How to close GL period but allow AP manager to make payments.

My users are closing the GL Period 5 days before the calendar month end to stop the numbers changing in a given period. This presents a problem when it comes to payments as the first payment date that can be set after period closure is the fist day of the following period. So the question is how do we allow the AP team to make payments for the last 5 days of the month but have the GL postings going to the following month (they can accrue on the balance sheet to cover the bank to GL reconciliation)?