Period Close
When you've finished the books for a month or a quarter — reconciled the bank, posted closing adjustments, signed off on the P&L — you can lock the period so nothing changes underneath you afterward.
Locking a Period
Go to Settings → Period Close (admin only). Pick the locked-through date. Anything dated on or before that date is now frozen.
Locks are forward-rolling. To lock April once you're done, set the date to April 30. To then lock May once it's reconciled, advance the date to May 31. You don't lock individual periods — there's one company-wide "locked through" date that moves forward over time.
What's Blocked
While a period is locked, the following are refused (HTTP 423) for any date inside the locked range:
- Transactions — insert, edit, delete.
- Transfers — insert, edit, delete.
- Journal entries — insert, edit, delete.
- Bills — insert, edit, delete.
- Bill payments — insert, edit, delete.
- Invoices — issue/edit/delete (drafts are still allowed; only non-draft activity is restricted).
You can still create new activity dated after the locked-through date. The lock only blocks changes to history.
Unlocking
If you genuinely need to amend a locked period — say, a missed expense came in late and your CPA approved restating — an admin can unlock. The unlock form requires you to fill in notes explaining why. The notes go into the audit trail (period_lock_history) along with who unlocked it and when. Make the change, then re-lock by setting the date back to where it was.
The notes requirement is intentional. The point of locking isn't to make it impossible to change history — it's to make any change to history visible and accountable.
What's next
Audit Trail — where unlock events land.