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Settings ▸ Accounting ▸ Period Close

Period Close is how Athenty makes a date range part of the audit-defensible record. Once a period is closed, no new journal entries can post with a date inside that range until the period is explicitly reopened. This page documents the close + reopen flow at Settings ▸ Accounting ▸ Period Close.

When to close

Section titled “When to close”

Most law firms close on a monthly cadence as part of standard month-end:

  1. Run the Trial Balance for the period.
  2. Run the bank reconciliation for every operating + trust account.
  3. Resolve any imbalances.
  4. Close the period here.

After close, late-arriving entries (an invoice surfaced two weeks late) require an explicit reopen — auditors can see exactly when the books were considered “closed” and any after-the-fact corrections.

Close flow

Section titled “Close flow”

Click Close period:

  • Period start / end — defaults to the most-recent uncosed month.
  • Notes (optional) — stored alongside the close audit row.
  • Pre-close diagnostic — Athenty runs the Trial Balance for the range and shows DR / CR totals + Balanced status. If unbalanced, the close is rejected before submit.
  • Confirmation — type the period name (e.g. “Apr 2026”) to confirm.

After successful close, the period appears at the top of the Closed periods list with the closer’s name + timestamp.

Reopen flow

Section titled “Reopen flow”

Click Reopen on any closed row:

  • Reason (required) — captured on the audit row. Common reasons: “missing inv #1234”, “fixed unrecorded check”, “tax adjustment”.

The reopen is appended to the history, not destructive. The original close timestamp + closer remain visible. Subsequent re-close cycles append new rows on top.

Audit history

Section titled “Audit history”

The closed periods list shows:

  • Period range — start → end
  • Status badge — closed or reopened
  • Closed by + date
  • Reopened by + date (when applicable)
  • Reason for reopen

Click any row to expand the full history of that period (every close + reopen action over time). Useful when an auditor asks “was Apr 2026 ever reopened?”.

Single-admin model

Section titled “Single-admin model”

Period close is a single-admin action in v1, matching PC Law and matching the day-to-day reality that most firms have one bookkeeper. Two-admin gating (one initiates, second confirms) is a workflow layer that could land later if compliance teams demand it — LSO By-Law 9 doesn’t currently require it.

Posting guard

Section titled “Posting guard”

After a period is closed, attempts to post a journal entry with posted_at inside the range are rejected at the API layer:

409 Cannot post into closed period (postedAt 2026-04-15). Reopen the
period first.

The frontend surfaces this as a clear toast. To proceed, either:

  1. Change the entry’s posted-on date to a non-closed period, OR
  2. Reopen the period (with reason), post the entry, and re-close.

Period boundaries

Section titled “Period boundaries”

Athenty doesn’t force monthly boundaries — quarterly and yearly closes work via longer ranges over the same table. But monthly is the common case and matches every Canadian and US bookkeeping convention.

Reports inside a closed period

Section titled “Reports inside a closed period”

Closed periods don’t change report behavior — Trial Balance, Balance Sheet, and Income Statement still query the same data. Closing is about posting protection, not report visibility.