Close and Reopen Your Accounting Books

In accounting software, setting a closed books date ensures that no transactions before that date can be altered, preserving the integrity of your financial reports. 

Once financial figures are reported for a specific period, it's crucial to prevent any changes to maintain accuracy.

Closing the books in Docket prevents anyone on your team from changing financial records for a period you've already reported on. 

Once a closed books date is set, Docket blocks back-dated transactions for any date on or before that closed books date. This includes creating, voiding, merging, and refunding invoices or payments.

If you ever need to correct something inside a closed period, you can temporarily reopen it, make the change, and then reclose it.

Before You Start

Here are a few things to know before you continue:

• You must have Administrator permissions to close, reopen, and reclose the books.
• The closed books date must be set to a date before today. It can't be today or a future date.
• Docket's closed books date is separate from QuickBooks Online's closed books date and they don't sync. If you use both, you'll need to set the close date in each system separately.

How the Closed Books Date Works

Once you set a closed books date, Docket treats every date on or before that date as a locked period. The date pickers across the platform will show those dates as unavailable so transactions can't be back-dated into the closed period.

The following actions are not allowed for any transaction dated in a closed period:

• Creating an invoice or credit memo with an invoice or credit date in a closed period.
• Selecting a transaction date in a closed period when scheduling or recording a payment.
• Refunding a payment with a transaction date in a closed period.
• Merging invoices with an invoice date in a closed period.
• Voiding invoices with an invoice date in a closed period.
• Marking invoices as bad debt with an invoice date in a closed period. 

The following are still allowed while the period is closed:

• Applying a payment or credit memo to an invoice within a closed period.
• Voiding or canceling a payment with a process date in a closed period as long as that payment hasn't deposited or cleared yet.

Please Note: Automated late fees also respect the closed books date. If you have automated late fees set up, Docket will skip any invoice dated on or before the closed books date rather than creating a back-dated late fee.

Close the Books

Setting a closed books date for the first time, or advancing it to cover a new period, uses the same workflow. 

To close the books, just follow the instructions below:

1. Click on “Account” in the bottom left corner.
2. Click on “Settings” at the top.
3. Click on “Company” right below.
4. Click on “View” on the Accounting card.
   
   
5. Click "Close the Books" at the bottom.
   
   
6. Select your date from the prompt that appears.
   
   Please Note: The date you select must be before today. Today and future dates are not selectable.
    
7. Click "Confirm" to save your changes and close the books.
   
   

You'll now see that close date displayed and can continue to click the "Close the Books" button to update your closed books time period in the future.

Reopen the Closed Period

If you need to correct a transaction inside a closed period, you can temporarily reopen it. 

Please Note: You'll need to reclose the reopened period before setting a new closed books date.

To reopen the period, just follow the instructions below:

1. Click on “Account” in the bottom left corner.
2. Click on “Settings” at the top.
3. Click on “Company” right below.
4. Click on “View” on the Accounting card.
   
   
5. Click "Reopen the Period" at the bottom.
   
   
6. Select your date from the prompt that appears.
   
   Please Note: The date you select must be before your current closed books date.
7. Click "Confirm" to save your changes and reopen the books.
   
   

You'll now see the previous close date displayed along with the reopened date. You'll need to reclose the books in order to continue closing the books for a more recent time period.

Reclose the Period

Once you've finished making corrections, you'll need to reclose the period to put the lock back in place. 

To reclose your books, just follow the instructions below:

1. Click on “Account” in the bottom left corner.
2. Click on “Settings” at the top.
3. Click on “Company” right below.
4. Click on “View” on the Accounting card.
   
   
5. Click "Reclose the Period" at the bottom.
   
   
6. Click "Confirm" from the prompt that appears to reclose your books.
   
   

You'll now see everything return to its post-close state.

TIP: When you reclose the period, the lock is restored at the original close date, not the reopened date. If you want to advance the closed books date to a new month, click "Close the Books" again after reclosing and select a more recent date.

If you have any questions, please reach out to our Support team through the chat widget on the bottom of this page or by sending an email to support@yourdocket.com!