What is a period lock?
A period lock closes a pay period after its hours have been exported to payroll, so the recorded and approved hours can no longer be changed. Corrections go into an open period instead.
Why lock a period
Once payroll has run, the hours behind the payslips must stay exactly as they were. If someone edits a shift in a closed week, the time tracking system no longer matches what was paid, and the next export or audit shows differences nobody can explain.
A period lock prevents that. The hours of a locked period are read-only for everyone. When a mistake is found later, for example a missed hour, the correction is entered in the current open period with a reference to the original day, and it is paid in the next run.
Period lock in TimeTracking
In TimeTracking, hours move through a fixed flow: draft, submitted, approved, exported and locked. Exported and locked hours never change; this is enforced in the application and by the database itself. Every change before that point is recorded in the audit log.
Related pages
Payroll export
A file of approved hours, allowances and expenses per employee, in the layout the payroll system can import.
Audit trail
A chronological, unchangeable record of who created, changed or approved data, and when.
Payroll exports
Approved hours out in the format payroll expects. SD Worx-format and configurable CSV/XLSX today.
See pricing
Free for up to 5 users. Core from €1 per user per month, everything included.
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Free for up to 5 users. Core from €1 per user per month, everything included.