Accountants can lock actuals up to a specific date of their choice. Once this date is set, only the accountant or other members of their workspace will have permission to edit actual data within the locked period. This ensures that key financial information remains unchanged during and after the annual financials are finalised, providing added accuracy and confidence in reporting. A farm must be linked to an accountant's Workspace before the date lock can be applied. Once a subscription is locked, users cannot edit invoices or transactions, use the match function, edit the livestock grid including creating new non-financial events or make any changes on the Actuals page for the locked date or any earlier date. Farmers and other users are notified when their farm’s financial data is locked. Bankers and consultants have the same permissions as farmers.
Who Can Lock/Unlock Dates?
Only accountants can lock or unlock financial dates.
Farmers (Organisation Admins), bankers and other trusted advisors will receive a notification when the subscription is locked.
There are two tiers for locking data:
Tier 1: Limited Lock
Who can make changes? - Accountants in the workspace.
Purpose: Allows accountants to finalise financial records while preventing farmers or advisors from making changes.
Unlocking: To allow farmers or advisors to make changes, the accountant must remove the lock date.
Tier 2: Full Lock
Who can make changes? - No one, including accountants in the workspace.
Purpose: Ensures financial records are finalised and no further changes can be made.
Unlocking: To allow any changes, the accountant must remove the lock date.
When a full lock is applied, accountants will have read-only access to invoices or transactions dated on or before the lock date. These entries will be clearly marked with a read-only token for easy identification.
How to Lock a Financial Date
Log in to the farm associated with your workspace.
Go to Settings > Financials > Lock financial details.
Set the lock date:
For Tier 1 (Limited Lock): Choose a lock date that restricts all users except workspace accountants from making changes.
For Tier 2 (Full Lock): Choose a lock date that restricts all users, including workspace accountants, from making changes.
Click Save
Note: The full lock date can be the same or before the limited lock date.
To remove or adjust the lock date revisit Settings > Financials > Lock financial details and make the necessary changes.
Important Note:
The lock date must be set at least 7 days before the current date. This ensures a grace period for any necessary adjustments before the lock takes effect.
How can they tell the date their subscription is locked?
Go to Settings > Financials.
The following warning will appear. Click on the drilling button to change the date lock.
Follow these steps before locking Farm Focus subscriptions
No pending Transactions or Invoices - Confirm that there are no unresolved transactions or invoices showing in the Needs Action page for the financial year.
Subscription is balanced - Ensure the subscription is fully balanced up to the end of the financial year.
Stock reconciliation is finalised - The subscription owner should review and confirm the stock reconciliation.
Align Farm Focus with the General Ledger (GL)
Make any necessary changes in Farm Focus to match the General Ledger.
Best practice: Always update Farm Focus before migrating data to the General Ledger. This ensures:
The General Ledger reflects accurate information from Farm Focus.
Reports in Farm Focus remain meaningful and provide maximum value to the subscription owner.
By following these steps, you'll maintain accurate and consistent financial records across both Farm Focus and the General Ledger.
Unlocking a Locked Financial Year
Farm Focus Customer Support can override the lock date in specific situations, but the preferred process is as follows:
Farmers consult their accountant first - If farmers want to unlock their financial year, the best practice is they contact their accountant.
When to contact Farm Focus support - Customer support should only be contacted to unlock their data in exceptional circumstances, such as the business changes accountancy firms. The subscription admin must contact Customer support.
By following this process, you ensure your financial data stays secure and aligned with professional advice.
Exceptions
Any externally imported file with a date in the locked period can still be edited providing the date is changed to be outside the locked period. An externally imported file includes Invoice Scanner, File Upload or Bank file.