close · Lesson 6 · 10 min
Month-end, year-end, and lock dates
A close is a checklist plus a lock. If anyone can still post into March on 20 April, you do not have a close.
Month-end checklist
- All bank, card, loan, and clearing accounts reconciled to statements; rec reports filed.
- Hubdoc/Dext drafts for the period approved or parked with a reason.
- AR: invoices issued, credits allocated, receipts matched, aging reviewed.
- AP: bills entered, credits allocated, payments matched, aging reviewed.
- Payroll journals in; tax draws matched to liabilities.
- Accruals, prepayments, depreciation, inventory count journal.
- Control accounts equal subledgers; suspense is zero.
- P&L and Balance Sheet scanned; oddities investigated.
- Workpapers (rec, TB, significant journals) saved.
- Lock date set to the last day of the month (or first day of next, consistently).
Lock dates
Xero: Settings (or Advanced) → Financial settings → Lock dates. You can lock to all users except advisors, and a stricter lock including advisors. QBO: gear → Account and settings → Advanced → Close the books, with or without a password. After lock, a March invoice belongs in March only if you unlock, post, and re-close — and you should know why.
Year-end extras
Confirm 1099/W-9 data, fixed-asset schedule, loan confirmations, inventory count, prepaid schedules, and sales-tax filings. The CPA’s adjusting journal entries (AJEs) go in as manual journals dated the last day of the year, with the CPA’s workpaper as the attachment. Then lock the year.
Check
Choices shuffle each visit. Misses send you back to the section — Look back clears the quiz so you can try again.
Choose an answer, then check.
The purpose of a lock date is:
Practice: What still isn’t closed?