Closing a month locks its books. Once a month is closed, its sales, expenses, deliveries and hours can’t be changed, so numbers you have already reported stay as they were.
Where to do it
Go to Reports, then Close the month. The page opens on last month; the links to the month before and after it pick another one. It lists what is left to do for that month, then offers one button: Close and the month’s name.
Store owners and admins can close a month. It is a normal month-end job.
Before you close
The list on the page marks each item in one of three ways:
- Must fix: the month can’t be closed until this is done. A month can only be closed once it is over in the store’s time zone. It ends when its last business day ends, at 04:00 on the 1st of the next month, so a closing shift can still record that night after midnight. A month with nothing in it also can’t be closed: it needs at least one day of sales, an expense or a delivery. Every day needs its sales before the month can be closed: enter a day the store was closed as zero.
- Check: worth a look, but it does not stop you. For example, days a manager has not signed off, no sales money at all, no food cost or labour entered, or deliveries that don’t line up with the food cost booked as expenses. Each one links to the page where you can fix it.
- Done: sales, food cost or labour that are already in.
Closing after a “Check” item is your decision. Closing records that decision; it does not certify that the accounts are complete or correct.
Closing
Select Close and the month’s name. Mezbano asks you to confirm and lists anything still marked “Check”. Select Yes, close and the month’s name to lock it.
The lock is kept in the database itself, not just on the screen: a change to a closed month is refused even if someone tries it another way. The entry pages for that month turn read-only.
Closing also keeps how each expense category was grouped on the profit and loss that month (for example, food cost or other expenses), so a later change to the categories does not change a closed month. The page also shows the month’s deliveries beside its food cost, for a look before you close. From the 1st of each month, until last month is closed, owners and admins see a reminder to close it.
Reopening a month
Sometimes a closed month needs a correction. Reopening it lets people change its numbers again until it is closed again. Because reopening undoes a money decision, only the store owner can do it: admins can close a month, but only an owner can reopen one.
The Close the month page lists every closed month under Closed months. Pick one, select Reopen and the month’s name, and confirm. Mezbano keeps a record of who reopened it and when.
Reopening brings the month’s automatic expenses up to date: delivery fees from each day’s sales, cash labour from each day’s hours, and the month’s payroll. Days already entered keep the delivery fee rate they were entered with.
Closed months and CSV files
Closing a month does not hide anything. Owners and admins can still download a closed month as a
CSV file. Each row in the sales, expenses, purchases, labour and profit and loss files has a month_locked value of locked or open, so whoever does
your accounts can tell closed months from ones that can still change.
Related
- Roles: who can do what: who can close and reopen a month.