Close the books for a month or year
Closing a period locks it. Everything dated on or before the close date becomes read-only, so a stray edit can never change a month you already reported.
Before you close
Work through the month first. Closing does not check your work for you.
- Every transaction reviewed. Open All pages in the left sidebar, then under Daily work click Transactions and check the To review filter is empty.
- Every bank and card reconciled to its statement, under Accounting then Reconcile.
- Reports read right. Check Profit & loss and Balance sheet under Reports.
Close it
- Open All pages, then under Accounting click Period close.
- Click End of last month or End of last quarter, or pick any date.
- Click Close period.
The page then confirms the date and how much is protected.
What a closed period does
- Transactions dated on or before the close date cannot be edited.
- New manual journal entries cannot post into the closed range.
- Bank feeds, imports, and invoice payments still post normally for dates after the close.
- You can extend the close forward at any time, or reopen entirely.
Closing a year
There is one close date per workspace, so a year-end close is the same action with 31 December as the date.
- BooksGPT rolls your profit into Retained Earnings for you. There is no year-end journal entry to post by hand.
- Close month by month through the year, then extend to 31 December once the year is reviewed.
- Your fiscal year start comes from workspace settings, so a non-calendar year works the same way.
Reopening
Click Reopen books and confirm. Past transactions become editable again.
Reopen when you genuinely need to fix something, then close forward again straight away. A period nobody can edit is the whole point.
Good to know
- The close date can be extended forward but not moved back. To pull it back, reopen and close again at the earlier date.
- You cannot close a date in the future.
- Closing does not stop new work. It only protects what is behind the line.
Updated on: 03/08/2026
Thank you!