What a fiscal period is
Your fiscal year is the 12-month window your books cover. It’s divided into smaller periods — typically months and quarters — that you can close individually.
Closing a period locks it. Once a month is closed, new transactions can’t be dated in that month without reopening it. This keeps historical numbers from shifting.
Fiscal year setup
Your fiscal year was set when you created your company. Most businesses use the calendar year, but any start month works.
If you need to change it, contact support. Changing fiscal year boundaries is disruptive and we want to do it carefully.
Closing a period
Go to Bookkeeping → Fiscal Periods. Find the month you want to close. Click Close.
Before closing, Dotio runs checks:
- All journal entries balance.
- No unreconciled items.
- No transactions in draft state.
- All required adjustments posted.
If anything fails, Dotio shows you exactly what. Fix the issues, try again.
Reopening a period
Sometimes you need to post a late entry. Open the closed month, click Reopen, make changes, close again. Every reopen is logged.
Year-end close
The annual close is bigger — it also involves rolling net income to retained earnings. Dotio walks you through it step by step.