home

Accounts Receivable

Zuora BillingZuora PaymentsZuora PlatformZuora CPQZephrZuora RevenueAccounts ReceivableRelease NotesBasicsEntitlementsSupport and policies
Zuora BillingZuora PaymentsZuora PlatformZuora CPQZephrZuora RevenueAccounts ReceivableRelease NotesBasicsEntitlementsSupport and policies

Welcome to Zuora Product Documentation

Explore our rich library of product information

Show Contents

thumbnailAccounts Receivable

Set up accounting periods

Create your first accounting period

Learn how to create an accounting period

When you create your first accounting period, Zuora checks to be sure that no transactions exist before the start of the accounting period (which you specify in the From field).

This check helps you clean up your data. You might discover that you have subscriptions dated really early on, these might be subscriptions that you created as tests. In that case, you should delete those subscriptions if they are just test data. If there is a legitimate reason why you want to keep those subscriptions, you can always create a first accounting period that happens before that date. Zuora gives you the ability to create arbitrary-sized accounting periods, so you can create a big, two-year accounting period to accommodate those subscriptions and other transactions.

Perform these steps to create an accounting period.

  1. Navigate to Finance > Accounting Periods.
  2. In the upper-right corner of the page, click the new accounting period button to start.
  3. Enter a Name for the accounting period. Use a meaningful name that allows you to quickly identify the accounting period.
  4. The From date, which is the starting date of the accounting period, is set automatically based on the last day of the previous accounting period. The From date will be the day after the previous accounting period's To date.
  5. Select a To date for this accounting period. This is the ending date of the accounting period.
  6. Specify the Fiscal Year . For many companies, the fiscal year is the same as the calendar year. For other companies, they are offset by some amount. For example, if the fiscal year is offset by a month, then February 2019 through January 2020 is fiscal year 2020, and February 2020 through January 2021 is fiscal year 2021.
  7. (Optional) Specify the Fiscal Quarter . This field specifies one of the four three-month periods that make up the fiscal year. Supported values are: 1, 2, 3, and 4.
  8. (Optional) Specify a note in Notes . The notes are visible only when viewing the detail view of the accounting period.
  9. Click create accounting period to create it.
    Note:

    Once you create an accounting period, you can move revenue out of the Open-Ended accounting period into the accounting period you just created. See Distribute Revenue from the Open-Ended Accounting Period into Newly-Created Accounting Periods for more information.

    To know how to view, edit, or delete accounting periods, refer to View, edit, or delete accounting periods.

Last updated: November 13, 2025