Locking a Period

When your fiscal year ends, LedgerBuk closes the period and starts a grace period. During this time, you can review your books, make corrections, and then lock the period to finalize.

Locking is the step that creates the closing journal entry and seals the books. Until you lock, you can still post entries.

Why Lock Periods?

Locking provides:

• Finalized numbers — The closing journal entry is created from your corrected balances
• Data integrity — No more changes to the fiscal year
• Audit readiness — Locked periods satisfy audit requirements
• Accurate reporting — Historical reports remain unchanged

Before Locking

Use the grace period to complete these tasks:

• All transactions for the period are entered
• Trial Balance shows balanced (debits = credits)
• Bank reconciliations are complete
• Review P&L for any missing entries
• Accruals and adjustments are recorded
• Review the closing preview — do the numbers look right?

Tip

You can post entries freely during the grace period. This is your window to get everything right before the numbers become permanent.

Locking Process

1. Navigate to Period Close

   Go to Period Close from the sidebar, or click the “Review & Lock” button in the dashboard banner.

2. Review the Closing Preview

   The page shows:

   • All Revenue accounts and their balances (will be zeroed)
   • All Expense accounts and their balances (will be zeroed)
   • All Drawings accounts and their balances (will be zeroed)
   • Net income or loss — the amount transferred to Retained Earnings

3. Click “Lock Period”

   When you’re confident the numbers are correct, click the lock button.

4. Confirm

   Review the confirmation dialog and confirm to proceed.

What Happens When You Lock

1. Closing journal entry is created — debits Revenue, credits Expenses and Drawings, nets to Retained Earnings
2. Period status changes to “Locked — Reversible” (shown as an amber badge)
3. Entries are blocked — no more journal entries can be posted to that fiscal year
4. Event is recorded — full audit trail of who locked and when

Tip

Manual locks appear as “Locked — Reversible” (amber) because you can still reverse them during the grace period. Once grace expires or the system auto-locks, the badge turns green (permanent).

Note

The closing entry is dated on the last day of the fiscal year and uses the prefix CL- (e.g., CL-001).

Automatic Lock

If you don’t lock manually, the system will auto-lock the period when the grace period expires (default: 14 days after the fiscal year ends).

The auto-lock:

• Creates the closing journal entry automatically (marked as system-generated)
• Locks the period permanently — auto-locked periods cannot be reversed

Caution

Auto-locked periods are permanent. If you think you might need to make corrections, lock manually during the grace period so you have the option to reverse.

Zero Grace Period

If your organization sets the grace period to 0 days, the close and lock happen instantly when the fiscal year ends. There is no review window — the closing entry is created immediately.

This is suitable for organizations that reconcile continuously and don’t need a review period.

Period Close Checklist

Task	Description	Done?
Enter all invoices	All sales recorded	☐
Enter all bills	All expenses recorded	☐
Record payroll	Salaries and wages	☐
Depreciation	Monthly depreciation entries	☐
Accruals	Prepaid expenses, accrued revenue	☐
Bank reconciliation	All accounts reconciled	☐
Review Trial Balance	Debits = Credits	☐
Review closing preview	Revenue, expenses, net income correct	☐
Management approval	Sign-off on numbers	☐

Best Practices

1. Use the full grace period — Don’t rush to lock. Review thoroughly first.
2. Lock manually — This gives you the option to reverse if you spot an issue.
3. Document adjustments — Note any unusual entries made during the grace period.
4. Communicate — Let the team know when you plan to lock so they can finish any pending entries.