How to close the month's accounts

What is it for?

Closing the month means making sure everything that belongs to that month is recorded and checked (banks, VAT, withholding tax, SAF-T file, journal entries) and, at the end, preventing changes to dates in that month. fiscaldoo brings the checks together on one screen, What is missing to close?, and proposes locking sales and purchases up to the last day of the month.

Closing the month does not replace closing the fiscal year: that only happens once a year.

When to use it?

• Every month, after the banks have been reconciled and the month's VAT submitted (or at least settled).
• Before generating reports or the SAF-T for a month that will no longer change.
• Do not lock a month in which invoices are still to be recorded: once locked, an invoice dated in that month is no longer posted on that date (the journal entry moves to after the lock) and, to keep it on that date, the period has to be reopened. If all the month's invoices have been recorded, you can lock.

Where to find it?

• Accounting › Close › Month accounting › Is everything in order?: configuration checks (fiscal series, VAT, chart of accounts, bank, locks).
• Accounting › Close › Month accounting › Close the month: the What is missing to close? screen, with the month's cards and the lock button.

Before you start

• The Accountant profile sees both screens and opens the cards. The Lock sales and purchases up to the end of the month button opens the window for everyone, but Apply only works for those who can change the dates: sales and purchases require the Certified accountant profile; so does the global lock date; the hard lock date, only the administrator (or whoever has the extra Fiscal administration access).
• The month's banks are reconciled (How to reconcile bank transactions) and the month's VAT settled (How to settle the VAT for the period).

How to use it

1. Open Is everything in order?. Each line is a warning about something misconfigured: with a red icon, such as Billing (“There is no active fiscal series for 2026 in: Faturas (série de teste da AT). Invoices cannot be issued there.”), or yellow, such as VAT (“4 zero-rate tax(es) without an exemption reason”) and Bank (“Bank movements waiting to be reconciled for more than 30 days: 2”). Lines with a green icon are in order (Chart of accounts, Locks). The Fix button takes you to the screen where you resolve it; the other warnings say “Ask the Fiscal Officer”.
2. Open Close the month. The screen opens on the first month still to close and the selector shows the months of both years. In the example, the database opened on January 2026; the screenshot below was taken after January was closed, so it shows February. Each card says what is missing: Banks reconciled and SAF-T validated are Done (“Nothing is missing here.”), VAT settled (“VAT periods ended and not delivered yet”), Withholdings (“Withholding guides not paid yet”) and Month closed (“Closing checks that fail”).
3. Open each card that is not Done: it opens the list of what is missing (for example the VAT returns, or the Entries to post, which in the example are deferral drafts). Resolve them and go back: the cards update. The settlements are done in their own articles: VAT, withholding tax, depreciation.
4. Supporting lists has the screens the closing needs from time to time: Currency revaluation, Credit impairments, Fiscal years, Inventory for the Tax Authority, Lock dates and exceptions, Net income coherence, among others.
5. When everything is resolved, the Certified accountant clicks Lock sales and purchases up to the end of the month. The Close the month window proposes “to lock sales and purchases up to 31/01/2026, the end of the month”, shows the current and proposed Lock dates, and warns “Nothing is locked until you write the reason and press Apply”.
6. Write the Reason (it is kept in the audit trail) and click Apply. The screen replies “Lock dates saved. Sales Lock Date raised to 31/01/2026. Purchase Lock Date raised to 31/01/2026. The reason was recorded in the audit trail.” and the screen moves to the following month.

Expected result

• The sales and purchase lock dates are set to 31/01/2026; the global lock date and the tax return lock date stay as they were (in the example, 31/12/2025).
• The purchase lock also applies to the Accountant. A supplier invoice with an invoice date on or before 31/01/2026 can still be recorded, but the Bill Date stays the same (20/01/2026) and the Accounting Date, that of the journal entry, moves to after the lock (in the example, 28/02/2026). The draft warns: “The date of this document (22/01/2026) is in a period that has already been closed (up to 31/01/2026: Purchase Lock Date (31/01/2026)). The document keeps its date, but the accounting entry is dated […]. If the entry has to stay on the document date, ask the fiscal officer to reopen the period before posting.” The lock does not prevent late recording; it makes it no longer count in the closed month.
• Closing the month creates no journal entries: it only saves the lock dates. The rules and exceptions for the dates are in How lock dates work.
• The screen opens on the following month.

Important notes

• The screen does not force you to resolve the cards. In the example, the lock was applied with VAT settled and Month closed still unresolved: fiscaldoo proposes and warns, but the decision belongs to whoever clicks Apply. Pending validation by a certified accountant: which checks must be done before locking a month.
• Moving a lock date back creates an exception and is recorded with the reason.
• The hard lock date cannot be undone: only the administrator (or whoever has the extra Fiscal administration access) moves it forward.
• The Month closed card includes year-end checks even in a month that is not the last of the year: in January 2026 it lists VAT settled at the end of the year and The result of the year is worked out and up to date. In a month other than December, those two only count at the year-end closing (How to close the fiscal year); for the rest of the year, the cards that matter are the others.
• Drafts still to post. The Month closed card shows them as a failure, but the screen lets you lock anyway: a month with drafts still to post is not really closed. Post them (or delete them) before locking.

Common problems

“Some required fields are empty” when applying

• Symptom: when you click Apply without a Reason, “Some required fields are empty. Fill in the fields marked in red to be able to save.”
• What to do: write the reason.

“Your profile cannot change it”

• Symptom: the window lists the dates your profile cannot change, for example “Sales Lock Date: your profile cannot change it; it needs the group "Certified Accountant / Fiscal Manager".”
• What to do: ask the Certified accountant to apply the lock. The messages say “Fiscal officer” or the name of a group, which is the name of the access, not a value of the Profile field.