Manage accounting periods
Accounting periods are monthly windows within your financial year. Locking a period prevents anyone from posting or changing transactions dated within it, which is how you protect finalised numbers after month-end close. This article covers viewing, creating, locking, and unlocking periods.
Before you begin
Accounting periods are only available after accrual accounting is enabled for the company. To open the Accounting Periods page:
Go to Settings from the main menu.
Under Accounting, click Accounting Settings.
On the Accrual Accounting Settings page, click Manage Periods on the Accounting Periods card.
View your accounting periods
The Accounting Periods page shows one row per period for the selected financial year. Use the Financial Year dropdown at the top to switch between years, and the All, Open, and Locked tabs to filter by status.
Each row shows:
Period — the period name (for example, October 2026)
Start Date and End Date — the date range covered by the period
Status — Open or Locked
Locked By and Locked Date — who locked the period and when (blank for open periods)
Actions — Lock Period, Unlock Period, and history icon depending on the period's status and position
Create periods for a new financial year
Periods are created automatically the first time you set up accrual accounting. When your next financial year approaches, create the periods for it in advance so users can post future-dated transactions.
On the Accounting Periods page, click + Create Periods at the top right.
Review the preview showing all 12 monthly periods for the upcoming financial year.
Click Create 12 Periods to confirm.
All periods are created with Open status and cover a single calendar month each. Once created, you can view them from the Financial Year dropdown.
Lock a period
Lock a period after month-end close is complete so no one can accidentally change finalised data. Periods must be locked in order — the Lock Period button only appears on the earliest open period. To lock a later period, lock the earlier ones first.
Find the period you want to lock in the table.
Click Lock Period in the Actions column.
Enter a reason in the Reason for locking field — for example, "Month-end close completed, all reconciliations finalised". A reason is required and is recorded in the audit log.
Click Lock period to confirm.
Once locked, the period's status changes to Locked, the Locked By and Locked Date columns are filled in, and no user can post or edit transactions dated within the period.
Unlock a period
Unlock a period only when you need to make a correction to finalised data — for example, when a misposted transaction is discovered. Unlocking may affect reports and reconciliations already completed for the period.
Periods must be unlocked in reverse order — the Unlock Period button only appears on the most recently locked period. To unlock an earlier period, unlock the later ones first.
Find the period you want to unlock in the table.
Click Unlock Period in the Actions column.
Enter a reason in the Reason for unlocking field — for example, "Correction needed for misposted transaction". A reason is required.
Tick I understand that unlocking this period will allow changes to finalised data.
Click Unlock period to confirm.
Once unlocked, the period returns to Open status and transactions can be posted or edited again. Post any corrections, then re-lock the period.
View period history
The audit log records every lock, unlock, and creation event for a period, along with who did it and why.
Click the history icon in the Actions column for any period.
A side panel opens showing every event for that period in reverse chronological order — the most recent event at the top.
Use Filter by event to narrow the log to specific event types.
Each event shows the action, timestamp, the user who performed it, and (for lock and unlock actions) the reason they entered.
