Closing the month by a list
A month is locked only when its checklist is done — every day audited, the sub-ledgers agreeing, the bank reconciled — and at the lock the trial balance is snapshotted and hashed. Reopening needs two signatures.
A month is locked once every hotel has closed its days; that has been so since the ledger arrived. Now locking it is a checklist with an owner for each task, most of them checked by the machine, and the closed numbers are frozen.

Do this
- Reports → Month-close dashboard — one row per entity and month: locked or not, the tasks done and pending, who owns each, and whether the snapshot was taken.
- The list itself: *every day audited* and *the sub-ledgers agree with the books* are mandatory by default; *bank reconciled*, *GST return prepared*, *GRNI accrued*, *sign-off* are advisory until the hotel makes them mandatory. A manual task is ticked by a person; an automatic one is run by the machine and marked with its evidence.
- Reports → Lock a month. It refuses until every mandatory task is done or marked n/a — *The close checklist is not finished — …* — and until every hotel has audited the month's last day. At the lock it writes the snapshot: each hotel's trial balance, materialised and hashed, so the closed numbers cannot drift.
Reopening
Unlock asks for a reason. If the account has a *period unlock* approval rule, it also refuses until an approved request exists for that month — *Reopening Aug 2026 needs an approved request* — and the request is raised and signed on Approvals. Without a rule it stays the single administrator's act.
The day, audited by finance
The night audit closes a day operationally. Reports → Revenue audit (a day) is finance's own look before the day is believed: the books equal the folios, no occupied room went uncharged, no comp went unapproved, no bill was left open past check-out, and the day's voids and refunds are listed. The controller signs the day off; a day with a failing mandatory check cannot be signed until it is explained. Days awaiting sign-off is the group's worklist.
Year end and certifications
Once every month of the year is locked, the year's revenue and expense are rolled into retained earnings and the balances carried forward — the hard close. A control account's balance for a month can be certified — a name against a number — which is what an auditor asks for. A legal hold marks a record that must not be archived or deleted while a dispute or an audit is live.