Lock a finished year

A year lock freezes everything dated in a given year. Lock a year once its accounts are final so a figure your accountant has already reported cannot be changed afterwards.

For example, once 2024 is locked, nobody in your organisation can create, edit or delete a purchase order or inventory movement dated in 2024, record a delivery dated in 2024, or add or remove a value adjustment dated in 2024.

The lock is based on the date written on the record, not today's date. Locking last year does not stop you working this year.

A lock applies to everyone, including the person who set it and administrators. There is no override. To change a record in a locked year, unlock the year first, make the change, and lock it again.

Plans and permissions

Locking a year is included in the Starter plan and above. On a plan without it, confirming Lock opens an invitation to upgrade instead. Unlocking is always possible, and years locked earlier stay locked after a move to a plan without year lock.

Locking and unlocking require the Lock/Unlock Years permission. The Admin and Accounting roles include it; other roles do not.

To give the permission to someone in another role, open Settings, then Users, open the person and tick Lock/Unlock Years on their Permissions tab. Permissions beyond a person's role are included in the Pro plan and above.

Without the permission, Year Lock does not appear in the Settings menu, and a lock or unlock request from that account is refused.

Lock a year

1. Open Settings.
2. Select Year Lock in the menu on the left.
3. Find the year you want to close under Available Years.
4. Select Lock beside that year.
5. Read the confirmation message.
6. Confirm the message.

The year moves into the Locked Years table, which records the year, who locked it and the date it was locked.

The Available Years list is built from the dates on your purchase orders and inventory movements, plus the current year. Years with no data in them are not offered, and future years are never offered. Years you have already locked move out of the list.

What a year lock blocks

A lock on the year of the PO date blocks creating the purchase order, editing it or its lines, approving it, reopening it, deleting it, confirming prices, changing its shipping cost, adding or removing an additional cost, changing its currency conversion rate, and deleting a document attached to it. Recording a delivery is also refused when the delivery date itself falls in a locked year.

On the inventory side, a lock blocks creating a stock-out, adjustment or transfer dated in that year and editing or deleting an existing one. It also blocks recording found stock or initial stock in that year, approving a stock count whose operation date falls in that year, completing or reopening an assembly finished in that year, adding or removing a value adjustment dated in that year, and opening a supplier claim dated in that year.

When you change a date, both the year the record is currently in and the year you are moving it to must be unlocked. You cannot move a record out of a locked year or backdate one into it.

What you can still do

Everything in a locked year stays fully readable. You can open records, search them, export them and report on them. They continue to count towards your stock figures and valuations. Only changes are refused.

Inventory valuation settings

While any year is locked, the organisation's Inventory Method (FIFO, LIFO or Average Cost) cannot be changed. A new method would re-value every past date, including the locked years, so the Organization settings page greys the method out and names the locked years. To change it, unlock those years first.

Include PO Shipping in Inventory Valuation can still be changed while a year is locked. It only applies to purchase orders whose landed cost is worked out again afterwards, and orders dated in a locked year cannot be changed.

Unlock a year

1. Open Settings.
2. Select Year Lock in the menu on the left.
3. Find the year in the Locked Years table.
4. Select Unlock on that row.
5. Confirm the message that appears.

Unlocking deletes the lock entry. The Locked Years table shows who locked a year and when, but once you unlock it, that line disappears and nothing records the unlock. If you unlock a year to correct a single figure, lock it again as soon as the correction is made.

Calendar years

A lock covers a calendar year, January to December, based on the date on each record. If your financial year does not run January to December, a year lock will not line up with it exactly.