### Journal lock date

The Journal lock date is a date that is entered into the General ledger Preferences that prevents any General ledger activity on or prior to the specified date. It is used to stop inadvertent updating of account information for financial periods that have been finalised in your reports.

If you do not use the Journal lock date then any user will be able to create, delete or modify General ledger transactions that can affect the balance of accounts for date periods for which you have already generated and finalised financial statements.

A user is able to have their own Journal lock date set too. If this is the case, it can affect how the Journal lock date that is set globally works. In the System preferences > General ledger setting, an icon with an exclamation mark will display to show this is the case.

Last edit 30/10/20