Set Closing Date and Year-End

The Year-End screen is where you finish a period. It does three jobs, in the order you do them at a month end, quarter end or year end: it checks that the period's books tie out, it freezes the period with a closing date so nothing in it can change, and it gives the finished books to your accountant as a download link or a complete archive.

Use it after you file a sales tax return, after your accountant has finished the year, or whenever you want a period to stay exactly as it was reported.

Opening the screen

• Company ▸ Set Closing Date and Year-End…
• Edit ▸ Preferences… ▸ Accounting, then Set Closing Date and Year-End under SET UP IN.

The screen is titled Year-End. Under the title it shows the period it is looking at (for example 2026-01-01 → 2026-09-25) and the note Check the period is clean, freeze it, then hand it over.

The toolbar

If a refresh fails while earlier figures are on screen, the screen keeps them and marks them as out of date, because the whole subject of this screen is whether a period may still move.

1 · Is this period clean?

Before you lock anything, SeroBooks runs four checks over the chosen period. Each shows a green tick or a red cross, and a failing check shows the figure that is out beside it.

When all four pass, a green banner says the period is ready to hand over. When any fails, a red banner says Something does not tie. Do not file or hand these books over until it does. Open the Trial Balance or General Ledger to find the cause before you close the period.

2 · Freeze the period: the closing date

The closing date is a day on or before which the books no longer move. The card in this section shows:

Buttons on the card: Set password… (or Password… once one is set), Reopen (only while a closing date is set), and Close the books (or Change date once a date is set).

Set the closing date

1. Choose Close the books (or Change date).
2. In the calendar titled Close the books through, pick the last day you want frozen. Future dates cannot be picked.
3. Read the confirmation Close the books through date**?** It says that nothing dated on or before that day can then be added, edited or deleted, and that a payment dated today against an older invoice still works.
4. Choose Close the books. The message Books closed through date confirms it.

To move the date later or earlier, use Change date and pick the new day. The closing date is saved for the whole company, for everyone who uses it.

What a closing date stops, and what it does not

The lock is enforced by the server at the ledger, so every screen and every way of saving is covered.

• Stopped: adding, editing, voiding or deleting any invoice, bill, expense, payment, deposit, journal entry, settlement or other transaction dated on or before the closing date. Re-posting a document whose entries fall in the closed period is also refused, and so is giving a new account an opening balance dated inside it.
• Not stopped: a payment dated today against an invoice or bill from the closed period. The payment carries its own date and lands in today's books, so a closed quarter stays collectable.

When a save is refused, the message names the document and its date, for example: This document is dated 2026-03-14, which falls in a period closed on 2026-03-31. Closed periods are usually periods that have been filed — changing one changes a return that has already been submitted. Record it in the current period instead, or ask an administrator to move the closing date.

The closing date password

A password lets trusted people save into a closed period instead of being refused.

1. Choose Set password… (or Password…).
2. Enter the same password in Password and Confirm password.
3. Choose Save. The message Closing date password saved. confirms it.

To take the password away, open the same window and choose Remove password. Without a password, a closed period cannot be changed at all.

When somebody later saves a transaction dated in the closed period, the save is refused first, and then a Closing date password window opens: That is dated in a closed period. Enter the closing date password to save into it, then save again. After OK, save the transaction again. The password is kept for 30 minutes on that computer, in memory only, so a run of corrections needs it once. If it is wrong, the save is simply refused again.

Every change made in a closed period is listed on the Closing Date Exception Report (see below).

Reopen the books

Reopen removes the closing date altogether, so every period becomes editable again, including ones that may already have been filed. The confirmation offers Keep closed or Reopen; after reopening, the message The books are open again. appears. If you only need to correct one month, it is usually better to use Change date and move the date back to just before that month, make the correction, and then move it forward again.

3 · Give it to the accountant

This section hands the chosen period to someone outside the business. For an accountant who works inside your books, see My Accountant.

New link: the working-paper pack

1. Set the period with the Year being closed button.
2. Choose New link.
3. In Give the books to your accountant, fill in:

4. Choose Create link. The Link created window shows the web address and a warning that anyone holding it can download the complete books for the period without signing in. Choose Copy link, then Done.

The link downloads one Excel workbook (.xlsx) of working papers for the period: the trial balance, general ledger, profit and loss, balance sheet and journal. The person opening it needs no login and cannot change anything.

The links list shows every link issued:

The list has Email and Export buttons in its toolbar, so you can keep a record of who was given access.

Export everything

Export everything builds a single archive of the whole company for the chosen period: the chart of accounts, the trial balance, every journal row with the document it came from, every invoice, bill, credit memo, expense and payment, and the customers, vendors and items they refer to. The files are spreadsheets, with a README that says how they join, so an accountant can audit from them without any access to SeroBooks.

1. Choose Export everything.
2. Tick Include the attachment files themselves if you want the attached files inside the archive. They are always listed; including them can add hundreds of megabytes.
3. Choose Build the archive. A full year can take a minute.
4. Choose where to save the .zip file.

When it finishes, a message says where it was saved and what it holds, for example Saved to … — 412 invoices, 96 bills, 38 expenses, 5210 general ledger. If it says the archive contains no documents for this period, check the dates on the Year being closed button.

Export everything is always available, whatever your plan: these are records a business is required to keep.

Year-end and retained earnings

SeroBooks does not need a closing journal entry at year end. The Balance Sheet works out the equity lines itself from the first month of your fiscal year (set in Edit ▸ Preferences… ▸ Accounting ▸ First month of the fiscal year):

• Retained earnings (prior years): all income less expenses dated before the current fiscal year.
• Current period earnings: income less expenses from the start of the current fiscal year to the report date.

Neither line is an account you can open; each is calculated.

Sales tax returns and the closing date

Filing a return in Manage Sales Tax does not move the closing date; set it here when you are ready. A return cannot be filed into a closed period: if the books are closed through a date on or after the return's period end, filing is refused with a message asking you to move the closing date back first. See Prepare and file a sales tax return.

The Closing Date Exception Report

Reports ▸ Accountant & Taxes ▸ Closing Date Exception Report lists every transaction dated on or before the closing date that was added, changed, voided or deleted after the closing date was set: work done with the password, or before the date was moved. Its columns are Num, Type, Action, Entered/Last Modified, Modified By, Date, Name and Amount, and a note at the foot counts the changes. With no closing date set, it says so and lists nothing. See Accountant & Taxes reports.

Permissions

Each action on this screen is its own right under Accounting ▸ Year-End in roles and permissions:

When your role does not hold the right, an Approval Required window lets someone who does hold it approve that one action. The server also checks that the signed-in person is an accounting administrator before it saves a closing date, a link or an export.

A year-end routine

1. Reconcile every bank and credit card account to the year-end statement.
2. Open this screen, set Year being closed to the fiscal year, and make sure all four checks are green.
3. Run Document Numbering over the same year.
4. Back up the company.
5. Choose Close the books and pick the last day of the year. Set a password if your accountant may still post adjustments.
6. Create a New link or Export everything for your accountant.
7. After the accountant's adjustments, check the Closing Date Exception Report.

Common problems

• "…falls in a period closed on…" when saving. The transaction's date is in the closed period. Date it in the current period, enter the closing date password if one is set, or ask whoever holds Close the Books to move the date.
• The calendar will not let me choose a later date. A closing date in the future would stop today's work, so it is refused: A closing date in the future would stop today's sales from being recorded. Choose today or a date in the past.
• A check is red. Do not close the period yet. The difference shown is the amount to find; the Trial Balance and Audit Trail are the places to start.
• My accountant says the link does not work. It has expired or been revoked; its Status says which. Create a new link.
• I forgot the closing date password. Someone with Close the Books can open Password…, choose Remove password, then set a new one.