Close a period and year-end close

Closing a period freezes the books for that month, quarter, or year — so a stray click can't change history. It's how you protect the numbers you've already reported to a CPA, the IRS, or a lender.

What "closed" actually means

When a period is closed, PeakBooks refuses to save any change that lands on a date inside it. That covers:

• Adding, deleting, or editing a transaction
• Categorizing or recategorizing (single, bulk, or via reclassify)
• Statement uploads where some rows fall in the locked period
• Journal entries dated inside the period
• Deleting an account (if any of its transactions are inside the period)

If you try, you'll get a clear "this period is locked" message. Bulk operations skip locked rows and surface a toast — no silent failures.

Lock a period

1. Reconcile every bank and credit card account through the date you want to lock. See Reconcile a bank account. Locking before reconciling is technically allowed but a bad habit — once locked, you can't fix mistakes without unlocking.
2. Go to Settings  ›  Period locks.
3. Click Add lock and pick the through date. Everything on or before that date is locked.
4. Optionally add a label (e.g., "Filed Q1 2026 sales tax") so future-you knows why it's locked.
5. Click Lock period. The lock is logged in the audit trail with your name, the date, and the label.

Unlock a period

Sometimes you need to fix something. Maybe an invoice was misdated, or a duplicate slipped through. Unlocking is a deliberate action that leaves a trail.

1. Go to Settings  ›  Period locks.
2. Click the lock you want to remove and choose Unlock. You'll be prompted for your account password as confirmation.
3. Make your edit. Anyone reviewing the books later can see in the audit log who unlocked, when, and what was changed afterward.
4. When you're done, set a new lock to the same date (or further out) so the period stays protected.

Year-end close

Year-end is a special case. In accounting, you end each fiscal year by sweeping every income and expense category back to $0 and posting the net result to Retained Earnings (an equity account). That way next year's P&L starts fresh.

PeakBooks handles this for you:

1. Reconcile every bank/credit account through your fiscal year-end (most businesses: December 31).
2. Go to Settings  ›  Year-end close.
3. Confirm the year you're closing. PeakBooks shows the net income that will move to Retained Earnings.
4. Click Run year-end close. PeakBooks creates a single journal entry dated the last day of the year that zeroes out every income and expense account and posts the net to Retained Earnings.
5. The close also adds a period lock through the year-end date — so the books for that year are protected from accidental edits.

What if Retained Earnings doesn't exist yet?

For new businesses, the Retained Earnings category doesn't exist until you run your first year-end close (or open a journal entry that needs it). PeakBooks creates it automatically when needed, so you don't have to set it up by hand.

Adjusting Retained Earnings mid-year

If your CPA gives you an opening-balance adjustment that hits Retained Earnings (e.g., a true-up after their final review), you can post a journal entry to RE at any time — even before you've run your first year-end close. RE shows up in the Balance Sheet account dropdown on the Journal Entry modal.

Recommended cadence

• Monthly: reconcile every bank account, then lock the month.
• Quarterly: if you owe estimated tax or file sales tax, double-check the quarter then leave the existing lock in place.
• Annually: run year-end close after January reconciliations are done (so you've captured any December activity that posted late).