Locked Periods prevent changes in your historical books. This is a common safety measure to prevent unwanted updates (by you, your bookkeeper — or occasionally — software updates).
We recommend locking your completed financials as soon as you have completed your monthly checklist.
How to set locked periods
You can lock (and unlock) periods from the "Locked Period" tab of the "Accounting" section.
Go to Accounting and choose Locked Periods.
Select the more recent month you wish to lock.
This prevents all users from making changes on or before the end of that month to the General Ledger.
Locked periods are indicated on the dashboard with a padlock icon.
What happens when a period is locked?
Locked periods block updates to the general ledger and financial statements.
You can still change invoices, bills, fixed assets, and prepaid schedules; but it might not have the impact you expect. Any new entries that would be posted in a locked period would get posted to the first unlocked period instead.
For example, say you've locked your books through January 2024. Then, you void a bill dated Jan 5, 2024. The January financial statements would not change. Instead the January 5th "bill voided" journal entry would be posted to February 2024.
Similarly, if new data is synced via an integration, the journal entries for it would be posted in the first unlocked period: if a January 29th bill synced from Ramp after January 2024 was locked, the "bill created" journal entry would be posted to February 2024.
What happens when a period is unlocked?
After a period is unlocked, new changes will be posted to it again.
Entries previously blocked from posting will remain in the period they were posted. They will not be "reposted" to the newly unlocked period.
If updates are received via integrations, they will also be posted in the now "unlocked period."
When to unlock periods
In accounting, there are times when you find out more accurate information after the books are closed. You may choose to restate the prior period or make an adjustment in the current period.
In general, if you filed your taxes or received funding based on the prior financials, it's best to make an adjustment to the current period rather than restating the prior period (i.e., do not change historical books you've used for purposes that need to roll forward or tie out).
We recommend consulting your accountant.