Read the month's reports
Every month on Accounting → Close carries a Report pack: nine reports that describe the month from every angle a bookkeeper signs off on. Before the month is closed they're rebuilt each time you open them and marked preliminary. When you close the month, SKU.io saves a copy of each as the month's signed-off pack. Each later re-sign-off saves a new pack, and every earlier one stays readable.
Before you begin
- Reading a report needs nothing beyond access to the Accounting area. You don't need the permissions that start, close or export a month.
- You don't need a working Xero or QuickBooks connection. Every figure in the pack is computed from data already in SKU.io. The one exception is the provider's own trial balance; see capture your provider's trial balance.
Steps
- Go to Accounting → Close.
- On the Year board, click the month's tile. Its drawer opens on the right, with the month, its state and its dates in the header, for example Jun 1, 2026 – Jun 30, 2026.
- Click Report pack to expand it. It's collapsed when the drawer opens. Nine report cards sit in a grid.
- Read the chip at the top of the section before any figure. It reads Preliminary — period open on a month that isn't closed, or Signed off and the date of the latest sign-off, for example Signed off Nov 6, 2026, on a closed month.
- Read the caption and any mark on each card. They tell you whether that report still matches what was signed off; see the labels on a report card.
- Click a report card, for example Trial Balance. The report opens in a dialog.
- Read the chips beside the report name: Snapshot or Live, plus Revision N, Preliminary, Stale or Snapshot missing when they apply. The line underneath reads Snapshotted or Computed with the date and time the figures were produced.
- Read the totals at the top of the dialog, then the table. Every number has two decimals and thousands separators, counts included, so nine compared accounts reads 9.00. Yes/no columns read true or false, and an empty value shows a dash. A wide table scrolls sideways inside the dialog.
- Click the × in the dialog's top-right corner to go back to the pack.
How far down the reports go
The close doesn't compute a separate set of figures. Each report is the one you read elsewhere in SKU.io, limited to the month or taken as at its last day. What matters is the grain: what one row of the table stands for.
| Report | One row is |
|---|---|
| Income Statement | An account |
| Balance Sheet | An account, tagged with its section |
| Trial Balance | An account |
| Inventory Valuation | A warehouse |
| COGS | A sales channel |
| GINR Balance | One of its four components: Invoiced, Received, Discrepancies, Adjustments |
| Reconciliation Summary | An accounting connection |
| Trial Balance Reconciliation | A compared account |
| Sync Category Reconciliation | A transaction category |
For every column and total, see close pack: columns on every report sheet.
- Nothing goes below statement level. None of the reports lists the transactions behind a figure. For those, go to the ledger.
- You can find most of them elsewhere. Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Accounting COGS and GINR Balance are on Accounting → Reports, and Inventory Valuation is under Insights → Reports → Inventory Valuation. The pack pins them to the month, and after a close, to the figures you signed off.
- Trial Balance is only in the pack. There's no Trial Balance card on Accounting → Reports.
Signed-off figures and the live books
Closing a month signs it off; it doesn't freeze it. A late bill or a backdated adjustment still lands in the month on its true date. So a closed month has two sets of figures:
- The signed-off pack, saved when the month was closed or last re-signed. It never changes.
- The live books, which can move after sign-off.
SKU.io compares the two every night, and whenever you click Re-check on a closed month. When they differ, the pack's cards show what moved, and the month may read Closed – restated and ask for a re-sign-off. See when a closed month changes.
Only months on or before your hard close date are frozen, so their live books can't move.
To compare a closed month's live figures with its pack on demand, use Verify: see verify a closed month.
The labels on a report card and inside a report
On a report card
Each card shows the report's name, a caption underneath, and at most one mark beside the name.
| Caption | What it means |
|---|---|
| Preliminary | The month isn't closed (or this report has no saved copy). Opening it gives freshly computed figures that can still move. |
| As at Jun 30, 2026 | The month is closed, and the live books still match the signed-off copy of this report. |
| Live differs from sign-off | The live books differ from the signed-off copy. The mark beside the name shows the change, for example -$1,284.16. |
| Carried from an earlier month | This month's figures moved only because an earlier month was restated. The mark reads Moved. Nothing in this month changed, so it needs no sign-off. |
| Can't compare with the sign-off | SKU.io can't compare this report with the signed-off copy. The mark reads Can't compare. |
| Revision 1 | You picked an earlier sign-off in the revision picker. Marks aren't shown, because they compare the live books with the latest sign-off only. |
| Live books | You picked Live books in the revision picker. |
| Mark | What it means |
|---|---|
| An amount, for example -$1,284.16 | How much the report's total has moved since sign-off. |
| Moved | The figures moved, carried in from an earlier month. |
| Can't compare | The report can't be compared with the signed-off copy. |
| Info | An informational report, such as Reconciliation Summary. It isn't compared, because it's expected to move. |
| Superseded | The month was reopened, so its last signed-off figures no longer apply. Opening the report shows live figures. |
| Stale | The saved copy predates a reopen; numbers may have moved since. |
Inside an open report
| Chip | Colour | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Snapshot | Green | Figures from a signed-off pack |
| Live | Blue | Recomputed when you opened the report |
| Revision 2 | Grey | The sign-off revision you're reading |
| Preliminary | Amber | These numbers can still change |
| Stale | Amber | The saved copy predates a reopen |
| Snapshot missing | Red | A closed month with no saved copy of this report |
Snapshot or Live always appears. The rest appear when they apply, and more than one can appear at once.
Read an earlier sign-off
Every close and every re-sign-off saves its own pack. Once a month has more than one, a revision picker appears at the top of Report pack. Its options read, newest first:
- Live books: the figures as they stand now. Offered on a month waiting for a re-sign-off (it's what the re-sign-off would sign), and on a month that was reopened.
- Revision 2: Re-sign-off, Nov 6, 2026: a pack saved by a re-sign-off.
- Revision 1: Close, Jul 3, 2026: the pack saved when the month was first closed.
- Balances refreshed: a pack saved when an earlier month's re-sign-off refreshed this month's carried-in balances.
On a closed month, the latest sign-off is selected when the drawer opens.
To read an earlier pack:
- In Report pack, open the revision picker.
- Click the revision you want. Each card's caption changes to that revision, for example Revision 1.
- Click a report card. The dialog shows a Revision 1 chip beside the report name.
You can also open a revision from the month's History section: opening a sign-off there shows its pack, starting with the Income Statement.
After a reopen: Superseded and Stale
Reopening is for pulling back a sign-off made by mistake. It keeps the signed-off pack in History, flagged as stale, and returns the month to review.
- On a reopened month, each card carries a Superseded mark. Hovering it reads: "The figures saved at the last close no longer apply — this month was reopened. Opening this shows live figures instead. Close the month again to save a new set." The caption goes back to Preliminary, and opening the report gives figures marked Live and Preliminary.
- On a closed month whose saved copy predates a reopen, the card carries a Stale mark instead: "This snapshot predates a reopen — numbers may have moved since. Re-close the period to refresh it."
Closing the month again saves a new revision, and the marks clear. See reopen a closed month.
A closed month missing a saved report
Open a report on a closed month and you may get a red banner instead of the Snapshot chip:
This closed period has no saved snapshot for this report — the figures below are a live recompute, not the authoritative close numbers. This indicates an integrity gap; re-verify the period.
Treat that as an integrity problem. A closed month is supposed to carry all nine saved copies; without one, you can't prove what this report said when the month was signed off. The figures on screen are recomputed from the books as they stand now, and the chips say so: Live, Preliminary and Snapshot missing.
Verify lists that report as snapshot missing, and the exported workbook repeats the warning on its sheet. Run Verify, then contact support with the month and the report's name.
A report that couldn't be produced
Some reports depend on setup elsewhere in SKU.io. When one can't be built for the month, it's saved as unavailable, and opening it shows an amber banner:
This report could not be produced for the period, so it holds no figures and was not verified.
Underneath, in smaller text, is the reason SKU.io recorded at the time.
- One unbuildable report never stops a close. The other eight save normally.
- Verify won't pretend it agrees. It lists the report as could not be produced rather than counting it as a match.
- Sort out the setup the reason points at. The next sign-off of the month saves a complete pack.
A report with nothing in it
An empty report shows No rows for this period. Totals, when the report has any, still appear above it.
That's normally a report that doesn't apply to your business: no inventory means an empty Inventory Valuation, no accounting connection means an empty Reconciliation Summary and Trial Balance Reconciliation, and a month with no sales means an empty COGS. An empty Trial Balance Reconciliation on a business that does have a connection usually means no provider trial balance was captured for that month end. See capture your provider's trial balance.
Open the report a check is about
Some checklist rows quote a figure from one of these reports, such as "2 of 9 accounts out · 1,301.15 total variance", and the three Review items name a report. Those rows carry a report icon at the right-hand end, with the tooltip Open this report. Click it and the report opens in the same dialog the pack uses, even while Report pack is collapsed.
Two reports worth extra care
Trial Balance
Trial Balance is the report bookkeepers reach for first. Its totals read Total Opening, Total Debits, Total Credits and Total Closing. On balanced books, total debits equal total credits; a mismatch is the thing to chase, and it's the same condition the All entries balanced check reports. Every column is described in close pack: columns on every report sheet.
- The closing balances here are SKU.io's side of the provider comparison. When Trial Balance Reconciliation says an account is out, it's comparing this closing balance with your provider's figure.
- Like the other statements, it leaves out discarded entries and the individual entries inside a batch, so it agrees with the Income Statement and Balance Sheet. See batches and the close.
Trial Balance Reconciliation
Trial Balance Reconciliation compares SKU.io's balance with your provider's, account by account, and shows Sku Balance, Provider Balance, Variance and In Tolerance for each. Its totals count Accounts Out Of Balance and Total Abs Variance.
To chase an account that exists on only one side, go to Accounting → Reconciliation. See how SKU.io reconciles with Xero and QuickBooks.
On screen versus in the exported workbook
The pack exports as one workbook from Export pack in the drawer's header. See export the close pack.
- There's no per-report download. The only file is the whole pack.
- The marks are on screen only. Superseded, Stale, the amount marks, Moved and Can't compare aren't written into the workbook. To see what moved since sign-off, read the drawer.
- Warnings travel with the workbook. Each report's sheet opens with the report name, As at close or Live, and Generated at, then any warning as its own row: PRELIMINARY, SNAPSHOT MISSING or REPORT UNAVAILABLE. See the close pack workbook.
- Figures are formatted differently. In the workbook, money is a plain number, a yes
reads
TRUE, and a no is an empty cell. Filter a workbook column for blanks rather than forFALSEor0.