[Sticky] Why are my Transactions Locked for Editing?

Why are my Transactions Locked for Editing?

Receipt/Payment and Account Transfer transactions can be locked for 4 reasons:

1. Age Locked
2. Rec Locked
3. Transfer Locked
4. Reverse Locked

1. Age Locked

Transactions are age locked if they are older than your current Financial Year to prevent their accidental editing or deletion. If you do need to edit or delete an old transaction, you can temporarily set the Financial Year-End to an earlier period.

Note that you should exercise caution here since editing or deleting a prior-year transaction may mean that your reported Accounts are changed.  

The Financial Year is the preceding 12-month period set by the Financial Year-End. To change it:

1. Navigate to Setup>Organisation
2. Enter or select an older date into the Financial Year-End so that your transaction date is within or later than a 12-month range preceding the Financial Year-End
   • For example: To edit a transaction dated  02-Jan-2012, you could set the Financial Year-End to "31-Dec-2012" so that your current Financial Year now starts at 01-Jan-2012 - ie. earlier than your transaction.
3. Save Changes
4. You will now be able to edit or delete the transaction
   • Note that that transaction will still be locked if it has previously been reconciled - see below.
5. Reset the Financial Year-End back to your current financial year.

Tip: If you want to enter new transactions or move existing transactions into older years, you will also have to temporarily change your Financial Year-End date so that the transaction date is within or later than the 12-month range preceding the Financial Year-End.

2. Reconciled ("Rec") Locked

Transactions are "Rec locked" if they have been reconciled using the Bank Reconciliation feature (menu path: Accounts > Bank Reconciliation).  If necessary, you can temporarily unreconcile a transaction to edit it - or delete it, if required.

Reconciled transactions are locked to prevent them from being changed (accidentally or deliberately) to ensure that your accounts are always accurate. Once you have reconciled these against your bank statement to confirm their accuracy they should not be changed. However, if necessary, Managers can temporarily unlock these transactions from the Bank Reconciliation page to correct mistakes, etc.

As above, you should exercise caution because editing or deleting a previously reconciled transaction may mean that the Account used no longer balances - or reconciles - with your bank statement.

For instructions on how to do this go to the Bank Reconciliation help page and click the "How to Correct a Reconciled Transaction" link.

December 2024 Update
Please note that it is now possible to make limited edits to Reconciled Receipt/Payment Transactions. Since the update, you can edit the following fields in a Receipt/Payment batch

• Details
• Pay In or Payment Type/No.
• Voucher/Invoice
• Attach Document Links
• Event/SubEvent
• Member
• Membership Billing Line
• Notes

3. Transfer Locked

If you have created a Bank Transfer (menu path: Transfers > "New Transfer / Cash Banking") using Associated Receipts, then these Receipt Transactions will be locked if the Bank Transfer transaction has been reconciled.

If you need to edit the Associated Receipt(s) then you must un-reconcile the Bank Transfer (see 2. above). This will then make the Associated Receipts partially editable where you can change their value or add new Receipt Lines.

To fully edit the Associated Receipt (eg. change Date or Account) or delete it, then you must first delete the (un-reconciled) Bank Transfer transaction it is associated with.

4. Reverse Locked (Receipt/Payments only)

Receipt/Payment batch pairs that have been reversed are locked. When you reverse a Receipt/Payment batch, a duplicate transaction batch is created which reverses the original batch. This is created with today's date and can be changed.

The original Receipt/Payment batch is locked for both editing and deleting. To edit this you must delete the reversing batch.

The reversing Receipt/Payment batch cannot be edited, except for the Date field. You can delete the reversing batch at any time, as long as it does not have another lock applied.