Summary
What is Period Closing?
The Qargo equivalent of "closing the books", familiar from an accounting package. A Super Admin sets a Revenue period closing date and a Cost period closing date per billing entity. Every charge dated on or before that date becomes final: it can no longer be created, edited or deleted.
Why was it introduced?
Once a month has been invoiced, declared for VAT and sent to the accountant, a late edit to a charge in that month makes Qargo disagree with what was reported externally. On top of that, charges used to inherit operational order dates, so late corrections silently landed in the wrong financial period.
How does it work?
Every charge line carries a Charge date, filled in automatically using a rule chosen per billing entity (for example the actual end date of the transport). Closing a period simply means moving the closing date forward, typically once a month after invoicing is finished. Because accounting periods always close in sequence, one date is enough: everything before it is final, everything after it stays open. Late corrections are automatically dated on the first open day, so they land in the current period instead of rewriting a closed one.
Prerequisites
Super Admin access is required to configure the charge date defaults and the period closing dates on a billing entity.
The Default charge date and Default invoice booking date should be configured before activating a closing date for the first time.
Use Cases
Month-end close. A transport company finishes invoicing June on 3 July, files the VAT return and sends the figures to the accountant. Finance then sets the Revenue period closing date to 30 June. From that moment, June's revenue in Qargo always matches what was reported, no matter what anyone edits later.
The late surcharge. On 5 July a dispatcher notices that an order delivered on 28 June was missing a 50 EUR waiting-hour surcharge and adds it. June is closed, so Qargo automatically dates the new charge 1 July. The surcharge lands in July's figures, exactly as an accountant would book a late correction, and June stays untouched.
Cost closes later than revenue. Supplier invoices for June keep arriving well into July, so finance closes the revenue side on 30 June but leaves the cost side open until mid-July. The separate Revenue and Cost period closing dates make this possible per billing entity.
Terminology
Term | Definition |
Billing entity | The legal entity in Qargo that invoices are issued from. Closing dates and charge date rules are set per billing entity. |
Charge date | The date on a charge line that decides which accounting period the charge belongs to. Set automatically when the charge is created, based on the rule configured per billing entity. |
Revenue period closing date | The date up to and including which all revenue charges are locked. |
Cost period closing date | The date up to and including which all cost charges are locked. |
Booking date | The date used when an invoice is booked. It can never fall inside a locked period. |
Configuring Period Closing
All settings live in one place: Configuration > Organisation settings > Billing entity, in the Accounting information section.
Closing a period
NAVIGATE to Configuration > Organisation settings > Billing entity and open the 'Accounting information' section.
SET the Revenue period closing date and/or the Cost period closing date to the last date of the period to close, for example 30 June.
SAVE the configuration. All charges dated on or before that date are now locked.
📚 Closing a period is a recurring routine, not a one-off setup: after each month is fully invoiced and reported, finance moves the closing date forward to the end of that month.
Setting the charge date defaults
NAVIGATE to Configuration > Organisation settings > Billing entity and open the 'Accounting information' section.
SET the Revenue charge date and Cost charge date under Default charge date. Available options for Revenue charge date:
Actual start date
Actual end date
Requested start date
Requested end date
Available options for Cost charge date:
Actual end date
Actual start date
SET the Revenue invoice booking date under Default invoice booking date. Options available are:
Current date
Earliest charge date
First order start date
Last order end date
Latest charge date
Same as invoice date
Cost invoice booking date under Default invoice booking date. Options available are:
Current date
Earliest charge date
Latest charge date
Same as invoice date
SAVE the billing entity configuration.
What Changes Day to Day
For most users nothing changes until a correction touches a closed period. Then:
Locked charges cannot be edited or deleted, and cannot be marked as Do not invoice.
A new charge that would land in a closed period is automatically dated on the first open day. No manual workaround is needed; the correction simply shows up in the current period.
An invoice cannot be booked with a booking date inside a closed period; Qargo moves the booking date forward automatically.
An order with locked, uninvoiced charges cannot be cancelled. Those charges must be invoiced first, and credited if needed.
Operational work is not affected: delivery dates, stops and planning stay editable. Only the financial side is frozen, and operational edits never move a charge date back into a closed period.
The Charge date column on the order revenue section only appears when it is relevant, meaning when charges fall in a closed period or carry a custom charge date.
‼️ In the current version the charge date on an individual charge line cannot be changed manually. If something in a closed period genuinely must change, a Super Admin can temporarily move the closing date back, make the correction, and re-close the period.
Troubleshooting
Issue | Resolution |
A charge cannot be edited or deleted | Its charge date falls in a closed period. Book the correction in the open period (credit and re-invoice), or have a Super Admin temporarily move the closing date back. |
A new charge appears with an unexpected date | The charge would have landed in a closed period, so Qargo dated it on the first open day. This is intended behaviour; review the closing date if the period should still be open. |
An invoice cannot be booked on the intended date | The booking date falls inside a closed period. Use a date after the closing date, or have a Super Admin adjust the lock. |
An order cannot be cancelled | The order contains locked, uninvoiced charges. Invoice those charges first, and credit them if needed. |
The closing date fields are not visible | The fields sit in Configuration > Organisation settings > Billing entity > Accounting information and require Super Admin permissions. |
‼️ Dashboards do not use the new charge date, and the charge date is not yet available for external exports, or integrations.
The period closing date does not sync with external accounting packages, such as Exact. When a period is closed in the accounting package, update the closing date in Qargo manually as well.