As a user, you are able to lock a period once you're finished working on it. But what exactly does this do...and what doesn't it do? Let's unlock these secrets.

How do I lock a period?

On the 'Client Overview' screen, click 'Actions' on the right-hand side and 'Lock'

How do I unlock a period?

This is also on the 'Client overview' screen:

What doesn't this do?

This doesn't stop the sync. Data will still flow through to the locked period if changes are made in the underlying bookkeeping system. This is intentional, as you should still be made aware when data has changed and your working papers are incomplete.We show an alert to make you aware of any change. You can view what is changed via the'here' word, that you see in the alert.

When you view the changes, you will see the account, the old and new values on this screen. You can choose to accept the changes, and then the message will disappear. You can also close this screen, but keep the alert visible via the 'Close and keep alert visible' button.

What does this do?

1) Lock the version of the template being used

This locks updates from flowing through to reconciliation templates and account templates within the locked period. Although updates will not cause your working papers to unreconcile (don't worry!), perhaps the update creates a few extra fields and now aren't complete in the prior period. In short, you've done the work in the past so why change it if you don't have to :)

2) Locks inputs of templates

This means that the data entered into the template prior to locking cannot be changed (unless the template is unlocked).

3) Locks the applied mapping

This means that the mapping that was applied at the time of locking remains locked.
Note: When you unlock a period again the applied mapping will stay locked. It is possible to unlock the mapping again when you want changes to the mapping to be reflected in a period. As a safety measure this is a separate action.

Locking and unlocking a period are actions on the audit log so can act as a means on control. For example, let's say a client file has moved from being 100% complete when you last accessed it to suddenly being 85% complete. Was this due to user action or updated data coming through the sync....check the audit log and quickly find out!

How can you incorporate this?

1) User completes the work in Silverfin (to 100% of course!).

2) Manager and/or partner reviews the work in Silverfin and locks the period. Permanent locking is making sure, that only an admin user can unlock the period again.

3) At the beginning of the next period (month/quarter/year), as a first point of call, the user checks the last period to see if the % completion has dropped at all. If it has decreased to less than 100%, the user can investigate the root cause of this by checking the audit log (i.e. check if the period was manually unlocked and changes made, or if it wasn't manually unlocked the user knows it's new data coming through the sync and can check which working papers no longer reconcile).

Note: the above serves as an example. You can lock/unlock a period as and when needed, according to your company's internal processes.For a demonstration of how to do this, please watch the below video: