Set a closing date and nothing financial can be posted or voided into the closed period without permission: invoices, payments, AR adjustments, chargebacks, inventory changes and WIP receipts, on screen or through the API.
The closing period lock in AIMS360 is a closing date the admin sets once a month. After it, nothing financial can be posted, changed or voided into the closed period: no invoice, payment, adjustment, chargeback, inventory change or production receipt, on screen or through the API, unless the user has been given the permission and confirms the prompt. The numbers you reported on the last day stay the numbers you reported.
A closing date, set by the admin user on the accounting tab of company settings. Once it is set, no invoice, payment, receivable adjustment, chargeback, style adjustment, inventory update on styles or materials, or work in process receipt from a purchase order, cut ticket or garment dye can be posted or voided on or before that date, whether entered on screen or sent through the API, unless the user holds the permission to post into a closed period and confirms a prompt.
It exists because an ERP is where the backdating happens. Accounting software has had closing dates for decades, but the invoices, receipts and adjustments that feed it are created in the operations system, and a receipt dated into last month after the ledger was posted is the usual reason the two systems stop agreeing. The lock puts the same discipline on the operational side, in the place the transactions are born. The audit trail then shows any authorized correction with the user, date and time on it.
| Transaction | What the lock stops |
|---|---|
| Invoices | No invoice can be dated on or before the closing date, so revenue and receivables for the closed month stay what they were when the journal sales report was run and posted to the ledger. |
| Payments | Cash receipts and batch payments cannot be applied into the closed period. The journal payments report you reconciled to the bank deposit stays true. |
| AR adjustments | Write offs, small balance adjustments and manual receivable changes stop at the date. The aged receivables you reported are the aged receivables you keep. |
| Chargebacks | Retailer deductions accepted or rejected in the chargeback module cannot be posted back into the closed month, so the chargeback report you saved at close still matches. |
| Style adjustments | Manual and automatic inventory adjustments cannot be dated into the period. The closing inventory value, and the audit trail behind it, stops moving. |
| Inventory updates | Quantity changes on styles and on materials, including physical inventory postings, are held to the open period. |
| WIP receipts | Receipts against vendor purchase orders, cut tickets and garment dye cannot land on a closed date, which keeps work in process and cost of goods where the close left them. |
| Voids | Nothing on the list above can be voided on or before the closing date either. A voided invoice is as much a change to a closed month as a new one. |
| API posts | The lock applies to every transaction posted through the open API and the integrations built on it, not only to what users type on screen. |
Orders, pick tickets and shipments are not on the list. They are operations, not financial postings, and the month end pack reads them as open work. The financial record of a shipment is the invoice, and that is what the lock holds.
Run and save the journal reports, the inventory valuation, aged receivables and the open production reports first. Some of them cannot be rerun as of a past date, so the PDFs are the record. The full list is below.
Run the general ledger integration, or make the journal entries from the reports, into QuickBooks, Xero, Sage or NetSuite. Close the posting period there.
Log in as the admin, open company settings, choose the accounting tab, pick the date and save. Any past date is allowed. Most brands set the last day of the month they just posted.
A user without the permission who tries to post, change or void anything on or before the date gets a message and nothing is written. A user with the permission gets a prompt and has to confirm.
Repeat after the next close. If a date was set a day early, revert steps back to the previous date. Remove clears every closing date ever set, so it is for turning the feature off, not for corrections.
The accounting tab in company settings appears for the admin login and not for other users. The admin sets, reverts or removes the closing date.
A user permission, default no access, that lets a named user lock or unlock month end without the admin login. Give it to the controller who owns the close.
A user permission, default no access. With full access the user can post a correction into a closed month after confirming the prompt. Everyone else is refused.
Both permissions live in the same role based access control as every other module right, so they are granted per role, reviewed with the rest, and visible when someone asks who could have changed a closed month.
Receivables reports. Shipped amount, freight, discounts and tax for the month, in summary for one journal entry or by account for customer level detail. The revenue reconciliation.
The other four journals in the same section. Payments reconcile to the bank deposit; credit memos and adjustments explain the receivable movement; commissions feed the rep accrual.
The stock report as of the last day with dollar values for units, cost value and wholesale value; aged inventory for brands that buy finished goods on vendor purchase orders; the materials moving balance for fabric and trim. Details on inventory analysis.
Grand total due, by customer, by period past due, by invoice. The number the factor, the lender and the auditor all ask for on the same day.
Open cuts from the WIP reports and the purchase order summary. Confirm every receipt that arrived before the cutoff is entered and every return is processed, so only valid open units remain.
The chargeback report for brands using the module, with the original amounts and the accept or reject dates. Save the pack as PDFs, post the ledger, then set the closing date.
Your accounting system has its own closing date and its own rules, and the two lock different things. The ledger lock stops journal entries; the AIMS360 lock stops the operational transactions that become journal entries. The routine that keeps them agreeing is simple: run the general ledger integration on a schedule and always before you close the posting period in QuickBooks, Xero, Sage or NetSuite, close the period there, then set the same date in AIMS360.
The failure mode this prevents is the one every controller has seen. Invoices from last month are still unposted when the accounting period is closed, the integration runs, and the ledger refuses them. The fix is either to re-date the transaction in AIMS360 into an open period or to reopen the period in the ledger long enough to post. With the AIMS360 date set the moment the ledger is closed, nothing new can be dated behind it, so the next integration run has nothing to refuse.
How the integrations post is on the accounting integrations hub. The wider case for closing on the operations side is in GAAP accounting for importers and manufacturers and what an apparel ERP handles that accounting software cannot.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Closing date | Any date in the past, set on the accounting tab of company settings. Everything dated on or before it is closed; everything after it is open. |
| Who can set it | The admin user. The accounting tab in company settings appears for the admin and not for other users, and a user permission to lock or unlock the books can be granted to others. |
| Permission to post into a closed period | A user permission, default no access. Set to full access for the controller or whoever is allowed to correct a closed month. Even with it, the user is prompted and has to confirm. |
| Permission to lock or unlock the books | A user permission, default no access, so month end can be locked by the finance lead rather than only by the admin login. |
| Revert | Puts the closing date back to the previous date, one step. Useful when a month was locked a day early. |
| Remove | Clears every closing date ever set and turns the feature off. Deliberately blunt; use revert for a correction. |
| The message | A user without the permission sees that transactions are not allowed on or before the closing date and the transaction does not post. A user with the permission sees a prompt and continues only by answering it. |
| Where it applies | Invoices, payments, AR adjustments, chargebacks, style adjustments, inventory updates on styles and materials, WIP receipts from purchase orders, cuts and garment dye, voids of any of these, and every one of them through the API. |
The closing date is not per division, per warehouse or per module. Brands running several divisions close them on the same date, and the per user control is the permission, not a second date.
QuickBooks, Xero, Sage and NetSuite keep their own closing dates. Setting the AIMS360 date does not set theirs, and setting theirs does not set AIMS360's. Keep the two in step as part of the close routine.
Nothing already in the period is altered, reversed or re-dated by the lock. A wrong entry in a closed month is fixed by a permitted user posting a correction, with the audit trail recording who and when.
Remove clears every closing date ever set. Revert goes back exactly one date. For a one day mistake, revert; for turning the feature off, remove.
A closing date the admin sets under company settings on the accounting tab. Once it is set, no invoice, payment, receivable adjustment, chargeback, style adjustment, inventory update on styles or materials, or work in process receipt from a purchase order, cut ticket or garment dye can be posted or voided on or before that date, whether it is entered on screen or sent through the API, unless the user holds the permission to post into a closed period. It works the way a closing date works in accounting software, and it protects the operational side of the books the same way.
The admin user sets it; the accounting tab in company settings appears only for the admin login. A separate user permission, off by default, lets a named user lock or unlock the books without being the admin, so the controller can run month end under their own login. Changing the date offers two options: revert, which goes back one step to the previous date, and remove, which clears every closing date ever set.
If the user does not have the permission to post into a closed period, the transaction is refused with a message that nothing can be posted on or before the closing date, and nothing is written. If the user has the permission, they get a prompt and have to confirm before the transaction goes through. Either way the attempt is visible and deliberate rather than silent.
Invoices, payments, AR adjustments, chargebacks, style adjustments, inventory updates on styles and materials, and WIP receipts from purchase orders, cut tickets and garment dye. Voids of any of these on or before the date are blocked too. Orders and pick tickets are not financial postings and are not on the list.
Yes. Every transaction on the list that arrives through the API is checked against the closing date the same way a screen entry is. An integration that tries to post an invoice, payment or receipt into a closed period is refused unless the API user has been given the permission.
Yes, that is what the permission is for. The admin, or a user whose role has full access to posting prior to the closing date, can post a correction into the closed month after answering a prompt. Give the permission to the one or two people who own the close, and leave it at no access for everyone else.
Far enough that day to day work is not blocked. Receipts, returns and late invoices arrive after a month ends, so a closing date sixty to ninety days in the past is a reasonable starting point; move it forward each month once the reports are saved and the journal entries are posted. Brands with a tight close can run it closer.
The AIMS360 closing date is set in AIMS360 company settings by the admin. Keep it in step with the closing date in your accounting system: post the month through the general ledger integration first, close the posting period in QuickBooks, Xero or Sage, then set the same date in AIMS360 so nothing can be dated behind the ledger afterward.
Run and save the month end pack: journal sales, journal payments, journal credit memos, adjustments and commissions from the receivables reports; the stock report as of the last day with dollar values, aged inventory for vendor purchase order brands, and the materials moving balance; aged receivables; open cuts and the purchase order summary; and the chargeback report if you use the module. Some of those cannot be rerun as of a past date, so keep a PDF of each, then set the closing date.
No. The closing date is one date for the company file and it covers every module on the list. Brands running several divisions close them together. Per user control comes from the permission to post into a closed period rather than from separate dates.
Use revert to step the closing date back to the previous one. Remove clears all closing dates ever set, which is the same as turning the feature off, so it is the wrong tool for a one day correction.
No. It stops new postings, changes and voids on or before the date; it does not alter, reverse or re-date anything already in the period. A closed month reads exactly as it was on the day it was closed.
Corrections by a permitted user are ordinary transactions with the user, date and time on them, and the audit trail on the record shows the field, the previous value, the new value and who made the change. The style adjustments report run to the grid adds the workstation and the exact time.
Usually because the posting period in the accounting system was closed before the integration ran. Run the integration on a schedule, weekly or monthly, and always before you close the posting dates in QuickBooks, Xero or Sage. If a transaction is dated into a period the ledger has closed, either correct the date in AIMS360 to an open period or reopen the period in the accounting system long enough to post it.
No. It is off until the admin sets a date, and remove turns it off again. Brands that do not close monthly can leave it unset, though most auditors and lenders will ask how backdating is prevented, and this is the answer.
It does not close your accounting system, which has its own closing date. It does not stop orders, pick tickets or shipments from being created; those are operations, not postings. It does not run the month end reports for you. And it does not lock by division, warehouse or module.
An auditor asks two things of a period: that its numbers are final and that any change after the fact is visible and authorized. The closing date makes the numbers final by refusing unauthorized postings and voids; the permission makes later corrections authorized; the audit trail makes them visible. Together with the saved month end pack, that is the evidence set.
Log in as the admin user, open company settings, and choose the accounting tab. Pick the closing date and save. To let another user lock the books or post into a closed period, set the matching permissions to full access in that user's role.
We will walk it through AIMS360 in a demo: the month end pack, the ledger posting, the lock, and what a user sees when they try to reach behind it.
