The lock date history check in Data Health & Insights tracks changes to lock dates in your client's Xero or QuickBooks Online account and alerts you when lock dates are missing or out of sync with filing dates. In Xero, anyone with access to a client's settings can change lock dates without any record of the change — Dext logs these changes so you can spot potential issues.

To access it, go to a client's account and select Data Health in the left navigation, then select Lock date history under Activity.

The Accounts Made Up To date shown at the top of the page is pulled from Companies House using the company registration number in Xero. Select View in Xero to open the client's Xero account directly.

Who can use this check

The lock date history check is available to practices on Practice Essentials and Practice Advanced plans with the Data Health & Insights add-on.

Setting the grace period

Before reviewing lock dates for your clients, set a practice-wide grace period to tell Dext how long your team takes to close off a month and update lock dates after the month-end.

To set the grace period, go to Practice settings, select Data Health in the left navigation, then select Lock dates. Enter the number of weeks in the Monthly Lock Date Grace Period field and select Save.

If a client's Reporting Period Lock Date falls behind by more than a month plus the grace period, Dext will show an amber warning on that client's lock date history check.

Note: Setting the grace period to 0 disables the Reporting Period Lock Date check.

Practice settings Data Health Lock Dates page showing the Monthly Lock Date Grace Period field with a value of 2 weeks and a Save button

Reporting Period Lock Date

The Reporting Period Lock Date tracks your client's monthly or quarterly reporting period in Xero. Dext raises an amber warning if this date is older than a month plus your configured grace period.

Expand the card to see the Lock Date Changes table, which logs every change Dext has detected. Each row shows Detected On, Old Lock Date, New Lock Date, and Note.

Alert states:

Amber — "Reporting Period Lock Date is older than a month plus your configured grace period"
Amber — "Reporting Period Lock Date has not been set in Xero"

Lock date history page showing the Reporting Period Lock Date card with an amber warning and a Lock Date Changes table showing a detected date and new lock date

End of Year Lock Date

The End of Year Lock Date is the date the last filed company accounts were made up to. Dext compares this against the Companies House filing date and raises a red warning if accounts have been filed but the lock date hasn't been updated in Xero.

Expand the card to see the Lock Date Changes table with the same columns as the Reporting Period check.

Alert states:

Green — "No issues detected"
Red — "Accounts have been filed with Companies House, but End of Year Lock Date has not been set in Xero"

Note: For QuickBooks Online clients, Dext only tracks the End of Year Lock Date.

Monitoring lock dates across all clients

Lock date status is visible at practice level in the Practice Insights page. The Reporting Lock Date column shows the current reporting period lock date for each client, so you can spot clients that need attention without opening each one individually.

Lock date status is also surfaced within Data Health checks — for example, the Bank reconciliation check includes a Locked column in the All statements view, showing whether each transaction falls within a locked period.