day +5LockClose the period for all account types; sign off
| Task | SAP GUI / Fiori | Owner | Depends on | Expected result to check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open and close posting periods | OB52 / Manage Posting Periods | GL accountant | Close calendar | Only intended periods open per account type |
| Depreciation run | AFAB / its Fiori job equivalent | Asset accountant | Assets capitalized | Planned depreciation posted for every active asset |
| Settlement of orders | KO88 (single) or collective settlement | Cost accountant | Costs and allocations posted | Order balances zero; costs on receivers |
| Foreign currency valuation | FAGL_FCV / Foreign Currency Valuation job | GL accountant | Open items final; rates loaded | Unrealized gains and losses on the right accounts |
| Balance carryforward (year end) | FAGLGVTR / its Fiori job equivalent | GL accountant | Year closed | Balance sheet accounts carried forward; P&L to retained earnings |
Part of the task list. App and job names vary by release; check your system's app library.
Orchestration and evidence
SAP provides tools to schedule and track close tasks, such as the Financial Closing cockpit in SAP S/4HANA and, as a cloud service, SAP S/4HANA Cloud for advanced financial closing. If Contoso will use one of these in production, use it in the mock close too: the task list itself, its dependencies and its job variants are part of what you are testing. If close is run from a spreadsheet checklist, test that checklist with the real owners.
Plan for failures inside the mock close as well. When a task fails, the close team needs to know whether to fix and rerun, reverse and rerun, or continue and correct later, and those decisions change the numbers. Record every rerun and reversal. A mock close that ends with correct statements but needed three undocumented reruns of valuation has found a process risk, even if the final numbers are right.
- Did the task fail before posting anything?Yes → fix the cause and rerun · No → go to the next question
- Did it post wrong values that can be reversed cleanly?Yes → reverse, fix and rerun · No → continue and correct later with a documented adjustment
- Was the rerun or reversal recorded with reason and owner?Yes → continue the calendar · No → record it now; undocumented reruns are a process risk
Interfaces and cutoff
Close depends on everything arriving before cutoff: supplier invoices through the inbound interface, bank statements, payroll postings from an external payroll provider, and any subledger feeds. Include those interfaces in the mock close, with realistic timing. If the payroll posting normally arrives on day +1, the mock close calendar should show it, and the accrual and reporting steps should run after it.
For each task record: who ran it, when, with which parameters, the job log or output, and the check against the expected result. Write expected results before the mock close, from your test data. For example: "Depreciation for asset class machinery in plant 1720 totals 4,250.00 USD for the period" is checkable; "depreciation runs" is not.
- Mock close 1Find defectsExposes configuration gaps, missing steps and wrong expected results
- Fix windowCorrect and retestDefects fixed; calendar, owners and job variants updated
- Mock close 2Prove the sequenceCalendar runs in order with real owners; close team gains practice
- Dress rehearsalMock close 3Runs within the final rehearsal before go-live, starting from migrated data
What would you do?
On day +2 of Contoso's mock close, the cost accountant asks to run settlements before the overhead allocations because the allocation cycle has an error. What should Priya advise?
- Choose a period in QAS you can fill and close completely, with data that exercises every close task.
- Build a close calendar with tasks, owners, dependencies and expected results written beforehand.
- Use the same orchestration tool or checklist that production will use.
- Run the mock close at least twice: once to find defects, once to prove the sequence.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Which task should run before settlement of orders?
2. What must be in place before foreign currency valuation runs?
3. Which is a checkable expected result for the depreciation run?
4. Why run more than one mock close?