Closing a month, a quarter or a yearNew
Sign a period off, keep the report exactly as it was, and see anything that lands in it afterwards — without freezing a thing.
Written 22 October 2026
Closing a period writes the figures down as they stand, so the report says the same thing in six months as it does today. It does not stop you doing anything. You can still raise an invoice dated into a month you closed last week — the page tells you about it rather than quietly changing the report somebody already read.
Step by step
- 1
Go to Business Health, then Period end.
- 2
Pick the month, quarter or year.
Today and this week are not periods anybody closes, so they are not offered.
- 3
Work down the checklist first, if there is one.
Every item links to the records. It is the same list that puts the small print under the figures on At a glance, so the two can never tell you different things.
- 4
Press Approve, and confirm.
The confirmation says what it does and what it does not do. Read it once and you will not need to again.
- 5
Afterwards, read the report under “The report, as approved”.
Those figures are never worked out again.
Worth knowing
Approving locks nothing at all
This is the part people expect to be different. Closing October does not stop you raising an invoice dated in October, recording a cost in October, or correcting something. The paperwork catching up is normal and the app does not fight it. What approving does is write down what the figures were at that moment, so the report is still the report later.
Anything that lands afterwards is shown, never hidden
An invoice dated into a closed period and raised after you approved it appears on this page as a line saying so, with what it is worth. The approved report is left alone. That is on purpose: somebody may be holding a copy, and silently rewriting it underneath them is worse than telling them it has moved on. It is the same rule the app follows for an issued invoice — the total never changes, and what is no longer owed is carried separately.
A period that has not finished cannot be closed
Closing October on the twelfth would produce a report with October’s name on it covering twelve days. The page says so rather than offering a button that makes a misleading document.
You can close a period with work still outstanding
It is reported, never refused. If six jobs are finished and not invoiced, you can still sign the month off — and the report records, in writing, that it was approved with those six outstanding. A reader looking at it next year can see what it did and did not cover, which they could not if the app had simply blocked you or said nothing.
Only an owner or a manager can approve one
The same rule as setting a target or amending a certificate: an authorisation everybody in the office holds is not an authorisation.
What it deliberately does NOT do
It is not a VAT return and it is not a set of accounts. It does not submit anything to HMRC, it does not stop anybody editing records, and it is not a substitute for your accountant signing off a year end. It is a management report with a date and a name on it.