How to lock periods and manage exceptions

What is it for?

A lock date closes the accounts up to that day: after you submit the VAT return or close the month, nobody records a document dated in that period by mistake. When a late document really has to go into a closed period, you open an exception, with a reason, and revoke it when it is no longer needed.

There are five dates, and each one locks different things (each field's help says the same):

• Global Lock Date: all journal entries up to that date, in all journals. Used at the end of the fiscal year.
• Tax Return Lock Date: all journal entries with taxes up to that date, in any journal (invoices, manual journal entries, banks). This is the one used to protect VAT already declared: it only locks journal entries with taxes, without closing the rest of the accounts.
• Sales Lock Date: only journal entries in sales journals.
• Purchase Lock Date: only journal entries in purchase journals.
• Hard Lock Date: all journal entries up to that date, with no exceptions; it cannot be undone.

Locking or opening an exception creates no journal entries; who did it, when and why is recorded.

When to use it?

• At the end of each month, after checking purchases and sales, to close that month.
• After submitting the periodic VAT return, so that no document changes the VAT already declared. Here the date that matters is the Tax Return Lock Date, not the sales and purchase ones (see “Important notes”).
• When an invoice from a closed month arrives late and has to stay in that month: open an exception before the invoice is created, check the Accounting Date before confirming and revoke the exception afterwards.

Where to find it?

Accounting › Close › Close the month (in the Month accounting group). The screen is called What is missing to close? and has the buttons Lock sales and purchases up to the end of the month, Lock dates and, in Supporting lists, Lock dates and exceptions.

Before you start

• Your profile is Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager. With it you can do every step in this article (tested with that profile). The Accountant sees the dates but cannot change them: the window says “Dates your profile cannot change” and which group is needed. The Tax Return Lock Date requires the Fiscal Submissions group and the Hard Lock Date the Fiscal administration group, fiscaldoo's administration profile (not the AT).
• The month's documents are recorded and checked. The screen shows what is still missing (banks, VAT, withholding tax, SAF-T, closing checks), but does not prevent locking.
• In the example, Empresa Demonstração, Lda, with the 2025 fiscal year already locked (Global Lock Date 31/12/2025) and January 2026 still to close.

How to use it

1. Open Accounting › Close › Close the month. The screen opens on the first month still to close (in the example, January 2026); the list next to the title changes the month.
2. Click Lock sales and purchases up to the end of the month. The Close the month window opens with the proposal: “To close the month, the proposal is to lock sales and purchases up to 31/01/2026, the end of the month. Nothing is locked until you write the reason and press Apply…”. The left column has the current dates; the right column the new ones (Sales Lock Date and Purchase Lock Date already at 31/01/2026).
3. In Reason, write why (for example Fecho de janeiro de 2026) and click Apply.
4. To change another date (for example the Global Lock Date at the end of the fiscal year), click Lock dates: the Lock dates window has the same fields. Moving a date forward locks more and applies to all users.
5. To open an exception (a January purchase invoice that arrived late), before anyone creates the invoice: in Lock dates, clear the Purchase Lock Date. You see “Purchase Lock Date (31/01/2026) removed: this opens an exception (only for you, until it is revoked); the company date stays the same.” and two new fields: The exception applies to (Only for me or For everyone) and Exception valid until.
   • If the invoice is going to be confirmed by someone else (in the normal flow, the Accountant), choose For everyone. Only for me only applies to whoever opens the exception (see “Important notes”).
   • In Exception valid until, set a near date (in the example, 30/10/2026, the next day): the exception ends then, even if you forget to revoke it. If empty, it lasts until it is revoked.
   • Write the Reason and click Apply. The screen confirms: “Exception opened. Purchase Lock Date removed (for everyone, until 30/10/2026 00:00:00); the company date is still 31/01/2026.”
6. Only with the exception active, ask whoever records documents (in the example, the Accountant) to create the invoice. Before clicking Confirm, they check the Accounting Date: it must be a date in the invoice's month, in the example 31/01/2026. Do not trust the date the screen proposes: the invoice of 15/01/2026 created with the exception already active came with Accounting Date 29/10/2026, the day it was entered. Click the field, type 31/01/2026 and only then click Confirm. In the example, FTF/2026/00052 (Papelaria Central, €10.00 + VAT 23% €2.30) was Posted with Bill Date 15/01/2026 and Accounting Date 31/01/2026. The lines are 6233 Office supplies debit €10.00, 2432 VAT - Deductible debit €2.30 and 2211 General suppliers credit €12.30, all on 31/01/2026 (checked in Review › Ledger, from 01/01/2026 to 31/01/2026). The VAT stays in the January period.
7. Check in Lock dates and exceptions (in the Supporting lists of the same screen): one line per date in force and one per exception, with the Nature, the Type, the Date, Who, Used on, the Reason, Valid until and the State.
8. To revoke the exception once the document has been posted: click Exceptions and revoking, open the exception and click Revoke with reason. In the Revoke lock date exceptions window, write the Reason and click Revoke.

Expected result

• The company has sales and purchases locked up to 31/01/2026, and the list shows them In force with the reason and who set them.
• An exception is Active on the list (Active on the exception form) until it is revoked or until the time in Exception valid until, which the form shows in End Date; the form also has the Expired state. Once revoked, the form says REVOKED, with the Revocation reason, Revoked by, Revoked on, and the End Date becomes the time of the revocation.
• No journal entry is created.

Important notes

• A locked date does not prevent confirming: it changes the accounting date. A supplier invoice dated 15/01/2026, after the lock, shows “The date of this document (15/01/2026) is in a period that has already been closed (up to 31/01/2026: Purchase Lock Date (31/01/2026)). The document keeps its date, but the accounting entry is dated 29/10/2026.…”. When confirmed, the invoice keeps the Bill Date 15/01/2026 and the journal entry is dated 29/10/2026 (in the example, FTF/2026/00049: the expense account debit €10.00, 2432 deductible VAT debit €2.30 and 2211 General suppliers credit €12.30, all on 29/10/2026). The VAT goes into the October period, not January. If the document has to stay in January, open a For everyone exception before the invoice is created and type the January date in the Accounting Date before clicking Confirm (steps 5 and 6). Pending validation by a certified accountant: in which period the VAT of an invoice from an already declared month is deducted (VAT Code (CIVA), art. 22 and art. 78) and when an exception should be opened instead of posting on the current date.
• The Hard Lock Date cannot be undone. It can only move forward; no exception opens it. Only use it for fiscal years that are closed and approved.
• The sales and purchase dates do not protect VAT already declared. They only apply to the sales and purchase journals. In the example, with sales and purchases locked up to 31/01/2026, a manual journal entry in the Miscellaneous Operations journal with VAT and dated 15/01/2026 (MISC/2026/00145: 6233 debit €10.00, 2432 VAT - Deductible debit €2.30 and 2211 credit €12.30) was posted on 15/01/2026, with no lock warning at all. What locks all journal entries with VAT is the Tax Return Lock Date. After submitting the return, close the period from the return itself, with Close VAT period (section “Close the VAT period” of How to prepare and submit the periodic VAT return), which moves this date up to the end of the period. You can also move it forward in Lock dates: the Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager profile can change it, the Accountant cannot. If the company has turned on Lock the period when the return is submitted (on the company form, PT Localization tab; off in the example), recording the submission already moves this date. Pending validation by a certified accountant: which lock date to move forward after submitting the periodic VAT return, and who moves it.
• Only for me only works for whoever opens the exception. With an Only for me exception opened by the Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager, the invoice of 15/01/2026 created by the Accountant still shows the banner “The date of this document (15/01/2026) is in a period that has already been closed […] the accounting entry is dated 29/10/2026.” Use Only for me when the same person opens the exception and confirms the document. For someone else to confirm it, use For everyone with a near Exception valid until, and revoke the exception as soon as the document is posted: while it is active, everyone can record purchases in that period.
• The exception does not change the date of a draft that already exists. With the exception active, the journal entry gets the date in the Accounting Date when you click Confirm, and that date is not recalculated when the exception opens. In the example, a draft of 15/01/2026 created before the exception kept Accounting Date 29/10/2026 after the exception opened; the lock banner disappeared, so nothing warns you. Delete that draft (the ⋮ “Actions” button, next to the title › Delete, and Delete in the “Bye-bye, record!” window) and create it again with the exception active. Even so, check the Accounting Date as in step 6: the re-created invoice also came with 29/10/2026 and 31/01/2026 had to be typed.
• What the list does not tell you. Lock dates and exceptions shows what is set, not whether the month is ready to close: you see that in the panels of the What is missing to close? screen.

Common problems

“Some required fields are empty”

• Symptom: when you click Apply without a reason, the window does not close and you see “Some required fields are empty. Fill in the fields marked in red to be able to save.”; below Reason, “Write the reason for the change before pressing Apply: every lock date change is recorded with it.”
• What to do: write the reason and click Apply again.

“No lock date was changed”

• Symptom: Invalid Operation window: “No lock date was changed. Why: The dates in the window are the same as the current ones. How to fix it: Change at least one date, or close the window if nothing needs to change.”
• What to do: check that you changed the date (to clear a date, delete the text in the field and press Enter before Apply).

“The date is being set prior to: Purchase Lock Date”

• Symptom: on a draft invoice with the Accounting Date in a closed month (in the example, 31/01/2026), you see “The date is being set prior to: Purchase Lock Date (31/01/2026). The Journal Entry will be accounted on 29/10/2026 upon posting.” If you click Confirm, the invoice is Posted with Accounting Date 29/10/2026, with no further question.
• Verified cause: there is no active exception for the person confirming (in the example, it had been revoked). An Only for me exception opened by someone else does not work either (see “Important notes”).
• What to do: do not confirm. Ask for the exception (step 5) and confirm only when this banner has disappeared and the Accounting Date is the January one.

“Dates your profile cannot change”

• Verified cause: your profile does not have the group shown in the banner (for example the Accountant, for the global, sales and purchase dates).
• What to do: ask someone with the Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager profile to do the lock or open the exception.