Keep your provider's lock aligned
Your hard close date freezes your books in SKU.io, but SKU.io can't write the lock date in Xero or QuickBooks. It reads each connection's lock date once a day and compares it with your hard close date. When the two disagree, either your provider can still be edited inside months you've frozen, or changes from SKU.io can't reach your provider. Keep them on the same day.
Before you begin
- You need an accounting connection to Xero or QuickBooks Online, and access to its lock date (Xero calls it a lock date, QuickBooks a closing date).
- To make your provider's date your hard close date, you need the Accounting → Period Hard Close permission (
accounting.period.hard_close).
Read the alignment
You see the comparison in four places:
- The Provider alignment figure at the top of Accounting → Close. It shows one word for your connections, and the line under it names the connection and where its lock sits, for example Xero locked through Dec 31, 2025. Click it to open the settings.
- An amber banner on the Close tab for each connection that disagrees, with a Close settings link.
- The Hard close date card on the Close tab, which has one line per connection: the provider's lock date and a chip.
- The Provider lock alignment card in Accounting → Settings → Close, which has a row per connection:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Connection | The accounting connection. Click it to open your connections. |
| Provider lock | The lock date SKU.io last read from the provider, or No lock date |
| Hard close date | Your hard close date |
| Alignment | Aligned, Behind, Later or No lock dates yet |
| Last read | When SKU.io last read the provider's lock date |
The close checklist also has a Provider lock aligned row, which warns when a connection disagrees with the hard close date. It's a warning, so it never blocks a close. See Close checks reference.
What each result means
| Result | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Aligned | The provider is locked through the same day as your hard close date. | Nothing. |
| Behind | The provider's lock is earlier than your hard close date, or it has none. The banner reads, for example, Xero has no lock date. Your books are locked through Dec 31, 2025, so Xero can still be edited for those months. | Set the lock in your provider to your hard close date. See Set your provider's lock to match. |
| Later | The provider is locked through a later day than your hard close date. SKU.io can still change the months in between, but those changes can't reach your provider. If you enforce that provider's lock, SKU.io freezes those months too. | Move your hard close date forward to match, or lower the lock in your provider. See Use your provider's date as the hard close date. |
| No lock dates yet | Neither side has a lock date to compare. On the Close tab, the figure reads Not set. | Set a hard close date when you're ready, then match it in your provider. |
Later is the more urgent of the two. While a provider is locked later than your hard close date, SKU.io sends the Provider Lock Later Than Hard Close Date alert (headed A provider lock is later than your hard close date) by email and in the app. It goes to the people in Who gets notified on Accounting → Settings → Close, or to your admins when nobody is chosen. See Choose which alerts your team gets. It tells you to either move your hard close date to match or lower the lock in your provider, and it clears once the two agree.
Set your provider's lock to match
Do this after every move of the hard close date. When you move the date, SKU.io reminds you with a line such as Now set the lock in Xero to Jun 30, 2026. SKU.io can't write it.
- Go to Accounting → Settings → Close.
- In Provider lock alignment, note the Hard close date.
- In Xero or QuickBooks Online, set the lock date to that same day.
- Wait for SKU.io's next daily read. The Last read column shows when it last read the date.
After the next read, the row reads Aligned, the banner on the Close tab goes away, and the History on the Hard close date card in Accounting → Settings → Close shows the provider's new lock date, with By reading Daily import.
Use your provider's date as the hard close date
When your provider is locked later than your hard close date, you can move the hard close date to the provider's date instead.
-
Go to Accounting → Settings → General.
-
Under the Hard close date field, find the notice that reads, for example, Xero reports books locked through Mar 31, 2026.
-
Click Use as hard close date.
This opens the Move hard close date forward dialog (Set hard close date if you don't have one yet) with the provider's date filled in. The same rules apply as for any other move: the months must be closed and signed off, and you must give a reason.
-
Finish the move. See Move the hard close date from step 4.
Let a provider's lock freeze SKU.io too
By default a provider's lock date is only compared. To also stop SKU.io posting entries your provider would reject, turn on Enforce locally for that connection under Provider lock dates in Accounting → Settings → General. SKU.io then stops posting through the Effective lock date, which is the later of your hard close date and any provider lock you enforce. A closed month that only the provider's lock covers stays Closed and shows a tag such as Locked by Xero. See Accounting settings at a glance.
These controls appear only once SKU.io has read a lock date from the connection: after you set one in Xero or QuickBooks and the next daily read. The same goes for Use as hard close date.
Enforcing a provider's lock doesn't move your hard close date, and it doesn't make the two aligned. Keep matching the dates as above.
Next steps
- Move the hard close date: the move that each provider update follows.
- How the hard close date works: what the hard close date freezes.
- What syncs to your accounting provider: how entries reach Xero and QuickBooks.