Tip of the month – Lock dates in Xero

It is important to lock periods in Xero once they are finalised to prevent any incorrect changes to take place and reports being changed once finalised.  Changes can happen accidentally which can cause issues that may not be found until year end. You can change and remove the lock date at any time.

Xero has a feature that prevents this from happening.

You need to use the advisor user role to set and change lock dates.

You would typically set a lock date when your financial records are being prepared for the year or at the end of a sales tax period. After you set a lock date, users can’t add or edit transactions in Xero if the transaction date is on or before the lock date.

Users can still create draft invoices, bills and expense claims and submit these items for approval, and save draft manual journals. You can also set lock dates for all user roles, or all user roles except the adviser user role.

To set a lock date:

• Go to the Accounting menu
• Select Advanced
• Then select Financial settings
• Enter the dates that you require the file to be locked from
• Once entered click save

Similarly, you can delete lock dates and then press save.

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