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Reopen a closed month

Reopening removes the lock a close put on a month, so entries can post into it again. It is a governed action: SKU.io requires a reason, records who reopened the month and when, and keeps that history on the screen afterwards — including after you close the month a second time.

Before you begin​

  • The month must be Closed. Reopen… sits on the closed-month banner, beside Verify. On a month that is not closed there is nothing to reopen.
  • Only the most recently closed month can be reopened. On any earlier closed month the button is disabled, with the tooltip Only the latest closed period can be reopened — reopen later months first. Getting back into an earlier month therefore means unwinding every month after it, newest first: to reach March when April and May are also closed, reopen May, then April, then March. All three sit at In Review afterwards, and you close them again oldest-first — March, then April, then May. See which months you can close, and in what order.
  • No close can be running. If one is, the reopen is refused with A period close is running — wait for it to finish before reopening. Wait for the month in Closing… to finish.
  • You need permission to close and reopen periods. Reopen… does not grey out when you lack it — the refusal arrives as an error message after you confirm the dialog. (The same permission does grey out Close period on an open month, with the tooltip You do not have permission to close or reopen a period.)
  • Have your reason ready. It is required, limited to 500 characters, and read by whoever audits the month later — so write it for someone with no memory of this week. Only the most recent reopen is kept and displayed: reopening twice overwrites the first reason.

Steps​

  1. Go to Accounting → Close.
  2. In the Periods rail, select the closed month. Its banner reads June 2026 is closed with a Locked chip.
  3. Click Reopen…. The Reopen June 2026 dialog opens and explains what happens: Reopening removes this period's lock so entries can post into it again. The close snapshots are kept but flagged stale. A reason is required for the audit trail.
  4. Type why you are reopening the month in Reason — for example, a late freight bill that needs to post into June. The confirm button stays disabled until you enter one.
  5. Click REOPEN JUNE 2026.
  6. Read the confirmation message. It tells you whether the month is now genuinely open, or still locked by something else.

What a reopen changes​

  • The month returns to In Review, and the header actions become Re-check, Export pack, and Close period.
  • The green closed banner is replaced by an amber panel headed June 2026 was reopened, with an Unlocked chip.
  • The lock the close created is removed, so entries can post into the month again.
  • The Close checklist is editable again. Checks re-evaluate on Re-check, and you can tick and untick the manual items.
  • Acknowledgements from the previous close are cleared — the Acknowledged at close stamps disappear. Anything still outstanding has to be acknowledged again when you close the month a second time, which is the point: a warning may well have been fixed in between, and an old acknowledgement must not carry forward as if it were still true. See blocking checks and warnings.
  • The figures saved at close are kept, not deleted, but they no longer apply. Every card in the Report pack picks up a Superseded chip, and the pack itself reads Preliminary — period open. Opening a card now shows live figures, marked Live and Preliminary.
  • Verify is no longer offered. It runs on closed months only, so there is nothing to compare against until you close the month again.

Read the reopened-month panel​

The amber panel keeps the whole sign-off history visible, so nobody reading the month later has to guess what happened to it:

June 2026 was reopened            [Unlocked]
Originally closed by Administrator · 09/12/2026, 13:57:23
Reopened by Administrator · 09/12/2026, 14:07:01 — "<your reason, quoted back>"
The period lock has been removed, so entries can post into this month again. The
previous close snapshots are kept but marked stale — closing again takes a fresh
set as the month's numbers of record.

Your reason is quoted back verbatim, next to who reopened the month and when.

After you close the month again, the green June 2026 is closed banner returns and still carries the earlier reopen underneath the new sign-off line, on a line beginning Previously reopened — who reopened it, when, and the reason in quotes. The trail survives re-closing; it is only overwritten by a later reopen.

Reopened, but the month is still locked​

This is the most common "I reopened it and nothing changed" situation.

A reopen removes only the lock that this close created. Other locks covering the same dates are untouched, and while any of them stands, nothing can post into the month even though it reads In Review.

With nothing left in the way, the reopen lands as a green message reading June 2026 reopened. When a lock survives, the message is amber instead and names each one — but it does not name the connection or the date:

June 2026 reopened, but the month is still locked: your accounting provider still has it locked — reopen it there too. an internal lock still covers it — clear it in period locks.

Both halves appear when both apply, run together as above; when only one lock stands you get only its half. Neither tells you which provider or what date, so read those off the close screens:

  • Your accounting provider still has it locked. Reopen the month in your provider, then bring the change back in so SKU.io sees the new date. The Provider lock aligned row on the checklist names the connection and the date it is locked to — for example, Sample QBO Connection locked to 2026-05-31.
  • An internal lock still covers it. Go to Accounting → Settings → General and move or clear Accounting Lock Date. The Effective lock date line there shows what is actually in force, above the note The later of your lock date and enforced provider lock dates.

Re-run Re-check on the close after clearing a lock, then confirm an entry can post into the month before you rely on it being open.

Closing the month again​

Reopening does not commit you to changing anything. When you are finished, run Re-check, work through the checklist, and close the month again.

The second close takes a completely fresh set of figures as the month's numbers of record. The superseded set from the first close is not reused, and the acknowledgements are gathered again from scratch.

Entries pushed into the next month stay there​

While a month is closed, corrections dated inside it cannot post on their own date. With Locked-period events set to Post on first open day, flagged (in Accounting → Settings → General), those entries are booked on the first open day instead, keep their intended date, and are flagged:

  • In the transactions list, the intended date shows struck through beneath the date the entry actually posted on.
  • On the entry itself, an information panel headed Displaced from a locked period gives both dates.
  • Accounting → Reports → Lock exceptions lists every displaced entry, with Original date, Posted date, and Days displaced columns.

Reopening the month does not pull those entries back to their intended dates. They stay where the lock put them. Moving or clearing Accounting Lock Date under Accounting → Settings → General does re-examine displaced entries against the lock now in force, and can return them to their intended dates — reopening from the Close tab does not.

So check Lock exceptions for the month before and after a reopen. If entries need to come back to the reopened month, contact SKU.io support rather than re-dating them by hand — moving a posted entry changes figures in two months at once.

Next steps​

Last verified: