How to lock dates in MYOB

A lock date protects a month you've finished working on, and MYOB mentions setting one after your month-end tasks are complete. Its desktop help adds that a lock stops anyone making an entry by accident in a period that shouldn't get new ones, and gives the example of locking January once that month's end-of-month reports are done, so January's balances can't be changed.

Check your role. Only an administrator can enter a lock date, so any other user has to ask an administrator to do it.

Then choose the date with care. Every transaction dated before it is locked, apart from quotes and orders, and that covers creating, editing and deleting. A transaction dated on the lock date itself isn't before it, so that day stays open.

1. Click the settings menu and choose Business settings.
2. Find the Lock date section.
3. Select Prevent changes prior to the lock date.
4. Enter or choose the Lock date.
5. Click Save.

From then on, MYOB won't save a new transaction, or a change to an existing one, dated before the lock date. Anyone who tries gets an error saying transactions can't be recorded before the lock date. Quotes and orders carry on as normal, whatever their date.

The lock can be moved or removed. An administrator can change the date, or clear the option to lift it. A user who isn't an administrator can only record it with a date after the lock date, so a transaction that belongs before it needs an administrator to move or lift the lock.

In AccountRight on the desktop, MYOB's notes pair the lock with a second check: a transaction can only be changed or deleted when it's changeable, shown by a blue zoom arrow, and isn't dated in a locked period. Changing one in a locked period means unlocking the period first.

A lock is not the same as making transactions unchangeable. The desktop notes describe a separate security preference under which a recorded transaction can't be edited and has to be reversed to cancel its effect, which MYOB suggests for a strict audit trail. A lock only covers the dates before it.

If a lock date error appears while you enter a transaction, check the transaction's date. If the date is right, an administrator can change the lock date. MYOB says anyone else has to use a later date, which only suits a transaction that belongs after the lock date.

If you use AccountRight on the desktop, a lock is a preference. Go to the Setup menu, choose Preferences, click the Security tab, select Lock Periods: Disallow Entries Prior to, choose the date and click OK. Quotes and orders are left out of the lock there too. To enter something in a locked period later, deselect that preference, which needs a user role with permission to change preferences.