Closing a client's month
How a firm keeping a client's books closes each month in Achekam, what is checked first, who can reopen a closed month and how errors are corrected.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
The VAT return for March was filed on the figures in the books on the 20th of April. On the 3rd of May, a junior posts a supplier invoice dated March into March, because that is when it was dated. Nobody notices until the client's VAT201, the management accounts and the ledger disagree, and someone spends an afternoon working out which version is right.
Closing a month is how a firm stops that happening. It turns "the March figures" from a moving target into a fixed set the firm has reported on, and it makes any later change to them a visible, approved event rather than a quiet edit. This article explains how the close works in a client's Achekam books and what a firm should check before using it.
Soft close, hard close and lock
Achekam lets a month be soft-closed, hard-closed and locked. Once a month is closed, it refuses postings from every source: manual journals, invoices, bills, bank matches and anything else that would land in it. The difference that matters day to day is what it takes to undo the close. Reopening a hard-closed month needs a second approver.
A practical way to use the three states in a bookkeeping practice:
| State | When the firm uses it |
|---|---|
| Soft close | The month's work is done and is waiting for the manager's review |
| Hard close | The manager has reviewed the month and the client has its reports |
| Lock | The period underlies something filed or issued, such as a VAT return or the year's statements |
Agree the timing with the client. A client whose own staff still post sales invoices needs to know that once the firm closes a month, a late invoice for that month will be refused and must go into the current month instead.
Checks before closing
Before a month is closed, the close screen checks two things: that the ledger balances, and that nothing is waiting, meaning no posting suggestions, no unposted bills and no unmatched bank lines. If anything is outstanding, deal with it first.
Those checks are the floor, not the whole review. The trial balance in Achekam shows each account for all time, for a period or at a date, and says whether debits equal credits; it is the starting point for the firm's own checks. Investopedia's explanation of the trial balance covers its purpose as the listing of ledger balances used to check that total debits equal total credits. A balanced trial balance can still be wrong, so add your own list:
- Every bank and card account reconciled, with leftover lines explained.
- Receivables and payables balances reviewed for credit balances, duplicates and old items.
- The VAT accounts agreeing to what will be declared for the period.
- Payroll for the month posted.
- Recurring accruals and prepayments posted.
- Suspense and clearing accounts cleared, or each item explained.
- Any unusual balance compared with the previous month and understood.
Posting suggestions and unmatched bank lines
The "nothing waiting" check exists because Achekam produces suggestions that only a person can turn into postings. Bank lines are matched by suggestion and a person accepts each match; a bank line not yet in the books becomes a suggested journal for a person to approve. Journals proposed from documents, bank lines or adjustments are only candidates, and only a person can approve and post one. AI is refused both steps, and low-confidence fields and possible duplicates wait in the Intake Review Queue.
A month cannot close while those candidates are sitting there, which is the point. Each one is either a transaction that belongs in the month or something that needs a decision. Clearing them is part of closing, not an administrative obstacle to it. Finishing the reconciliation properly is covered in finishing a bank reconciliation with explained items.
Reopening needs a second approver
Sometimes a closed month genuinely has to change: a material invoice was missed, or the client's auditor asks for an adjustment to the period. Reopening a hard-closed month needs a second approver, so one person cannot quietly reopen, change and re-close it.
Before asking for a reopen, decide whether the change belongs in the closed month at all. If a VAT return or management accounts have already gone out on that month, it may be better to post the correction in the current open month with a clear description, and deal with the reporting consequence separately. When a reopen is the right answer, record why, make the change, and close the month again the same day.
Corrections by reversal
Achekam's journal rules keep corrections honest. A manual journal that does not balance is refused, and so is one dated in a closed month. A posted journal is not changed in place; it is corrected only by a reversal, followed by the right entry.
That gives the client's ledger a complete history: the wrong entry, its reversal and the replacement all stay visible, with dates. When a reviewer later asks why an expense account moved, the answer is in the ledger rather than in someone's memory.
A worked example
At the end of a month for a small engineering company, the bookkeeper finishes the bank reconciliations, approves the suggested journals for bank charges and a debit order, and posts the payroll journal. The close screen then reports an unposted supplier bill waiting for approval. The bookkeeper asks the client's director to approve the bill, posts it, and soft-closes the month. The manager reviews the trial balance and the reconciliations the next morning, queries a balance in suspense, has it cleared, and hard-closes the month before the management accounts go to the client. The monthly reporting that follows is covered in monthly management accounts for a client.
Set the rhythm
Agree a close date with each bookkeeping client, publish it to the client's own staff, and hold to it. A month that is closed on a known day, after a known set of checks, is a month whose figures everyone can rely on.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
