How to work with financial period locks

In this article, you'll learn how to manage financial period locks in Populi (as well as how to give particular users the ability to do this). Lock periods are an important part of the reconciliation process between Populi and your external accounting software.

Financial > Settings

Financial lock periods are managed in the main Financial Settings view. Two other settings also affect lock periods.

• After updating any of these settings, remember to scroll to the top of the screen and click Save Settings!
• Restrict Financial Period Lock Date Editing to the Following Financial Admins: All financial admin users have access to the financial lock period setting. If you wish to restrict access to this setting to particular users, search for and select their names in this setting. We strongly recommend you list at least two people here!
• Financial Lock Period Date: Enter the date as of which you wish to lock your accounts.
  • When you do this, all financial transactions up to and including the Lock Date will be frozen—you won't be able to change them, void them, etc.; you can only Reverse them (see below).
  • You can unlock a financial period by deleting the Lock Date (don't forget to click Save Settings!).
  • To lock a later period, just enter a new date in the setting.
• Void/Reverse Transactions: How do you wish to deal with transactions that you need to clear out of your books?
  • Voiding only works for transactions that are not in a locked period.
  • Reversing a transaction creates a new transaction that reverses the original's debits and credits. It works for locked and unlocked transactions.

Working within a locked financial period

After you lock a financial period, here's what will change regarding transactions within that period:

• You will not be able to post any new transactions within the locked period.
• You will not be able to void or otherwise edit any details for locked transactions. This includes editing any details for the events linked to a transaction—for example, you cannot edit an invoice's posted date to land in the locked period (you can, however, mark invoices uncollectible and include them in payment plans).
• If you've enabled transaction reversals (see above), you will be able to reverse transactions. Reversals will be available in the Transactions report filter.

Here's how to reverse a transaction:

1. Go to the transaction's page.
2. Click Reverse.
3. The transaction will be flagged as Reversed. A new transaction (with the type Reversal) will be created to reverse the original transaction's debits and credits.
4. You can link to the new transaction by clicking the number next to Reversed by in the original transaction's Summary panel.