I don't understand the confusion relating to the request.

Ideally one should be able to do this: -

Company 1 Created and registered with an accounting period which ends on 5th April
Files created in GnuCash for company 1 with absolute accounting period for this period.

Later, Company 2 Created and registered with a different accounting period.which ends in say October. Files created for company 2 with new accounting period.

This is a real world scenario.

You should be able to open each set of files with its associated accounting period intact but this is not the case. It would appear that the accounting period is not saved with or associated with the account files. It is instead a universal application setting.

I think this suggestion needs to be described a bit better (Fred) because this is (to my opinion, and to the opinion of many many GnuCash users) actually what is most critically missing in GnuCash: management of accounting for several companies.

Right now, it it not possible to create consolidated views because of the way the account hierarchy is organized. It should be possible to create "root" accounts for that purpose:

Company A
---Assets
---Equity
---Liabilities
---Expenses
---Incomes
Company B
---Assets
---Equity
---Liabilities
---Expenses
---Incomes

Etc....

Let me offer an expansion of Rolf's version of this suggestion: the user creates a single chart of accounts, but for each transaction, create an additional column of data: the company.

Then, for reports, have a check box which presents: a) all transactions, b) only transactions for company 'n'. For example, if the user creates 2 companies, three reports are possible, "Company 1", "Company 2", and a consolidated report.

Post a transaction which impacts retained earnings?: the company column value would carry into the RE account. Similarly, for other events, like closing periods and etc.

Create a check box in the settings to allow for multiple companies. Create a dbf table for the companies with the company number, 'n', associated with it.

Create a menu item, enabled when there are multiple companies, that either allows entries for all companies (user manually inputs the company 'n') or forces all entries to be within some fixed 'n'. If multiple companies allowed, place menu setting in the title bar - ie, "Company N" or "All Companies" in addition to whatever else is there.

For reports and etc., if multiple companies are set, either say ALL COMPANIES at the top, or COMPANY N.

For reports, if ALL COMPANIES, either consolidate values for all companies for each account, or print segregated lines for each company. If printing segregated lines for each company, choose to print or not print an account total for all companies.

In chart of accounts, create settings on each account's definition which are available (or is used) if there are multiple companies: a) print account as consolidated or list out individual company's values; b) if listing individual companies alsoprint account total also on additional line

[[ Should this be offered up as a separate suggestion? ]]

I'd take this one step further: be able to associate accounts/sub-accounts trees with different income statements and balance sheets, or even be able to create a basic type of consolidated account for sub-entities!

Example:
you need to operate rental properties as individual businesses for tax purposes and reporting, but would like to consolidate them into your personal finances. Recreating things in seems unnecessary work.

I keep the accounts for 2 small businesses and 2 clubs. They are unrelated and each with their own accounting period. The setting Edit>preferences>Accounting Period seems to be program wide and not account specific. This means I either have to change it every time I wish generate reports or manually set the dates. This is a *real pain* and if I am not careful I end up with a report for business 1 using club 2's dates!
Please implement this so that the Accounting Period relates to the account and not the program.

Fully agree with AAA.

What the requester wants, is something common for a holding company with multiple affiliate companies..that is each company can have a differing year end date. That is especially important for corporate entities, that tend not to be accounting on a cash basis,but as accural basis enterprises, and depending on the need, may have different year end dates......

Here is a real life example. A family owned (client) business is actually a holding compay that has a number of related businesses. One subsidiary corporate entity as a retail clothing chain. As with many retailers, the year end is 1/31. But another subsidiary corporate entity is a real estate holding company that owns the actual buildings the stores are located in....for operational reasons, the year end of that company is 6/30. Finally the parent Company year end is 12/31. The requester wants th software to e able to handle that architecture.

I don't understand this topic. Can you please elaborate what you expect to change?

You should elaborate a bit.
I use different gnucash files/directories to account different companies. Each can have their own accounting period.

How does this not cover your need? (maybe you should explain more)