Accounting rules, rounding and lock dates

Three areas of Settings hold rules that apply to the whole company: Accounting rules, Rounding policy and Lock dates. Saving a rule posts nothing by itself. It changes what the app allows, or what the documents you post from then on do to your accounts. Selling stock before it arrives uses Stock owed (estimated cost). Rounded totals use Rounding Difference. A lock date refuses new entries on old dates.

Where: Settings › Accounting rules, Settings › Rounding policy and Settings › Lock dates
Number: None. These are settings, not documents
Posts to: Nothing when you save. Later documents post to Stock owed (estimated cost) and Rounding Difference, and the rules decide which accounts you can pay from
Who: Admins only, in the standard roles

What it’s for

Accounting rules. Company choices about cash, stock and payments. You decide whether you can pay from Cash on Hand and Petty Cash, and whether a sale may take stock you have not received yet. You also decide whether cash accounts may go below zero, and what happens when a payment would take a bank account or cash below zero. The same screen sets the credit limit a new customer starts with.
Rounding policy. Whether sales totals are rounded to a coin step such as 0.25, and whether a purchase has a Round off box.
Lock dates. Locks every date up to a day you choose, so nobody can add, change or remove entries on those dates.
Every rule applies to the whole company from the moment you save it. None of them changes an entry that is already posted.

Fields

Accounting rules

The screen is called Accounting rules. It has five parts, one under the other. Each part shows a Changed badge when you have changed it and not saved yet.

Field	What it means	What it changes
Pay expenses and transfers from Cash on Hand and Petty Cash (part Cash on Hand and Petty Cash)	Off to begin with. When on, admins and managers can choose Cash on Hand and Petty Cash as Paid from on an expense. They can also choose them as Transfer from and Transfer to on a transfer	Which accounts the money screens offer. No journal entry. Cash drawers still need to be assigned to a person. See Cash on Hand and Petty Cash
Allow selling stock that has not been received yet (part Selling stock before it arrives)	Off to begin with. When on, a sale, invoice or delivery that takes more than the location holds is still posted. The missing items are recorded as owed to the customer	The shortfall is recorded at an estimated cost in Stock owed (estimated cost), and stock never goes below zero. See Selling stock before it arrives
Refuse anything that would take a cash account below zero (part Don’t let cash go below zero)	Off to begin with. When on, Cash on Hand, Petty Cash and cash drawers are protected from going below zero	Entries that would take one of them below zero are refused, or approved or warned about, as the next choice says. With it off, cash accounts have no check at all
If a payment would take a bank account or cash below zero	One choice for the whole company: Block, Allow a manager with a reason, or Warn only. Block is the default	What happens to a payment that would leave a bank account, or a protected cash account, below zero. See The three below-zero choices
Default credit limit (part New customers’ credit limit)	The credit limit a new customer starts with. The standard setting is 10,000.00. Leave it empty for no limit	New customers only, whether made in the office, in an invoice or at the till. The person creating the customer can change it. Existing customers keep their own limit

Cash on Hand and Petty Cash

By default you can pay only from a bank account, or from a cash drawer assigned to you. Turning on the first switch adds Cash on Hand and Petty Cash for people who may post an expense or a transfer. In the standard roles that means admins and managers. Cashiers never get them.

The rule also covers other payments out of a cash account. These are salary payments, staff advances, paying a customer’s advance back and Pay out deductions. It also covers money going out on Money in or out.
A cash drawer is not opened up by this switch. It still has to be assigned to the person in Settings › Users & access.
Cash counts do not check Cash on Hand or Petty Cash. Compare their balances with the cash you hold, or turn on Don’t let cash go below zero.
Turning the switch off later does not touch entries already made. An expense already paid from these accounts can still be deleted or cancelled, but not edited. See Expenses.

Selling stock before it arrives

With the switch off, a sale that takes more than the location holds is refused. With it on, the app records the missing items as owed and posts the sale.

At the till. A line that asks for too much shows “‹n› not in stock, will be owed”. In Take payment you must tick I confirm these items are not in stock yet. before you can complete the sale. See Selling.
On an invoice or a delivery. On an invoice, a note before you post says how many items are not in stock and which ones will be owed. After posting, an invoice or a delivery lists what is owed to the customer. See Invoices and Deliveries.
The estimated cost is the item’s average cost. If it has none, the app uses the cost of the latest purchase or goods receipt. If that is missing too, it uses the item’s Default purchase cost. If no cost is known at all, the sale is refused.
When the goods arrive, the oldest owed sales are covered first. Goods arrive by a purchase, a goods receipt, a stock increase or a stock transfer received at that location. The estimate is cleared and the cost of sales is corrected to the real cost. See Goods receipts.
Who can sell this way depends on the company setting, not on the role. A cashier can sell owed stock once an admin has switched it on.
Turning it off stops new sales of this kind. Stock that is already owed is still covered when the goods arrive.
After the goods arrive, a document that owed stock can no longer be edited or deleted. Use a credit note, a customer return or a delivery return instead.
Bundles. The items inside a bundle can be owed too.

The three below-zero choices

The choice applies to bank accounts always, and to cash accounts only while Don’t let cash go below zero is on. Look at it as two questions: which accounts are checked, and what happens when a payment fails the check.

Account	Checked?
A bank account	Always. It follows the choice
Cash on Hand, Petty Cash, a cash drawer	Only while Don’t let cash go below zero is on. Then it follows the choice. While it is off, nothing is checked
Card and Payment Clearing, and each card machine’s own “Card clearing - ‹machine›” account	Always blocked, whatever you choose. No one can approve it
A Pay by link provider’s account, “Pay by link - ‹provider›”	Never checked. It may go below zero, for example when the provider nets a refund from a later payout

Choice	What happens to a payment that would go below zero
Block (the default)	The payment is not saved. The message gives the day the account would go below zero and how much to record first
Allow a manager with a reason	The payment is first refused, with the same message and a sentence saying a manager can approve it. An admin, or a manager whose role holds the approval right, gives a reason and the payment is saved. The reason, the person and the day are kept. The next payment needs its own approval
Warn only	The payment is saved and the person is told. The day is kept in the account’s Below-zero days list

How the check works:

Money coming in is always allowed. An account already below zero accepts money in but not money out, until it is back above zero.
The check looks at the first day the balance would be below zero. A payment dated in the past can be refused because of a later payment.
Going down to exactly zero is allowed.
Turning the rule on changes no past entry.
The check covers every way money leaves: expenses, transfers, payments to suppliers, refunds, edits and deletes. See Cash and bank accounts for the full messages and the approval box.

Rounding policy

The Rounding policy screen has two parts.

Field	What it means	What it changes
Step (under Sales totals)	None, 0.05, 0.25, 0.50 or 1.00. A total is rounded to a multiple of this amount. None keeps the exact total	The total the customer pays on a till sale, a sales invoice and a delivery. A live line under the fields, such as “Example: AED 10.92 → 10.90”, shows the result
Mode	Nearest rounds to the closest step, and a total exactly halfway goes up. Down always rounds to the lower step	Whether the total can go up or only down
Round off on purchases (under Purchases)	When on, the purchase form has a Round off box between −1.00 and 1.00, so the amount to pay matches the supplier’s invoice total	Whether you can enter a round off on a purchase. See Purchases

Rounding applies to the final total only. Sales amounts, VAT and stock cost are never rounded. The small difference goes to the account Rounding Difference, outside the VAT return.

Total	Step	Mode	The customer pays
10.92	None	Nearest	10.92
10.92	0.05	Nearest or Down	10.90
10.92	0.25	Nearest	11.00
10.92	0.25	Down	10.75
10.92	1.00	Nearest	11.00
10.92	1.00	Down	10.00
10.25	0.50	Nearest	10.50

Saving applies from the next document posted. Documents already posted keep their totals. A return or credit note that completes the sale gives the round-off back. Earlier partial returns refund exactly their own lines.

Lock dates

The screen shows Locked through ‹date› or No dates locked. The lock date itself is locked too.

Field	What it means	What it changes
Lock through	The last date to lock. It must be later than the current lock date and not in the future	Every date up to and including it refuses new entries
Unlock all dates	Removes the lock completely. You type OPEN to confirm	Entries can be dated on any past date again
Unlock back to an earlier date (with New lock date)	Moves the lock back to an earlier date. Older dates stay locked	Dates after the new lock date open again
Reason and approval reference	Why, and who approved it. 5 to 500 characters	Kept in Recent history with the person and the time
Type ‹date› (year-month-day) to confirm	You type the date exactly as shown, for example 2026-07-31	Stops a lock or unlock by accident

What a lock refuses: any entry dated on or before the lock date. That covers a new document, a payment, a stock movement, a journal, and the edit, cancel or delete of an existing one. Nothing already saved is changed.

What a lock does not stop: entries dated after the lock date, viewing and printing, and reports.

Buttons

Saving or changing a setting posts nothing to your accounts.

Button	When you see it	What happens	Accounts
Save accounting rules	Accounting rules. Enabled only after a change	Saves all the rules together. The message is “Accounting rules saved”. If another admin saved first, yours is not saved and theirs is shown	No change
Save rounding policy	Rounding policy. Enabled only after a change	Saves the step, the mode and the purchase switch. The message is “Rounding policy saved. Documents posted from now on use it.”	No change
Lock dates / Lock more dates	Lock dates. The first when nothing is locked, the second when dates are already locked	Opens a box for the date, a reason and a typed confirmation	No change
Confirm lock	In the lock box	Locks the dates. The message is “Dates locked through ‹date›.”	Refuses entries on those dates
Unlock dates	Lock dates, in red. Only while dates are locked	Opens a box to unlock all dates, or back to an earlier date	No change
Confirm unlock	In the unlock box	Unlocks the dates. The message after an unlock of all dates is “All dates unlocked. Lock them again when the corrections are done. Reports and filed VAT may no longer match until then.”	Opens old dates again
Recent history (‹n›)	Lock dates	Shows the last ten locks and unlocks, newest first: the dates before and after, the reason, who did it and when	No change
Reload accounting rules / Reload rounding policy	When the screen could not load	Tries again	No change

What you see while you work: each changed part shows a Changed badge. The footer says “Unsaved changes.” or “Nothing has changed yet.” If you leave with unsaved changes the app asks first.

What gets posted

Saving a rule or a lock writes no journal entry. It writes a record of who changed what and when, and the old and new values. The examples below show what documents post because of a rule.

Example 1Selling stock before it arrivesSetting on · 12 sold, 10 on the shelf · average cost 60.00

Items sold12
Items on the shelf10
Items owed to the customer2
Estimated cost of each owed item (the average cost)60.00

Account	Debit (AED)	Credit (AED)	Why
1200Inventory	120.00		The 2 missing items are added at the estimated cost
2060Stock owed (estimated cost)		120.00	You owe these items to the customer
Total	120.00	120.00	Balanced

This entry is made first. The sale then posts as it always does, and takes all 12 items out of stock. The whole sale costs 720.00: 600.00 for the 10 on the shelf and 120.00 for the 2 owed. The shop ends with no stock, never below zero. The same happens on an invoice or a delivery. When the goods arrive, the estimate is cleared and the cost is corrected, as shown in Goods receipts.

Example 2A total rounded downStep 0.05 · Nearest · prices include 5% VAT · paid in cash at the till

Two items at 6.30 and 4.62, VAT included10.92
Income without VAT10.40
VAT0.52
Total rounded to the nearest 0.0510.90

Account	Debit (AED)	Credit (AED)	Why
The till drawer’s cash account	10.90		The customer pays the rounded total
6760Rounding Difference	0.02		You received 0.02 less than the items are worth
4000Sales Revenue		10.40	Income, not rounded
2100Output Tax Payable		0.52	VAT, not rounded
Total	10.92	10.92	Balanced

The stock cost lines follow as on any sale, and rounding does not change them. Rounding Difference stays outside the VAT return, so the VAT you report is 0.52.

Example 3A total rounded upStep 0.25 · Nearest · the same two items · paid in cash at the till

Total with VAT10.92
Total rounded to the nearest 0.2511.00

Account	Debit (AED)	Credit (AED)	Why
The till drawer’s cash account	11.00		The customer pays the rounded total
4000Sales Revenue		10.40	Income, not rounded
2100Output Tax Payable		0.52	VAT, not rounded
6760Rounding Difference		0.08	You received 0.08 more than the items are worth
Total	11.00	11.00	Balanced

Rounding Difference is a debit when the customer pays less and a credit when the customer pays more. If your company is not VAT registered, there is no Output Tax Payable line and the income is 10.92. Invoices, deliveries and credit notes round in the same way. See Invoices and Credit notes.

Example 4The supplier’s round off on a purchaseRound off on purchases is on · 3 units at 33.33 · VAT claimed back · round off 0.01

3 units at 33.3399.99
VAT 5%5.00
Round off on the supplier bill0.01
Total on the supplier bill105.00

Account	Debit (AED)	Credit (AED)	Why
1200Inventory	99.99		The goods
1400Input Tax Recoverable	5.00		VAT you can claim back
6760Rounding Difference	0.01		The small round off on the bill
2000Accounts Payable		105.00	The total the supplier asks for
Total	105.00	105.00	Balanced

The round off only moves what you owe. The stock cost and the VAT stay as calculated. A round off of −0.04 works the other way: Accounts Payable is 104.95 and Rounding Difference is a credit of 0.04. See Purchases.

A payment that would go below zero

The payment posts exactly as it always does. The rule only decides whether it is saved. Say a bank account holds AED 100.00 on the day, and you record a transfer of 150.00 out of it. The account would be 50.00 below zero.

Choice	Result
Block	Refused. The message asks you to record at least AED 50.00 coming in on or before that day first
Allow a manager with a reason	Refused first. A manager or admin gives a reason such as “Supplier needs paying today”, and the transfer is saved. The day, the balance, the person and the reason are kept
Warn only	Saved. A notice says the account is below zero from that date

A lock date

Nothing is posted when you lock. Afterwards an entry dated on or before the lock date is refused, and an entry dated the next day is saved.

Where it shows up

Place	What changes
Expense, Transfers, Money in or out, salary payments	Paid from and Transfer from list Cash on Hand and Petty Cash only while the first switch is on
The till, invoices and deliveries	Items that are not in stock are sold and listed as owed to the customer only while the stock switch is on
The Stock owed report in Detailed Reports	One row for each owed sale, with the stock that covered it
Balance sheet	Stock owed (estimated cost) holds the estimates until the goods arrive
Cash and bank accounts	The account summary lists its Below-zero days, each with who approved it and why, or “Saved with a warning, without an approval”
Audit log	Every change of a rule, rounding policy or lock date. Every approval of a payment below zero, and every warning
Customers	A new customer starts with the default credit limit
Profit and loss	Rounding Difference, a small cost account. Rounding a total up lowers it, and rounding down raises it
VAT return	Rounding Difference is left out. A VAT return that is locked or filed stops dates being unlocked
Every screen that posts	A date on or before the lock date is refused
Accounting	A badge at the top says “Locked through ‹date›” or “No dates locked”

What the app blocks

Saving the accounting rules or the rounding policy

Situation	What you see
Another admin saved first	The accounting rules changed after you opened them. Reload them before saving. The latest rules are shown and nothing is overwritten
Another admin changed the rounding policy first	Someone else changed the rounding policy since you opened it. Theirs is shown. Check them and save again.
The connection dropped while saving, and the rules are unchanged	It was not saved. The latest accounting rules are shown.
The connection dropped while saving, and the rules cannot be read	We couldn’t confirm this. Check status before trying again.
The screen cannot load	The accounting rules could not load. or Rounding policy could not load., with a reload button
A credit limit that is not an amount	Enter an amount of zero or more, or leave it empty for no limit. beside Default credit limit
You are not allowed	You don’t have permission to change the accounting rules.
An unsupported step or mode	Choose None, 0.05, 0.25, 0.50 or 1.00. or Choose Nearest or Down.

Payments, stock and rounding that a rule refuses

Situation	What you see
Paying from a cash drawer that is not yours, or from Cash on Hand while the switch is off	Choose a physical cash drawer assigned to you, or use an active bank account.
A payment would take a bank account below zero (Block)	This would take ‹account› below zero on ‹date› (balance then AED −‹amount›). Record at least AED ‹amount› coming in on or before ‹day› first, then save again.
The same, when a manager may approve	The message above plus Or ask a manager to approve it with a reason.
The same, for a cash account	This would take ‹account› below zero on ‹date› (balance then AED −‹amount›). Record at least AED ‹amount› of cash coming in on or before ‹day› first, then save again.
A payment would take a card clearing account below zero	This would take ‹account› below zero on ‹date› (balance then AED −‹amount›). Record the card sales first, or choose another date. If a card payout already took this money, reverse the payout on its own date first.
On an invoice or delivery: not enough stock, with the stock switch off	Only 10 PCS of ‹item› is in stock at this location. or ‹item› is out of stock at this location.. The till words its own refusal: see Selling
Not enough stock, with the stock switch on, and no cost known	No cost is known for ‹item›. Set its Default purchase cost or receive stock first.
Editing an invoice or bill whose owed stock has arrived	Part of this invoice’s stock was owed and has since arrived. Use a credit note instead. On a till bill, it says “bill” and “Use a customer return instead.”
A round off on a purchase while the purchase switch is off	Purchase round-off is switched off under Settings > Rounding policy. Remove the round off or switch it on.
A round off beyond 1.00	Round off must be between -1.00 and 1.00.
The Rounding Difference account is missing	The Rounding difference account is missing. Ask an administrator to restore the standard chart before posting rounded sales.

The messages for a rounding policy that changes while a sale is open at the till, and for totals that do not match the rounded total, are in Taking payment.

Lock dates

Situation	What you see
A document dated on or before the lock date	The accounting period is locked through ‹date›. Choose a later date, or ask an administrator to reopen the period.
A document that cannot be edited because of the lock	On the document: Locked period — locked through ‹date›.
The lock date is not later than the current one	Choose a date later than the current close-through date. beside Lock through. Before you press Confirm lock, the box says “Choose a date after ‹date›.”
The lock date is in the future	The close-through date cannot be in the future.
Draft journals are still open on those dates	Post or remove draft journals in this period before closing it.
A pay run is not posted yet in that month	Pay run ‹number› is not posted yet. Post it, or cancel the draft, before closing this period.
An unlock to a date that is not earlier	Choose an earlier date than the current close-through date, or fully reopen the books. Before you press Confirm unlock, the box says “Choose a date before ‹date›.”
An unlock when nothing is locked	The accounting period is already fully open.
A reason shorter than 5 characters	Enter a reason with at least 5 characters.
The confirmation is not typed exactly	Type the lock date exactly as shown. or Type OPEN exactly to confirm unlocking all dates.
Another admin changed the lock date first	The lock date was changed in another session. The latest is shown; check your entries and confirm again.
A VAT return covers the dates you want to unlock	Not saved: A finalized VAT return prevents reopening this accounting period.

A VAT return whose figures are locked, or that is filed, stops you unlocking any date before the end of its period. Unlocking back to a date on or after the end of the return is not stopped by it. Bank reconciliations and cash counts protect their own dates in the same way. See VAT, Bank reconciliation and Cash counts.

Before an admin can press Lock the figures on a VAT return, the dates through the end of the return must be locked here. The VAT moves in the books on today’s date, so today must stay outside the locked dates. Lock through the end of the return, not through today. See VAT.

Who can do it

Action	Admin	Manager	Cashier
Open and save Accounting rules	Yes	No	No
Change the Rounding policy	Yes	No	No
Lock dates	Yes	No	No
Unlock dates	Yes	No	No
Approve a payment below zero, under Allow a manager with a reason	Yes	Yes	No
Pay from Cash on Hand and Petty Cash, once the first switch is on	Yes	Yes	No
Sell stock that has not arrived, once the stock switch is on	Yes	Yes	Yes, at the till
Cancel a document in a locked month and enter it again dated today	Yes	Only if the role has Correct locked months	No

These are the standard roles. In Settings › Users & access your administrator can give a custom role each right separately. Locking and unlocking are two different rights, and approving a payment below zero is a right of its own.

Fixing a mistake

A rule was set wrongly. Open the screen, change it and save. The change applies from the next entry. Nothing already posted is changed. An account already below zero when you turn on the cash rule still takes money in. It refuses money out until it is back above zero.
The rounding policy was wrong. Change it and save. Documents already posted keep their totals. To change one posted document, edit it or use a credit note on its own screen.
A date was locked too far. Choose Unlock dates. Either unlock all dates (type OPEN) or unlock back to an earlier date. Give a reason. Lock the dates again when the corrections are done.
A document is refused because of a lock. Do not change its date to get round the lock. Either unlock the dates with a reason, or cancel the document and enter it again dated today. The second way needs the right Correct locked months. Invoices are corrected with a credit note.
You cannot lock because of a draft or a pay run. Post or remove the draft journal. Post the pay run, or cancel its draft. Then lock.
You cannot unlock because of a VAT return. The return has locked figures or is filed. Do not unlock. Put the correction in the current VAT period, dated today. See VAT.
Stock sold before it arrived is wrong. Once the goods have arrived, do not edit the document. Use a credit note, a customer return or a delivery return. While the goods are still owed, an edit that takes more stock owes the new shortfall. With the stock switch off, an edit that still leaves the document short is refused, and a delete is allowed. See Invoices.