Why can't I post into this date?
You tried to save something — an invoice, a payment, an expense, a journal — and instead of saving, Sales Scribe said:
This is dated 1 March 2026, and the books are locked up to and including 31 March 2026. Someone with permission to post into a locked period can either change the lock date or post it for you.
Nothing has gone wrong. Somebody has locked the books up to that date, which is what stops figures changing after a VAT return has been submitted or a year's accounts prepared.
What to do
If the date is a mistake, correct it. An entry meant for this month but dated in a locked period is the commonest cause — check the date field on the document rather than assuming the lock is wrong.
If the date is right, you have three options, and which is correct is an accounting decision rather than a software one:
- Date the entry in the current open period instead. Often the right answer for something that only came to light now.
- Ask someone with the permission to post it for you. Their doing so is recorded.
- Ask for the lock to be moved, if the period genuinely should not have been locked yet.
Sales Scribe does not choose between these for you. A material error in a prior period can require restating that period's comparatives rather than a current-period correction, and that is a judgement for whoever prepares the accounts.
You are usually told before you save
On a new invoice, bill, payment, expense, receipt, transfer, journal or credit note, the date field itself warns you. As soon as the date you enter falls on or before the lock date, a note appears beneath the field saying that the date is inside the locked period and that saving will be refused — so you can correct the date, or stop, before anything is submitted.
If you hold the permission to post into a locked period, the note says something different: that the entry will be saved, and that your posting into the locked period will be recorded.
The same note appears on the write-off dialog's date, and in every allocate a payment dialog: an allocation has no date of its own — it is posted on the settlement date, the later of the payment date and the invoice date — so as soon as you pick the invoice or bill, the dialog names that date and warns you if it is locked. A date field defaults to today in your organisation's time zone.
"It won't let me void this"
Voiding is a posting too, so the same rule applies — but only to some voids, and the difference is deliberate. It comes down to what the reversal is actually saying:
- "This should never have happened." Voiding an invoice, credit note, supplier invoice, spend or receive money entry, transfer or journal reverses it on the original document's date, so the period ends up as though it had never been posted. If that date is locked, the void is refused — the locked period's figures are exactly what the lock exists to protect.
- "Something new has happened that undoes it." A refund to a customer, or a supplier sending your money back, is dated today, because the money really did move today. That is not a posting into the locked period, so it is not blocked.
Undoing a posted payment — a customer's or a supplier's — asks which of the two it is. Inside a locked period the "it was a mistake" option is shown as unavailable and only the refund remains. See Refund or reverse a payment and Record a supplier payment.
You usually will not have to find out by clicking. On a document whose void would be refused, the Void button is shown as unavailable, with the document's date and the lock date beside it, so you can see at a glance which of the two is the problem.
When a void is refused, the document stays exactly as it was. An issued invoice stays issued; nothing is half-done.
Who can post into a locked period
Only someone holding the post into a locked period permission. For them there is no extra step — the entry simply saves, and the Void button is not shown as unavailable — but an audit entry is written naming the date, the lock in force, and that the override was used.
Refused attempts are recorded too. Nobody is in trouble for one: the record exists so that an accountant reviewing the books can see the lock working, and so that a run of refusals on the same period is visible as a sign the lock was set on the wrong date.
An outside accountant can hold this permission through the Accountant (external) access profile. A bookkeeper profile deliberately does not carry it. A practice member working in your books is refused, warned and recorded in exactly the same way as your own staff, and the record names the practice they were acting for.
Checking what the lock is
Settings → Accounting Settings, in the Financial year card under Posting lock. Everyone who can see that page can see the lock date; changing it needs the permission.
This is not the same as "you can't edit an issued invoice"
Two different rules, and you can meet either one:
- Per document — an issued invoice cannot be edited, whatever the date, lock or no lock. See Why can't I edit this invoice?.
- Per period — nothing can be posted into a locked date range, whatever the document.