The Billing Lock Date feature in OfficeRnD helps you safeguard past billing information from unauthorized edits. By locking billing details up to a specific date, you ensure that previously issued invoices, payments, and credit notes remain accurate and consistent for accounting purposes. This reduces mistakes, enhances reporting accuracy, and streamlines accounting workflows.
By the end of this article, you'll understand how to configure, manage, and grant permissions for the Billing Lock Date effectively.
Before you start
To start configuring the Billing Lock Date functionality, you must first go to Settings > Billing Settings > Billing Rules and select Don't update billing details of issued invoices:
Only teammates with an Owner role have permission to manage the Billing Lock Date by default.
What is the Billing Lock Date?
Billing Lock Date is a feature that prevents the creation, modification, or deletion of billing information from the past. This allows organizations to ensure that the information they have already used for accounting purposes (or submitted to their accounting departments) will not be changed in the future.
Setting a Billing Lock Date is done through the Admin Platform. Go to Billing & Products > Invoices and click Set billing lock date:
When a date is selected and saved, the billing data and actions before this date will be locked. Only admins with an Owner role or teammates with specific permissions can change invoices, credit notes, payments, etc., through the UI, Import, and API.
How to grant a specific billing Lock-Off Permissions to a Teammate?
As an Owner, you must decide who else has permission to set and change the billing lock date. To manage that, you must create a specific role.
Go to Settings > Account Details > Admin Roles and click Add Role.
Click Billing and enable the Locking Billing Period component.
Click Save.
You can continue tailoring the rest of the permissions for the new role, and once you're ready, you can go to Settings > Account Details > Admin Users and assign the role to the relevant person.
Locked Actions
Below, we have listed some of the most common actions that will be unavailable when a Billing Lock Date is selected:
Creating an invoice with an issue date within a locked period
Creating a credit note with the issue date within a locked period
Create a payment/overpayment with a payment date with a locked period
Editing an invoice with an issue date within a locked period
Editing a credit note with issue date within a locked period
Editing a payment/overpayment with a payment date with a locked period
Voiding an invoice with an issue date within a locked period
Voiding a credit note with an issue date within a locked period
Voiding a payment/overpayment with a payment date with a locked period
Deleting an invoice with an issue date within a locked period
Deleting a credit note with an issue date within a locked period
Deleting a payment/overpayment with a payment date with a locked period
Detaching any line items from an invoice with an issue date within a locked period
Detaching any line items from a credit note with an issue date within a locked period
Executing Manual Bill-run with issue date within a locked period
If you try to execute any of the listed actions, the system will give you the following message: "This document falls under a locked billing period. You won't be able to edit it. If you must make an adjustment, change your organization's billing lock date or contact a teammate with the needed permissions."
Note: If Automated Invoice Generation is turned on and the invoice's issue date is within the locked period, it will be generated with an Awaiting Approval status. A notification about the awaiting invoices will be sent to the designated email address. To approve the invoices, an admin (who has permission to create invoices) will have to change the issue date to a date outside the locked period. Learn more about User Permissions.
Note: If you need to change the billing information during the locked period, you must remove the Billing Lock Date, apply the changes, and set a Billing Lock Date again.
FAQ: Billing lock date
What is a Billing Lock Date?
What is a Billing Lock Date?
A Billing Lock Date is a feature in OfficeRnD Flex that prevents creating, modifying, or deleting any billing records before a specified date. This ensures past billing data remains accurate and unchanged for accounting purposes.
Who can set and manage the Billing Lock Date?
Who can set and manage the Billing Lock Date?
By default, only teammates with an Owner role can manage the Billing Lock Date. However, you can grant this permission to other teammates by creating a custom role.
How can I grant other teammates permission to change the Billing Lock Date?
How can I grant other teammates permission to change the Billing Lock Date?
Go to Settings > Account Details > Admin Roles.
Click Add Role.
Under Billing, activate the Locking Billing Period permission.
Save the role.
Assign this new role to teammates via Settings > Account Details > Admin Users.
What happens after setting the Billing Lock Date?
What happens after setting the Billing Lock Date?
Once set, billing information, such as invoices, payments, and Credit Notes dated before the lock date, cannot be edited or deleted unless by authorized personnel.
What actions are restricted by the Billing Lock Date?
What actions are restricted by the Billing Lock Date?
When a Billing Lock Date is active, you cannot:
Create, edit, or delete invoices, credit notes, and payments dated before the lock date.
Void invoices, credit notes, or payments within the locked period.
Execute a manual Bill Run with an issue date within the locked period.
Detach line items from invoices or credit notes issued before the lock date.
Attempting these actions triggers an error message informing you the record is within a locked period.
What error will I see if I attempt a locked action?
What error will I see if I attempt a locked action?
You will see the following error message:
"This document falls under a locked billing period. You won't be able to edit it. If you must make an adjustment, change your organization's billing lock date or contact a teammate with the needed permissions."
How does Automated Invoice Generation handle the Billing Lock Date?
How does Automated Invoice Generation handle the Billing Lock Date?
If Automated Invoice Generation is active and an invoice's issue date falls within a locked period, the invoice will generate with an Awaiting Approval status. An admin must change the invoice issue date to outside the locked period to approve and finalize it.
How do I modify billing information within a locked period?
How do I modify billing information within a locked period?
To change billing details locked by the Billing Lock Date, temporarily remove the lock date, apply the necessary changes, and then set the lock date again.