Fix a failing check

The Close checklist is a worklist, not a report. Every failing row names a number, and every number has records behind it. This guide is the loop you run until the month is clean: read the row, follow its arrow to the records it counted, fix them, click Re-check, and close.

Before you begin

• Start the close on the month first, so its drawer reads In Review rather than Open. See close a month.
• You need the Accounting → Sync permission to run Re-check and Export pack, and Accounting → Manage Settings to close a month. Without them the buttons are greyed out and the tooltip says what's missing. See who can do what.
• Know which failures stop you. A red Blocking chip means the check blocks the close; hover it to see whether you can go over it with a reason. A row with no chip is a warning you can close past once you acknowledge it. See what stops a close, and what only needs a tick.

Steps

1. Go to Accounting → Close.
2. On the Year board, click the month's tile. Its drawer opens on the right.
3. Find the failing row. A failing blocking check is listed in the Blocking checks card above the checklist; any other failing row is in its group in Close checklist, with a red or amber icon.
4. Read the row's one-line summary. It says what the number means, for example 6 outstanding — 2 failed, 4 pending or 842.10 divergence (limit 1.00). Hover the title for the check's fuller description.
5. Click the arrow at the right of the row. It opens the screen where those records are fixed, with the check's filters and the month's dates already applied.
6. Fix the records there. The fix each check section below says what to do for each row.
7. Go back to Accounting → Close and open the month again from its tile. The drawer doesn't stay open when you leave the page.
8. Click Re-check in the drawer's header. A message reads Re-check started — the checklist updates when it finishes., and the re-run shows in the job tray.
9. When the tray shows the re-check finished, confirm the row is green and the progress ring has moved, for example from 24 of 33 done to 25 of 33 done.
10. Repeat until no red Blocking chip remains, then click Close period.

What Re-check does, and what it never does

• It re-runs every automated check, not only the one you fixed. A fix in one place often moves another row.
• It fetches your provider's trial balance again, so Trial balance reconciled to provider compares against fresh figures.
• It adds any custom checklist items added in Accounting → Settings → Close since the close was started.
• It never resets an item you ticked by hand, and never removes an item whose custom definition was deleted since.
• It never ticks an automated check off for you. Automated checks move only when the underlying records move. Trying to tick one is refused with Automated checks cannot be checked off — use Re-check to re-evaluate them.
• On a month that hasn't been started, a re-check is refused with June 2026 hasn't been started yet, so there is nothing to re-check.

tip

SKU.io also refreshes the automated results on its own when you open an In Review month whose results are more than about ten minutes old, so a row you fixed a while ago is often already green when you come back. Re-check forces it now.

Jump to exactly the records a check counted

The arrow isn't a general link to a page. It carries the check's filters and the month's dates with it, so the number on the row and the length of the list you land on agree. Hover it to see which kind of destination it is: Open the fixing surface for records, Open this report for a figure.

• Reversed entries, deleted entries and entries rolled into a batch are never counted. Both the row and the list exclude the same records.
• The batches arrow opens overdue and in-settle-window batches together. The row's summary splits them (86 overdue, or 12 overdue · 3 still in settle window), but you land on both sets. Only the overdue ones make the row fail.
• Some rows open a report instead of a list. Their number describes a figure, so the report icon opens it in the drawer's report viewer.
• A row with nothing to open shows no arrow. A check that doesn't apply, a custom item, and Inventory debt settled once nothing is owed have nowhere to send you. Most other checks keep their arrow after they pass; following one lands you on the empty list that proves it.

note

Ledger generation — individual entries is the one row whose number isn't limited to the month. Generation work is queued against source documents rather than dates, so it counts everything outstanding across your account.

Fix each check

The arrow tells you where to go. This is what to do once you're there. Each entry names what you land on, what usually put the number there, and the control that clears it. For what every row measures, including the checks not covered here, see the close checks.

Ledger generation — individual entries

You land on Accounting → Outbox, on the Ledger Outbox list with its Backlog chip applied. Read two columns: Status and Error.

• Pending and Processing rows are work in flight. Wait and click Re-check; the count usually drains within minutes.
• Failed rows need you. The Error column names the cause and the Source column names the document behind it. Correct that document, then select the failed rows and click Retry Failed. A row whose cause is still unresolved fails again.

Clear what you can. An entry that generates after you close still lands in the month on its own date; the month then reads Closed – restated and asks for a re-sign-off.

Because the count isn't limited to your month, a busy account can leave this row red through no fault of the close. So you can go over it: with the Accounting → Period Override permission, the close dialog asks Why is this being closed over? and records the backlog as it stood. See close over outstanding inventory debt; generation follows the same shape.

Ledger generation — batches

You land on Accounting → Batches, on the unposted batches whose period ended on or before the month end. Open one by its ID.

An overdue batch carries a red Overdue chip; hover it to see the date it should have posted by. A batch also carrying a Dirty chip had members change after its summary entry was built.

Click Rebuild on the batch to regenerate its summary entry now, or leave it for the scheduled batch close. Rebuilding a batch whose entry already posted reverses it and posts a replacement, so the correction stays visible.

All entries balanced

You land on Accounting → Transactions → All with the Out of Balance filter and the month's dates applied. An entry lands here when its lines no longer agree with its totals, which nearly always means the document behind it moved after the entry was generated.

Select the rows and click Rebuild, or use Rebuild in a single row's menu. Unchanged documents are left as they are, and a posted entry is corrected by reversal and replacement.

Nothing gets a close past this check: no setting, permission or acknowledgement. If a rebuild leaves the row unbalanced, contact support with the entry's Reference.

Opening balance applied

You land on Accounting → Reconciliation → Starting Balances. This row applies only to the very first month you close, and it fails while your starting figures are still a draft. The row reads not applied — still draft.

Review the lines, then click Apply. Save draft keeps it editable and doesn't satisfy the check. If Apply is greyed out, hover it: the tooltip names what's missing. If no starting figures exist, use Set up opening balances to enter them, or Fetch from QuickBooks to pull them as of a date you choose.

Nothing gets a close past this check either. On every later month it stands aside as Not applicable.

Amazon settlements mapped

You land on Accounting → Dashboard. When mappings are holding settlements back, the dashboard shows an Amazon settlement mappings card with an Action needed chip and the counts: Ungrouped mappings, Missing nominal code and Held-back settlements.

Click Fix mappings on that card. Assign each mapping to a group and give it a nominal code. The held-back settlements post once the gaps are closed; then click Re-check.

Entries synced

You land on Accounting → Transactions → All, filtered to the month's entries still on their way to your provider: queued, retrying or mid-sync. It's work in progress rather than a fault, and it usually clears itself.

Click Re-check after a few minutes. To push instead of waiting, select the rows and click Sync now. The drawer's Sync status — why isn't everything on the provider? section breaks the same entries down by reason. For what each reason means, read see why entries haven't reached your provider.

This is a warning, so you can close over it once you acknowledge it.

Needs-attention inbox clear

You land on Accounting → Needs Attention, limited to the month. Rows are grouped by cause (Conflict, Needs Attention, Failed), each with its count and a Retry all button.

Click Show full error on a group to read the provider's own message. Fix what it names, in SKU.io or in the provider, then click Retry selected for the rows you corrected, or Retry all. A conflict means the entry changed on both sides; decide which version is right before retrying, or the retry re-creates the conflict.

Cost changes resolved

You land on Inventory → Cost Changes on the Needs review tab, limited to the month. A row appears here when a bill arrived after the stock it affects was received, so that stock's cost moved after the fact.

Each row takes one of two decisions from its actions menu:

• Apply as restate: record the change on the original receipt dates, so the month's figures move. If the month is already closed, it then reads Closed – restated and asks for a re-sign-off. This choice isn't offered where the change would land on or before your hard close date, or in months your provider's enforced lock covers.
• Apply going forward: record it as a dated catch-up instead, leaving earlier months alone.

See inventory and the close for which one a month end wants.

Provider documents reconciled

You land on Accounting → Reconciliation → Periods, which sets your monthly ledger totals against SKU.io's copy of your provider's documents. The table gives SKU Entries, SKU Debit, SKU Credit, Provider Docs, Provider Total, Count Δ and Amount Δ.

Click Refresh first: an out-of-date copy is the most common reason this row fails when the books are fine. If a real gap remains, go to the Documents sub-tab, use Auto-match on the unlinked documents, and look at what's left on each side. The variance allowed before the row fails is a tolerance in Accounting → Settings → Close; see close settings and custom checklist items.

Inventory reconciled to GL

You land on Accounting → Reconciliation → Inventory, which tracks day by day where your inventory value and the provider's inventory accounts diverge. Read the tiles first (Accounts diverging, Open divergence, Divergent months and Data as of), then the table, which splits the gap into Opening gap, Divergence, Awaiting sync and Residual gap.

• Anything under Awaiting sync resolves when those entries reach the provider. Work Entries synced instead.
• An account that never tied at the outset says so at the top of the page, with two routes: reconcile each account from its row, or Draw a baseline to measure from a clean date.
• For the rest, click Refresh from provider, then click a point on the chart to see what moved that day.

The (limit 1.00) in the row's summary is the tolerance. Raising it is a decision about the books, not a way to clear the row.

Inventory debt settled

You land on Inventory → Fulfillment Debt, with Inventory Debt Claims showing the month's outstanding claims. Debt is stock that shipped before there was any cost behind it, so the month's cost of sale is an estimate until the claim is repaid.

Select the claims and take one of two actions:

• Settle from Stock repays them from stock that has since arrived, at its real cost, and posts the difference from the estimate as a dated variance.
• Create Catch-Up Stock Take is for debt no receipt will repay. It raises a draft adjustment stock take; finalize it and the claims repay from it.

When neither applies, you can go over the check with a reason: see close over outstanding inventory debt. With the Block period close while debt is outstanding setting off, this row warns instead of blocking.

Trial balance reconciled to provider

The report icon opens the Trial Balance Reconciliation report. It leads with Accounts Reconciled, Accounts Out Of Balance and Total Abs Variance, then gives a row per account with its Sku Balance, Provider Balance, Variance and whether it's In Tolerance.

Work the largest Variance first. An account is usually out for one of three reasons: entries that haven't reached the provider yet (work Entries synced), something posted directly in the provider, or a real difference that needs a correcting entry.

If the row reads not compared — no provider trial balance captured for …, or says the provider balances are out of date, click Re-check: it fetches the provider's figures again. If it reads not compared — couldn't capture the provider trial balance, fix the connection it names first. See capture your provider's trial balance.

Transaction categories settled with provider

The report icon opens the Sync Category Reconciliation report: a row per category with Entries, Sku Total, Synced Total, Excluded Total, In Flight Total, Needs Attention Total and Settled.

Nothing is fixed on this report; it tells you which row to work. Find the categories where Settled reads false, then follow the money:

• an amount in In Flight Total is waiting on the provider: work Entries synced;
• an amount in Needs Attention Total is parked for review: work Needs-attention inbox clear;
• an amount in Excluded Total is settled by design and never counts against the row.

Provider lock aligned

This check compares each accounting connection's own lock date with your hard close date. When they differ, the row says so in a sentence, for example:

Xero is locked through Nov 30, 2025. Your books are locked through Dec 31, 2025, so Xero can still be edited for Dec 2025.

It also warns when the provider is locked later than your hard close date, because changes to those months can't reach the provider. With several connections out of step, the row reads, for example, 2 connections disagree with the hard date.

The arrow opens the Connections dialog on the Accounting dashboard. SKU.io reads the provider's lock date but never sets it, so you fix this in the provider: set its lock date to your hard close date, then click Refresh on the dashboard and Re-check on the month. See keep your provider lock aligned.

This is a warning. You can close a month with it outstanding once you acknowledge it.

Earlier months re-signed

This row warns while an earlier closed month is waiting for a re-sign-off, for example March 2026 changed after sign-off and needs a re-sign-off. The arrow opens that month. Re-sign it off, or acknowledge the warning and close this month anyway. See re-sign-off a restated month.

The review items and your own custom items

The three Review rows and anything under Custom are ticked by hand; there's nothing to re-run. A Review row's report icon opens the report it names so you can read it before you tick it. See close settings and custom checklist items.

When to stop and ask for help

Contact support, naming the month and the row's title, when:

• the same rows fail with the same error after two rounds of correcting and retrying;
• a Rebuild leaves an entry out of balance;
• a row fails with no summary beside it (see when a check can't finish);
• the number on a row and the length of the list it opens disagree.

When the month refuses to close

While a blocking check that can't be gone over is failing, Close period is greyed out. Hover it and the tooltip counts them: 1 blocking failure must be resolved before this period can close. The drawer's header carries a red chip counting every failing blocking check, for example 3 blocking, including the ones you can go over.

If you open the close dialog with such a failure present, it leads with a red panel:

1 blocking failure must be resolved before closing: • All entries balanced (2)

The confirm button stays disabled, and hovering it says Resolve the blocking failures first — a period can't close with blocking checks failing. SKU.io re-runs the same rules when the close request arrives and refuses it there too, so there's no way around the button.

A blocking check you can go over shows in its own amber panel instead, and asks for a reason. See going over a blocking check.

Every message that refuses a close

A refusal arrives one of two ways.

Refused on the spot. The close dialog stays open, so you can correct the attempt without re-typing anything:

What you see	What it means
Blocking checks failing: …	A blocking check failed on the final re-run: something changed after your last Re-check. Fix it and close again.
These items need acknowledgement before closing: …	An item became outstanding after you opened the dialog. Close the dialog and open it again to pick up the current list.
Closing over "…" needs the "Accounting → Period Override" permission.	You gave a reason for going over a blocking check, but you don't hold the permission. Ask someone who does.
Months close in order. Close May 2026 first.	An earlier month isn't closed yet. Close that one first.
Another period close is already running — wait for it to finish.	Another month is mid-close. Wait for the job tray to finish, then try again.
June 2026 is already closed.	Somebody else closed it while you had the dialog open. Refresh the page.
An earlier month reopened while this close was running — aborting so periods stay closed in order.	Someone reopened an earlier month mid-close. Close that month again first, then this one.

When your close settings require an independent reviewer, the close can also be refused because of who is closing:

What you see	What it means
Start the close first. Someone other than the person closing has to prepare this month.	The month was never started. Someone starts it and works the checklist, then someone else closes it.
Nobody is recorded as having prepared this month. Whoever prepared it should press Re-check, then someone else can close it.	No preparer is on record. The preparer clicks Re-check, which records them.
A sentence describing your own work on the month, ending Someone else has to review and close this month.	You prepared or changed this month, so you can't also close it.

See review and close a month someone else prepared.

The same rules guard Start close: it's greyed out while an earlier month is open, with Close June 2026 first — periods close oldest-first.

Refused after you confirmed it. Every check runs once more when the close actually starts, so a month that passed when you opened the dialog can still be turned away:

• A blocking failure appeared in between: an entry posted into the month, a generation row failed, a new debt claim landed.
• A new warning your acknowledgements don't cover appeared after you opened the dialog.

What you see: the month reads Closing… briefly, then returns to In Review. No report pack is saved and the month isn't signed off. The job tray entry, named Close Accounting Period: June 2026, carries the cause:

• Close aborted: Blocking checks failing: All entries balanced.
• Close aborted: These items need acknowledgement before closing: Entries synced.
• Close failed: … for anything else that went wrong mid-close.

Read the tray message first; it names what changed. Then click Re-check, look at what moved, and close again. A successful close finishes with June 2026 closed — reports snapshotted and signed off. Later changes show as restatements.

One close at a time

While a month reads Closing…, Close period is greyed out with The close job is already running — track it in the job tray. A second close is refused, and so is a reopen: A period close is running — wait for it to finish before reopening.

When a check can't finish

Occasionally a check can't complete: the data it reads is in a state it can't evaluate. SKU.io never lets that pass silently, and never lets it take the rest of the checklist down with it:

• The check is recorded as failing at its own level. A blocking check that can't finish still blocks; a warning that can't finish still needs acknowledging.
• The reason isn't shown on screen. The row shows its title, its red or amber icon, the Blocking chip if it has one, and then no summary and no arrow. The exported pack doesn't carry the reason either.
• Every other row still evaluates. One broken check costs you that check, not the month's checklist.

A row that fails with no explanation is the tell. Click Re-check: a passing cause clears on the next run. If the same row keeps failing silently, contact support with the month and the check's title.

When something fails to load, or an action is refused

The drawer separates the two.

Something failed to load: the month's details, one of the reports, or the Sync status breakdown. A red panel replaces the content, with the reason and a Retry button. Click Retry; nothing has changed underneath you.

An action was refused: a start, a Re-check, a tick, an export, a close, a reopen. The refusal arrives as a notification carrying the reason, and the screen stays where it was. It names the reason (Months close in order. Close May 2026 first., June 2026 is closed, so its checklist is read-only.) rather than a generic failure. When a close is refused, the dialog stays open so you can adjust and try again.

Next steps

• Close a month
• Close over outstanding inventory debt
• What stops a close, and what only needs a tick
• The close checks
• See why entries haven't reached your provider
• Review the ledger