Lock a period

Locking a period freezes your books up to a date so nothing changes after you've finalized it:

1. Go to Ledger › Accounting › Period Lock.
2. Set the Lock through date and click Lock period.

From then on, any entry dated on or before that date is frozen: manual journal entries, bills, bank matches, opening balances, and year-end adjustments all respect it. Dates after the lock stay open for posting.

A late document that belongs inside a locked period can still be recorded as an exception: HQ asks why, and the entry keeps your reason. Cancelling, reinstating and opening balances are never let through that way.

The lock date can be today or earlier, never a later date: a period is locked once it has closed. A lock set to a later date before this rule stays as it was.

When you pick a lock date, HQ lists any foreign purchases dated on or before it (a receipt by the day it was paid) that were paid on someone's own card and still have no card charge entered. You can lock anyway; a card charge entered later is recorded on the first open day after the lock.

A store sale is dated the day the order was placed. So an order placed in a locked month and paid after it (a wholesale order on terms, say) can't be booked: HQ won't post into the locked period. Your books' health check raises a card for these orders, with how many, how much money and how much sales tax. To book them, move the Lock through date before the earliest one (or remove the lock); HQ books them on its next store sync, and you can lock again afterwards. If you already filed the sales-tax return for that period, ask your accountant first, because these sales add tax to a return you filed.

HQ also lists the store and processor payouts covering a day on or before the lock date that are not in your books yet, and says which are PayPal days waiting, at most three days, for your store orders' PayPal payment ids. You can lock anyway. A PayPal day dated inside the lock is recorded on the first open day after it, so its sales and sales tax land in the next period; any other payout dated inside the lock stays out of your books until you move the lock.

There's one lock date; changing the date moves it (there's no way to lock separate windows). Closing a month from the Ledger dashboard's month checklist moves this same lock to that month's last day, so moving the date back here reopens those months. To reopen, use Remove lock (unlock all dates). The business owner or a bookkeeper with full access can lock and unlock; view- and edit-only bookkeepers can't.