Close settings and custom checklist items
Most of the close is fixed: which checks run and the order they run in. A short list of things is yours to set, and nearly all of it is on Accounting → Settings → Close. This page describes that screen card by card, then two related settings that live elsewhere.
Accounting → Settings → Close holds four cards, in this order:
| Card | What it's for | How it saves |
|---|---|---|
| Hard close date | The date that freezes your books, who set it, and its history | Through its own dialog, with a reason |
| Provider lock alignment | How each provider's own lock date compares with your hard close date | Read-only |
| Month-End Close | Restatement review, check tolerances, reconciliation policy, independent review and your own checklist items | The card's Save button |
| Differences carried from before your start date | Trial balance and A/R and A/P differences that predate your start date | Its own dialog, with a reason |
Anyone who can open Accounting can read the screen. Changing the Month-End
Close card needs the Accounting → Manage Settings permission (accounting.manage_settings).
Without it, a notice at the top of the card says so and the fields are read-only. Moving the hard close date needs the
Accounting → Period Hard Close permission (accounting.period.hard_close).
See who can do what in the close.
The Hard close date card
The hard close date is the only thing that freezes your books. Everything on or before it is frozen, and every closed month that ends on or before it reads Hard-locked. See how the hard close date works.
The card shows:
- The date, as Books locked through Dec 31, 2025, with Set by, who set it and when, and Everything on or before this date is frozen. With no date, it reads No hard close date yet and Nothing is frozen by a hard close date.
- Lower hard close date… and Move hard close date…, or Set hard close date… when you have no date. Each opens the move dialog. See move the hard close date and lower or clear the hard close date.
- Your hard close date falls mid-month, a notice that appears only when your date came from your old lock date and isn't a month end. Days through that date are frozen. The next move must land on a month end.
- History, a table of every move of the hard close date and every change to a provider's lock date, newest first:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Date | When it changed |
| Change | The old date to the new date. A provider's change starts with a chip naming the connection, for example Xero lock. |
| By | The person who moved the hard close date, or Daily import for a provider's change |
| Reason | The reason given, or Imported from and the connection name |
With nothing moved yet, it reads Neither the hard close date nor a provider's lock has moved yet.
Accounting → Settings → General shows the same date read-only, as Hard close date, with a Go to Close settings link. You change it here.
The Provider lock alignment card
SKU.io only reads your provider's lock date. It never writes it, so you set the provider's lock in the provider itself. This card compares the two:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Connection | The accounting connection, as a link that opens your connections |
| Provider lock | The lock date read from the provider, or No lock date |
| Hard close date | Your hard close date |
| Alignment | Aligned, Behind (the provider can still be edited inside your frozen months), Later (changes to months after your hard close date can't reach the provider) or No lock dates yet |
| Last read | When SKU.io last read the provider's lock |
Each connection that's Behind or Later gets a warning underneath that explains it in a sentence. Whether a provider's own lock also freezes SKU.io is set per connection in General settings, through the link on the card. See keep your provider lock aligned.
The Month-End Close card
Everything on this card saves together. Unsaved changes appears in the title bar once you edit something, with Revert and Save. Save is unavailable while a field is invalid.
Restatement review
When a closed month changes after sign-off, it stays Closed and shows the difference. These two settings decide when it asks for a new sign-off and who hears about it.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Review threshold | $0 | The month reads Closed – restated and asks for a re-sign-off when its own changes add up to more than this, or its net income moves by more than this. Changes carried in from earlier months don't count. At 0, any change asks. Every change is recorded either way, and the month's drawer still shows a change at or below the threshold. |
| Who gets notified | Nobody picked | The people who get an email when a closed month changes, and when a provider's lock moves later than your hard close date. They get one email per detection run. With nobody picked, the email goes to your admins. |
See when a closed month changes.
Check tolerances
Four checks compare a figure against a limit instead of demanding an exact match. Each limit is an amount in your accounting currency.
| Tolerance | Default | The check it governs | What it allows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory vs GL | 1.00 | Inventory reconciled to GL | The divergence between inventory value and the GL control accounts at the month end. The row quotes it when it fails: 842.10 divergence (limit 1.00). |
| Provider documents | 0.05 | Provider documents reconciled | The month's variance between SKU.io's documents and your provider's. The A/R and A/P and payment clearing checks use it too. |
| Trial balance (per account) | 0.00 | Trial balance reconciled to provider | The difference allowed on each account separately. At 0, any difference on any account fails. |
| Marketplace facilitator tax | 1.00 | Marketplace facilitator tax | The clearing balance allowed per channel at the month end. |
Keep these in mind:
- They're absolute amounts, not percentages. A limit of 1.00 is one unit of currency, whatever the size of the balance.
- A tolerance can't be negative. The checks compare an absolute difference against it, so a negative figure could never be met. The field says A tolerance cannot be negative.
- A new value takes effect at the next Re-check. You don't need to restart a close.
- A tolerance changes whether a row passes, nothing else. It never changes the figures in your reports. Set one high enough to hide a real difference, and it hides it at year end too.
Block the close when marketplace facilitator tax doesn't tie out sits under the tolerances. It's off by default, so the Marketplace facilitator tax row warns. Turn it on and the row blocks the close until the clearing account nets out, no facilitator tax reached Sales Tax, settlement tax codes are reviewed and every channel is classified. It can't be closed over.
Reconciliation policy
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory and trial-balance breaks block the close | Off | Off: Inventory reconciled to GL and Trial balance reconciled to provider are warnings you acknowledge. On: both block the close. A month that doesn't tie can still close, but only with a written reason from someone who holds Accounting → Period Override. The reason and the figures are kept on the month. |
| Financial year ends | December | Match your accounting provider. Income and expense accounts are compared year to date from the following month. |
| Provider balances go out of date after | 24 hours | Start close and every Re-check fetch the provider's trial balance again. A copy older than this, or older than SKU.io's latest change to the month, fails the trial balance check until you re-check. 0 turns the age limit off. |
Independent review
Require an independent reviewer decides whether someone other than the person who prepared a month has to close it.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Automatic (recommended) | The default. A second person is required once two or more people can do accounting work here, and not before. |
| Always required | Someone else must always close the month. With only one accounting user, closing asks for a reason instead, and the month is recorded as self-reviewed. |
| Not required | One person may prepare and close a month alone. The closed month says that nobody else reviewed it. |
The same rule covers re-signing a Closed – restated month. While a second person is required, nobody recorded as changing the month since its sign-off can re-sign it. With only one accounting user, re-signing asks for a self-review reason.
Under the field, You have 2 accounting users today. counts the people it uses. Hover the info icon to see who counts: people whose role has the Sync or Manage Settings permission under Accounting on the Roles screen, and who have activated their account or signed in. Super admins, including SKU.io support accounts, aren't counted.
SKU.io applies the setting each time a month closes or is re-signed, not when you save it. Taking on a second bookkeeper changes the next close under Automatic without anyone touching it. Who prepared and who closed each month is recorded whatever you choose. See review and close a month someone else prepared.
Your own checklist items
Every business has month-end work SKU.io can't check for you, such as accruing a freight invoice, emailing the pack to a client, or agreeing a payroll journal. Add these as custom items, so they sit on the checklist with everything else.
To add an item:
- Under Your own checklist items, click Add item.
- In Title, type the item as it should read on the checklist.
- Optionally, in Description (optional), type a line that shows under the title.
- Click Save.
To remove an item, click the cross at the end of its row (tooltip Remove from future checklists), then click Save. With no items, the section reads No items yet — the checklist will have no Custom section.
Where they appear. Custom items collect in the Custom group at the bottom of the checklist, below Sign-off, in the order you added them. They count toward the month's progress like any other item. The built-in list is 31 rows, 28 automated checks and three review items, so a business with two custom items reads 33 in its total.
How they behave. Custom items are manual, like the three built-in review items. Only a tick changes them. They never block a close, but an unticked one must be acknowledged in the close dialog, where it reads, for example, Accrue freight invoices not yet billed — not ticked on the checklist. There's no way to make a custom item blocking.
When changes reach a month:
- A month you start a close on gets the items as they're set up at that moment.
- An item you add later is added to months still in review at their next Re-check.
- Removing an item stops it being added from then on. A month that already has it keeps it, in whatever state it was in.
- A closed month never gains or loses items. Its checklist is the record of what somebody signed for, and nothing ever clears an item's tick.
Differences carried from before your start date
This card records trial balance differences, and A/R and A/P differences, that date from before your accounting start date. The Trial balance reconciled to provider and A/R and A/P match open documents checks then fail only on new differences, and their rows say how much was carried. Each change saves through its own dialog with Why are these carried? (kept with the baseline), and the card keeps a history of them.
Settings that live elsewhere
Block period close while debt is outstanding
This toggle controls whether the Inventory debt settled row blocks the close or warns. It's on by default, so the row blocks, and someone with Accounting → Period Override can close over it with a reason. Turned off, the row is a warning that whoever closes the month acknowledges. It's in Settings → Inventory → Inventory Debt. See inventory debt settings and close a month over outstanding inventory debt.
Late invoice grace days
Late invoice grace days is in Settings → Inventory → Cost Change Policies. It isn't a close setting, but it decides which month a late supplier invoice's cost lands in. It's read only by a cost-change cause set to Restate only inside the late invoice grace days.
A late invoice that restates a closed month lands in that month on its date, and the month shows as restated and asks for a re-sign-off. Only a Hard-locked month turns the cost away to the first open day. See choose which cost changes wait for review.