Period Locking & Historical Governance

Period locking is the primary financial safeguard ensuring historical labor costs, billing invoices, and payroll registers remain immutable once finalized.

Period Lock Mechanism (smart.timesheet.period.lock)#

SmartERP 19 evaluates effective lock dates at the database ORM layer (account.analytic.line):

$$\text{Effective Lock Date} = \max(\text{Company Fiscal Period Lock Date}, \text{Active Timesheet Lock Date})$$

Any user action (create, write, unlink) dated on or before the effective lock date is intercepted:

                                [Employee Action on Timesheet]
                                               |
                                               v
                             [Line Date <= Effective Lock Date?]
                                      /                 \
                                   YES                   NO
                                   /                       \
               [Has Lock Override Group?]              [Allow Commit]
                   /                 \
                YES                   NO
                /                       \
     [Log Override Audit Entry]     [Raise AccessError: Period Locked]
                |
          [Allow Commit]

Configuring a New Period Lock#

1. Navigate to Timesheets -> Configuration -> Period Locks.
2. Click New:
   • Company: Current company tenant.
   • Lock Date: Set to the last day of the closed cycle (e.g., 2026-09-30).
   • Note: Document the justification (e.g., "Fiscal Month Meskerem 2017 Payroll & Client Invoicing Closed").
3. Click Save.
4. The system enforces the constraint: only one active period lock may exist per company. Creating a new active lock automatically prompts archiving older entries.

Managing Lock Overrides & Audit Logs#

When legitimate audit corrections are necessary (e.g., reallocating misassigned hours to another analytic account), an authorized officer in the Timesheet Lock Override group (smart_enterprise_timesheet.group_timesheet_lock_override) executes the adjustment:

1. Open the target timesheet line.
2. In the wizard, input the mandatory Override Reason Note.
3. Upon saving, SmartERP writes an immutable record in smart.timesheet.period.lock.override: