Financial Periods

Financial periods are your accounting months. Every document lands in one of them, decided by its date. Closing a period is how you stop anyone changing figures you have already reported.

Why they matter

Once you have reported a month — to your accountant, to the tax authority, to your board — those figures need to stay put. Closing the period enforces that: the system then refuses any change to any document that touches it, rather than trusting everyone to remember.

A standard set of periods is created for you when your workspace is set up, based on the financial year end you chose. Most businesses never need to add one by hand.

Add a period

1. Open System Manager›Financial Period and click Add.

2. Type a Name you will recognise in a list, such as Jan 2027.

3. Set the start and end dates. They must not overlap an existing period.

4. Click Save.

Close a month

1. Finish everything that belongs in the month — all bills recorded, all payments entered.

2. Check your figures. GL Reports›Trial Balance and GL Reports›Profit & Loss are the usual pair.

3. Open System Manager›Financial Period.

4. Use the … menu at the end of the row and choose Lock.

The period now shows as locked, and nothing dated inside it can be created, changed or deleted.

Your accounting months. The lock on a row is what stops the past changing. Close a month only when you are genuinely finished with it. Reopening is easy, but every reopen is a moment where reported figures can change underneath someone — which is the thing closing exists to prevent.

Reopen a month

1. Open System Manager›Financial Period.

2. Use the … menu on the locked row and choose Unlock again.

3. Make the correction you needed.

4. Close the period again straight away, so it does not sit open by accident.

Delete a period

1. Open System Manager›Financial Period.

2. Use the … menu at the end of the row, choose to delete, and confirm.

A period with documents dated inside it should not be deleted — those documents would have nowhere to belong. Only remove a period you created by mistake and never used.

What can stop you

• If you see INV-0020This document has a posting dated :date, which falls in a locked financial period. Unlock that period before changing or deleting the document. while working on a document, its date falls in a closed period. Change the date, or reopen that period.

• ★ The check covers every figure the document produced, not just its own date. A currency difference recorded in a later month is enough to block a change, which is why the message names a date you may not expect.

• If you cannot create a period, its dates overlap one that already exists. Check the list for a gap.

• If Lock is missing, your role does not include managing periods. See Inviting your team.

• If a document is still blocked after you reopen the period, a tax return covering the same dates has been filed. That is a separate lock — see Why can't I edit or delete this?