What closing does to your books

SKU.io separates two things that most bookkeeping tools treat as one:

• Closing a month signs it off. The checks run one last time, the report pack is saved as the month's numbers of record, and SKU.io records who prepared the month and who closed it. The month isn't frozen. Something dated in it can still land there, and if it does, the month shows exactly what moved and asks you to sign it off again.
• The hard close date freezes the books. Nothing can post on or before it. You move it deliberately, with a reason, usually at quarter or year end, once the months it covers are closed.

This page explains both, and what happens to a late bill, an edit or a backdated adjustment in each case.

The two tiers at a glance

	A Closed month	A Hard-locked month
How it gets there	You close it from the month's drawer on the Year board.	You move the hard close date to its last day, or past it.
Signed off, with a saved report pack	Yes	Yes
A late posting or an edit dated in the month	Lands in the month on its own date. The month shows the change and may ask for a re-sign-off.	Can't land in the month. It's booked on the first open day, or refused, depending on your Locked-period events setting.
A stock take, adjustment or revaluation you date in the month	Allowed, with a warning before you save.	Refused.
Who can undo it	Reopen… pulls back a sign-off made by mistake.	Someone with the Accounting Period Hard Close permission lowers the hard close date, with a reason.

The Year board shows where the line falls. The hard close date marker sits on the board with a flag reading Books locked through and the date. Every closed month to the left of it reads Hard-locked, and a month to its left that nobody closed reads Locked, not closed. Months you've closed to the right of it read Closed.

A month can also be frozen by your accounting provider

If you turn on Enforce locally for a Xero or QuickBooks connection, its lock date freezes SKU.io too. A closed month it covers shows the tag Locked by Xero (or your provider's name) rather than Hard-locked, because your hard close date doesn't cover it. See accounting settings at a glance.

What happens when you close a month

Close period opens the close dialog. When you confirm it, SKU.io runs one all-or-nothing piece of work in the background:

1. Every automated check runs again from scratch, so the close is decided on the books as they are at that moment.
2. The close rules are applied again. Anything still Blocking, and not gone over with a recorded reason, stops the close here.
3. Any override is recorded against the month, with its reason and who made it.
4. The nine reports in the Report pack are saved as the month's signed revision.
5. Every outstanding item you ticked in the dialog is stamped Acknowledged at close.
6. The month is marked Closed, with who prepared it, who closed it, when, and your Close notes.

No lock is written. If any step fails, none of it happens, and the month goes back to In Review so you can fix the problem and try again. A close you cancel from the job tray behaves the same way.

The close dialog says this in its own words:

This is a soft close. It signs off June 2026 and saves the report pack as the month's numbers of record, but it doesn't freeze the month. Late entries can still land in it, and any change shows as a restatement that asks for re-sign-off.

Also lock through this month

If you hold the Accounting Period Hard Close permission (accounting.period.hard_close), the close dialog also offers Also lock through this month. Tick it and give a Reason for locking (required), and once the close finishes SKU.io moves the hard close date to the month's last day. The move is its own background job and follows the usual hard close date rules. If one of them fails, the month stays Closed and the job tray says why. See Close a month.

Each sign-off is a revision

The first close of a month saves revision 1 of its report pack. Signing it off again after a change saves revision 2, and so on. Nothing that was signed is overwritten: the month's History keeps every revision, and the report pack can show any of them. "The signed-off numbers" always means the latest revision. See Read the close reports.

What happens when something dated in a closed month changes

Work doesn't stop because a month is closed. A supplier bill for June arrives in July. A June order is edited. Someone corrects a stock take dated June 28.

In a Closed month: it lands, and the month shows the change

A posting dated in a closed month that isn't hard-locked is booked on its own date, inside the month. An edit to a document that already posted there is booked the same way: SKU.io reverses the original entry and posts a replacement, and both sit in the month. The month's numbers move.

SKU.io notices the next time it compares the month with its signed report pack. That happens every night, and whenever someone clicks Re-check on the closed month. When the month's own change is above your review threshold, it reads Closed – restated, shows the net income change, the accounts that moved and what changed, and asks for a Re-sign-off. Later closed months whose balances moved only because of it get a Balance moved tag and need nothing from you. Changes at or below the threshold are still recorded and shown, but don't ask for a sign-off. See When a closed month changes and Re-sign-off a restated month.

You don't need to reopen a month to post into it. Reopen… is only for pulling back a sign-off made by mistake.

A change in SKU.io doesn't always reach your provider

A restatement on a document your provider has already marked paid, or in a month your provider has locked, can't sync to Xero or QuickBooks. The restatement panel counts these and links to the fix. Signing the month off again doesn't make your provider match.

In a hard-locked month: it can't land there

A month on or before the hard close date is frozen. Nothing new posts in it and nothing already in it is rewritten. What happens to a late posting is set under Accounting → Settings → General → Locked-period events, which applies to postings dated on or before the effective lock date:

• Post on first open day, flagged (the default). The entry is booked on the first open day after the lock, keeps its original date on the record, and is flagged as displaced.
• Block until resolved. The posting fails until the lock is moved or the setting is changed.

A displaced entry shows its posted date in the Date column of Accounting → Transactions, with the original date struck through underneath. The entry's own page carries a Displaced from a locked period panel naming both dates, and the Lock date exceptions card on the Accounting Dashboard counts every displaced entry. To list them yourself, add the Displaced from locked period condition under Advanced Filters → Dates.

A displaced entry stays where it was booked, even if the hard close date later moves back or forward. Correct it with a correction, not by moving the lock.

The effective lock date is the later of your hard close date and any provider lock you enforce locally. Accounting → Settings → General shows it, along with the hard close date itself, read-only. You change the hard close date only from Accounting → Settings → Close or the Year board. See How the hard close date works.

Synced, Locked is something else

Synced, Locked in the Sync column of Transactions means your accounting provider has settled that document (paid or fully credited) and won't accept edits to it. It has nothing to do with your hard close date.

Changes you make by hand

When you pick a date, SKU.io tells you before you save.

A date in a Closed month: a warning

On a stock take, an inventory adjustment, a revaluation's effective date and a cost change's date, picking a day in a closed month shows a warning under the field:

March 2026 is closed. Saving this will restate it and ask for re-sign-off.

The month name links to that month's drawer on the Close tab. You can still save, and no extra permission is needed.

Saving a purchase order or a bill dated in a closed month works too, and a message tells you what the save did, for example: Purchase order PO-123 is dated 2026-03-14, and March 2026 is closed. The change was saved, so it will restate March 2026 and ask for re-sign-off.

A date in a hard-locked month: refused

The same changes dated on or before the hard close date are refused. An inventory change is refused with a message that names the date and the lock, and ends To correct it, lower the hard close date first (Accounting › Settings › Close). A revaluation's Effective Date won't let you pick a locked day at all; its hint reads Books are locked through …; a revaluation dated in a locked period posts to the first open period.

Fulfilling a sales order with a fulfillment date on or before the hard close date is refused too, with a message like Can't fulfill on Jun 15, 2026: the books are locked through Jun 30, 2026. Choose a fulfillment date after Jun 30, 2026, or lower the hard close date first (Accounting › Settings › Close). Pick a later fulfillment date.

Some edits are allowed but change what stock was worth on locked days, such as a corrected bill for goods received before the hard close date. The locked months keep the inventory value they were locked at, and the difference is carried to the first open day. The settings under Inventory changes reaching into a locked period, on Accounting → Settings → General, decide whether that carry-forward is booked. See Reconcile inventory to your accounting provider.

Cost changes dated in a closed month

On Inventory → Cost Changes, a change is chipped by what it would touch:

• Closed: The original month has been closed off in your accounting periods. Restating changes numbers that may already have been reported. Restate is still offered. It restates that month, which then asks for a re-sign-off. This is the normal state for any month you've closed and not hard-locked.
• Locked: The original month is locked to further postings, so restating would post on the first open day instead. Restate is switched off, and the review panel explains why. Apply the change Going forward instead.

If you apply a change Going forward, the day you pick can't be on or before the effective lock date. A day inside a closed month is allowed, with the same closed-month warning as above. More in Inventory and the close.

Remapping an Amazon FNSKU

Re-pointing an FNSKU at a different product re-attributes its history. The remap dialog's Accounting row lists any closed month it touches as, for example, May 2026 closed — will be restated. That's a warning; you can go ahead. A hard-locked month stops the remap until the hard close date is lowered or you choose a later effective date. See Map FNSKUs to products.

Months closed before soft close

Months you closed before SKU.io separated closing from locking have been converted. Each one now has a revision 1 sign-off, made from its original close, and reads Closed. The per-month locks those closes wrote were removed, so those months are no longer frozen unless your hard close date, or a provider lock you enforce, covers them. If you relied on closing to keep a month frozen, move the hard close date forward. See Move the hard close date.

Next steps

• Close a month: walk a month from Open to Closed.
• When a closed month changes: restatements, own and carried changes, and Balance moved.
• Re-sign-off a restated month: accept a change and sign the month off again.
• How the hard close date works: what the one freeze covers and how to move it.
• Reopen a closed month: pull back a sign-off made by mistake.