Who can do what in the close
You can read a month's close with access to Accounting and nothing else. Reading needs that one permission, and changing a month is split across four more: one to work a month, one to sign it off, one to go past a blocking check, and one to move the hard close date. This page lists which permission each action needs, and what you see on the Close tab when you don't hold it.
Permissions are granted per role. Go to Settings → Users & Permissions, open the Roles tab, open a role, and look under Accounting. A person gets a permission from any role they hold. See roles and permissions.
The short version
| What you want to do | Permission you need |
|---|---|
| Open the Close tab, open any month, read its checklist, reports, sync breakdown and History | The Accounting → List permission (accounting.index) |
| Run Verify on a closed month | Accounting → List |
| Start close, or Close for the record on a Locked, not closed month | The Accounting → Sync permission (accounting.sync) |
| Re-check a month in review, or a Closed or Closed – restated month | Accounting → Sync |
| Tick and untick manual checklist items | Accounting → Sync |
| Take over preparation | Accounting → Sync |
| Record override on the checklist | Accounting → Sync and the Accounting → Period Override permission (accounting.period.override) |
| Capture provider balances | Accounting → Sync |
| Export pack | Accounting → Sync |
| Close period | The Accounting → Manage Settings permission (accounting.manage_settings) |
| Re-sign-off a restated month, including Run all checks | Accounting → Manage Settings |
| Reopen… a closed month | Accounting → Manage Settings |
| Change close settings on Accounting → Settings → Close | Accounting → Manage Settings |
| Close or re-sign off over a blocking check that can be closed over | Accounting → Manage Settings and Accounting → Period Override |
| Set, move forward, lower or clear the hard close date | The Accounting → Period Hard Close permission (accounting.period.hard_close) |
| Tick Also lock through this month in the close dialog | Accounting → Period Hard Close, plus Accounting → Manage Settings to close |
| Move the hard close date past months that were never closed | Accounting → Period Hard Close and Accounting → Period Override |
The five permissions
Accounting → List: see the Accounting section
This is the access gate for everything under Accounting, the Close tab included. Without it, Accounting isn't in the menu.
With it alone, the whole close is readable: the Year board, every month's drawer, the checklist, the nine reports and every saved revision, Changes since sign-off, History and the sync breakdown. That's deliberate. A reviewer, an owner or an outside accountant can see everything without being able to change a month.
Accounting → Sync: work a month
Everything that moves a month along without signing it off:
- Start close, which turns the preview checklist into the month's saved one. On a Locked, not closed month the button reads Close for the record.
- Re-check. On a month in review, it re-runs every automated check. On a Closed or Closed – restated month, it compares every report with the live books again.
- The tick boxes on manual checklist items, in both directions.
- Take over preparation, which makes you the month's preparer.
- Record override on a failing check, together with Accounting → Period Override.
- Capture provider balances, which pulls your provider's trial balance in for the Trial Balance Reconciliation report.
- Export pack, which builds the month's workbook in the job tray.
A bookkeeper who already works the ledger probably has this permission. Its help text in the role editor reads Trigger accounting syncs, sync overrides, bulk actions and rebuilds.
Taking the workbook away needs Accounting → Sync, even for a closed month. Reading the same nine reports on screen needs only Accounting → List.
Accounting → Manage Settings: sign a month off
The actions that sign a month off, or pull a sign-off back:
- Close period, which signs the month off and saves its report pack as the month's numbers of record. It doesn't freeze the month.
- Re-sign-off, which signs a Closed – restated month off again and saves a new revision. Run all checks in the re-sign-off dialog needs it too.
- Reopen…, which pulls back a sign-off made by mistake.
- Every setting on Accounting → Settings → Close, except the hard close date.
Its help text in the role editor reads Configure the posting-granularity matrix and other GL settings. In practice, a bookkeeper can prepare a month end to end and still need a controller to sign it off. Grant Accounting → Sync and Accounting → Manage Settings to one role if one person should do both.
Accounting → Period Override: go past a blocking check
Most blocking checks must be fixed. A few can be closed over: the month closes, or is re-signed, with the check still failing, and the reason and the exposure as it stood are recorded against the month. Closing over a check needs this permission. So does recording an override on the checklist when a second person has to close the month.
It isn't a general bypass. Only some checks can be closed over, and All entries balanced never can, at any permission level. The full list is in which blocking checks can be closed over.
It also lets you move the hard close date past months that were never closed, with a reason. Those months then read Locked, not closed.
Its help text in the role editor reads Go past a blocking check with a recorded reason: close a month over one, or turn accounting on for the first time with go-live readiness items still open.
Accounting → Period Hard Close: freeze the books
Only the hard close date freezes the books, so moving it has its own permission. It covers:
- Set hard close date…, Move hard close date… and Lower hard close date…, on the Year board, on the Hard close date card and on a Hard-locked month's banner
- dragging the marker on the Year board
- clearing the hard close date
- Also lock through this month in the close dialog
- applying a provider's lock date as your hard close date
- setting the hard close date before your books open
It's opt-in. Only the admin role holds it by default. The Full Access role doesn't, and no existing role gained it when it was added. An admin grants it role by role, under Accounting on the Roles screen.
Without it, Also lock through this month doesn't appear in the close dialog at all. The move buttons and the marker are unavailable, with the tooltip You do not have permission to move the hard close date.
Admins
An admin passes every permission check, so an admin holds all five without any being ticked on their role. To test what a restricted user sees, use an account that isn't an admin.
Holding the permission isn't always enough
When a second person has to close a month, the person who prepared it can't close it, whatever permissions they hold, admins included. Ticking a manual item or recording an override counts as working on the month too. Close period stays unavailable for them, and its tooltip says why.
Re-sign-off follows the same rule. While independent review is required, nobody recorded as changing the month since its sign-off can re-sign it. The re-sign-off dialog names those people, for example Someone other than Morgan Ellis has to sign March 2026 off again., and its button is unavailable for them. When you're the only accounting user, you re-sign with a self-review reason instead. A change nobody made by hand, such as a sync or a rebuild, leaves everyone free to re-sign.
The setting that decides when this applies is Require an independent reviewer. See review and close a month someone else prepared.
Accounting users, for the Automatic setting, are people whose role has Accounting → Sync or Accounting → Manage Settings and who have activated their account or signed in. Super admins, including SKU.io support accounts, aren't counted.
Queued actions check the person again
A re-sign-off and a hard close date move both run in the background. When the job runs, it checks the person who asked again. If they lost the permission or their account was deactivated in the meantime, the job stops and changes nothing. The job tray then says that the action needs that permission, held by an active member of the account, for example Accounting → Manage Settings.
What you see without the permission
The Close tab hides nothing based on your permissions. Every month, row, report and section shows the same for everyone who can open the page. What changes is which controls you can use.
Controls that are unavailable, with a tooltip
| Control | Tooltip | Permission you need |
|---|---|---|
| Start close, Close for the record, Re-check, Export pack | You do not have permission to run close actions. | Accounting → Sync |
| Close period, Reopen… | You do not have permission to close or reopen a period. | Accounting → Manage Settings |
| Re-sign-off, and its confirm button | You do not have permission to sign off a period. | Accounting → Manage Settings |
| Run all checks in the re-sign-off dialog | You do not have permission to run close actions. | Accounting → Manage Settings |
| Re-check in the re-sign-off dialog | You do not have permission to run close actions. | Accounting → Sync |
| The Year board marker, Set hard close date…, Move hard close date…, Lower hard close date… | You do not have permission to move the hard close date. | Accounting → Period Hard Close |
| The fields on Accounting → Settings → Close | A notice at the top: You can read these, but changing them needs the Manage Settings permission under Accounting on the Roles screen. | Accounting → Manage Settings |
The permission reason comes before every other reason a button can be unavailable. Fix the permission first, and the other reasons show once you hold it.
Reopen… has two other reasons of its own: Lower the hard close date first. on a Hard-locked month, and Only the latest closed period can be reopened — reopen later months first.
Controls that hide
- Also lock through this month doesn't appear in the close dialog without Accounting → Period Hard Close.
- Record override doesn't appear on a checklist row without Accounting → Period Override.
- In the Move hard close date forward dialog, without Accounting → Period Override the override box is replaced by Crossing months that were never closed needs the Accounting › Period Override permission.
Controls that stay live and refuse when you use them
Two actions don't grey out over a missing permission:
- The tick boxes on manual checklist items. Their unavailable states are about the month, not about you: Start the close to check items off, This period is closed — the checklist is read-only, and Working — one moment.
- Capture provider balances, in the Report pack section.
Use one without Accounting → Sync and a red message names what to ask for: You don't have permission to do this. Ask an admin to add "Accounting → Sync" to your role. Nothing changes: no half-ticked item, no partial capture.
Where the screen names the permission
In the close and re-sign-off dialogs, the panel for a blocking check you could close over changes with your permissions. Without Accounting → Period Override, it offers no reason box and says:
This normally blocks the close. You don't have the Accounting › Period Override permission, so it has to be resolved before March 2026 can close — or ask someone who holds it.
With the permission, the same panel offers Why is this being closed over?, and the button becomes available once you type a reason. In the re-sign-off dialog, the wording says "sign-off" instead of "close".
An override recorded on the checklist stops counting when the person who recorded it leaves or loses Accounting → Period Override. The dialog then says so and asks for it to be removed and recorded again by someone who holds the permission.
What a read-only viewer can do
Someone with Accounting → List alone can:
- Open the Close tab, move between years on the Year board, and open any month's drawer.
- Read the whole Close checklist, including Blocking chips, results, Acknowledged at close stamps and the sign-off line.
- Open all nine reports, and any earlier sign-off revision.
- Read Changes since sign-off, the restatement panel and History.
- Run Verify on a closed month.
- Read Sync status — why isn't everything on the provider? and follow its View links.
They can't start a close, change a checklist, download the workbook, close, re-sign, reopen or move the hard close date. That's the right grant for an outside accountant, an auditor or a reviewer who signs off on the numbers without operating SKU.io.
Choosing what to grant
| Person | Grant |
|---|---|
| Bookkeeper who prepares the month | Accounting → List and Accounting → Sync. They do the work and hand the sign-off to someone else. |
| Controller who signs months off | Add Accounting → Manage Settings. Add Accounting → Period Override if they should be able to close over a blocking check. |
| Whoever freezes the books at quarter or year end | Add Accounting → Period Hard Close. Keep this to the few people who own the year-end. |
| Reviewer, auditor or client | Accounting → List alone. |
| Admin | Nothing. Admins already pass every check. |
With two or more accounting users, the default Automatic setting already keeps preparing and closing apart.