Odoo Year End Closing Checklist: Lock Dates, Accruals, Depreciation

Most year-end posts for Odoo were written for older versions and still tell you to post closing and opening entries. Odoo 19 and 20 work differently, and our Odoo ERP support team sees the same mistakes every January.

This checklist is for controllers, finance managers and outside accountants who close the books in Odoo 19 or 20. If you are new to how journals, accounts and reports fit together, start with our guide on how Odoo Accounting works.

Odoo year end closing checklist at a glance

An Odoo year end closing has six stages, and each one has a clear place in the Accounting app. The table maps every stage to its menu and a typical owner.

The order matters. Lock too early and every late adjustment needs an exception. Lock too late and someone posts a back-dated bill into an audited year.

This post covers the routine annual close. If you are upgrading to Odoo 20 at the same time, run our Odoo 20 accounting upgrade checklist first, so you are not testing a new version and closing a year in the same week.

What changed in Odoo 19 and 20 for fiscal year closing?

Odoo 19 changed how current year earnings appear and added an Annual Closing review, and Odoo 20 added accruals from the inventory valuation report and rate-based depreciation. These changes alter the steps you follow.

The Odoo 19 year-end closing documentation warns that companies upgrading from older versions should revisit past years and book the results that were previously handled implicitly, in chronological order.

Our Odoo 20 accounting release notes show each Odoo 20 change with screenshots, including the new accruals section and the translation adjustment line.

What should you check before closing the fiscal year in Odoo?

Before you close the fiscal year in Odoo, make sure every transaction for the year is in the system, posted and matched. Odoo's own pre-closure list covers banks, documents, expenses, payments, suspense accounts, loans and provisions.

1. Banks: reconcile every bank account up to year end and confirm the book balance matches the statement balance.
2. Documents: create all customer invoices and vendor bills for the year, and post or cancel every draft entry.
3. Expenses: validate employee expenses and check that receipts sit in the right period.
4. Payments: confirm every received payment is encoded and matched to its invoice.
5. Suspense accounts: clear them to zero, with each line moved to its real account.
6. Loans: register loans so Odoo can calculate amortization automatically.
7. Aged balances: review receivables and payables older than 60 days and decide on an allowance for doubtful accounts or a provision.
8. Recurring entries: book all depreciation and deferred revenue entries due up to year end.

Weak controls show up here first. Missing approvals and unmatched bills create most late adjustments, which our post on Odoo internal controls helps you prevent during the year.

How do you post accruals and closing entries in Odoo at year end?

Odoo creates most year-end closing entries for you from purchase orders, sales orders and invoice lines, so you rarely need to type an accrual by hand. You choose the date, review the draft and post.

Accrued expenses and accrued revenue

For goods or services received but not yet billed, select the purchase orders and use the Accrued Expense Entry action. For sales delivered but not invoiced, use Accrued Revenue Entry on sales orders or order lines. Both actions ship in standard Odoo 19 and 20.

The wizard proposes the last day of the previous month as the entry date and a reversal on the next day. Set the date to your fiscal year end, pick the accrual account, check the amounts and create the entry.

Accruals from the inventory valuation report in Odoo 20

With perpetual valuation, Odoo 20 adds an Accruals section to the Inventory Valuation closing report: Bills to Receive, Billed Not Received, Invoices to be Issued and Invoiced Not Delivered. Generate Entries books them straight from the report.

Stock-heavy companies should read our guide to Odoo 20 inventory valuation before relying on this, because category settings decide which products it covers.

Deferred revenue and deferred expenses

For subscriptions, insurance or rent invoiced in advance, set start and end dates on each invoice or bill line. The Odoo deferred revenue documentation offers two modes: entries on invoice validation, or Manually and Grouped from the report each month.

• On validation: Odoo moves the full amount to the deferred account and schedules monthly recognition entries.
• Manually and Grouped: click Generate Entries on the Deferred Revenue report at month end; Odoo posts one grouped entry and a reversal dated the next day.
• Basis: choose Days, Months or Full Months, as each gives a different first-month amount.
• Timing: the server checks once a day, so a draft can take up to 24 hours to show as posted.

How do you check depreciation and fixed assets at year end?

At year end, every fixed asset should sit on an asset account with its depreciation board posted up to the closing date. Odoo creates depreciation entries in draft and posts them on schedule, so gaps usually come from assets never registered.

Use this short list for the asset review:

• Unregistered purchases: filter fixed asset accounts for bills with no linked asset and create the missing assets.
• Draft depreciation: look for draft entries dated in the year; Odoo posts them on a daily check, so allow for that delay.
• Disposals and sales: use Dispose or Sell on the asset; Odoo closes it and posts the gain or loss entry.
• Revaluations: a value decrease posts its own entry and changes all future unposted lines.
• Odoo 20 models: straight-line models can now use a yearly rate, such as 12.5%, instead of a duration.

The Odoo assets documentation lists three methods: Straight Line, Declining, and Declining Then Straight Line. Confirm the method and prorata setting with your auditor before the close, not after.

How do Odoo lock dates work at year end?

Odoo lock dates stop anyone from posting or editing entries on or before a chosen date, and Odoo 19 and 20 offer five of them. You set them under Accounting, Accounting, Lock Dates.

When a new entry falls on or before a lock date, Odoo moves its accounting date to the day after the lock. For the tax lock, the Odoo tax return documentation says tax values move to the next open period instead.

Lock date exceptions

An Accounting administrator can remove a lock date and choose an exception for one user or for everyone, for a set duration, with a reason. Odoo logs this in the company record's chatter, which gives your auditor a trail.

A sensible locking sequence

1. Set the Sales and Purchase lock dates once operations stop posting to the old year.
2. Let the final tax return post the Tax Return lock date.
3. Set the Global lock date to the last day of the year during the audit.
4. Set the Hard Lock only after the accounts are signed off, and only if your country or auditor needs it.

How do you run the Annual Closing review in Odoo 19 and 20?

The Annual Closing is a built-in review list under Tax Returns, with automatic and manual checks you must pass before you submit. Open Accounting, Accounting, Tax Returns and click the pending Annual Closing line.

Depending on your fiscal localization, the review shows checks such as these:

• Bank Reconciliation: all transactions reconciled up to year end.
• No draft entries: draft invoices, bills and entries posted or moved.
• Deferred Entries: start and end dates set on bills and invoices.
• Fixed Assets and Loans: registered for automatic depreciation and amortization.
• Overdue receivables and payables: items over 60 days reviewed for an allowance.
• Total Receivables and Total Payables: aged reports match the partner account balances.
• Earnings Allocation and Manual Adjustments: result moved to equity, internal checks done.

Each card shows Reviewed, To review or Anomaly. You can fix an anomaly or mark it Reviewed or Supervised, and every status change goes into the chatter. Once all checks pass, click Validate, then Submit.

In developer mode you can add your own checks under Accounting, Configuration, Check. Groups with several entities should agree one shared check list, as our Odoo multi company setup guide explains for consolidation.

How do you book current year earnings in Odoo?

In Odoo 19 and 20, you book current year earnings with one manual journal entry that moves the result to appropriation accounts, replacing the dynamic Result Brought Forward line. Until you post it, the trial balance still balances.

Odoo shows the result for year N as a dynamic line in the trial balance and general ledger of year N+1. The entry can wait until the profit or loss is ready to be appropriated, for example after the shareholder meeting.

1. Go to Accounting, Accounting, Journal Entries and click New.
2. Use a reference such as Annual Closing 2026.
3. Set the accounting date to the last day of the fiscal year in which the result arose.
4. For a profit, debit one or more Current Year Earnings type accounts; for a loss, credit them.
5. Balance the entry against reserves, retained earnings or dividends payable, as your local rules require.
6. Post, then check that the Result Brought Forward line in year N+1 is gone.

Appropriation accounts appear at the bottom of the profit and loss, reset each year and do not change net profit. Odoo explains the reason for this design in its post on current year earnings in Odoo 19.

Do you need closing and opening entries for the new fiscal year in Odoo?

No, Odoo does not need closing or opening entries for a new fiscal year, because balance sheet accounts carry their balances forward and income and expense accounts reset automatically. This surprises many accountants coming from other systems.

On the Odoo forum, a user who had just ended their fiscal year asked how to close the fiscal year and start a new one. One reply suggested creating opening entries, which in current Odoo would double every balance.

When fiscal year settings matter

The default fiscal year runs 12 months to 31 December. Change the Last Day under Accounting, Configuration, Settings, Fiscal Periods. For a short or long first year, enable Fiscal Years and create that period with its own start and end dates.

When opening balances are really needed

Opening balances matter only when you first move to Odoo. The Odoo opening entries guide loads an opening trial balance with clearing accounts and open invoices, so receivables, payables and inventory tie out on day one.

Foreign currency balances need one more step before the lock. Run the revaluation described in our Odoo multi currency accounting guide at the year-end rate first.

Year end closing priorities by industry

The core Odoo year end closing steps are the same for everyone, but each industry has one area that causes most adjustments. Spend your review time there first.

What are the most common Odoo year end closing mistakes?

Most Odoo year end closing problems come from habits carried over from older versions or other software. These are the ones we fix most often.

• Posting opening entries: this doubles balances, because Odoo already carries them forward.
• Setting a Hard Lock too early: it cannot be reversed, so late audit adjustments must go into the next year.
• Ignoring the Result Brought Forward line: after an upgrade from an older version, past years may still need explicit earnings entries.
• Leaving drafts in the year: draft bills and depreciation lines distort the trial balance and fail the Annual Closing check.
• Forgetting accrual reversals: a reversal dated outside the open period throws off January figures.

If you are not sure your ledger is clean enough to close, the free Odoo health check flags version, module and setup risks in a few minutes.

How iVentureTeam helps with Odoo year end closing

iVentureTeam works beside your finance team to close the year in Odoo, fix the ledger issues the close exposes, and leave a repeatable process. We have delivered 150+ ERP projects across 35+ countries with 40+ Odoo specialists over 13+ years.

• Pre-close review: bank, receivables, payables, assets and suspense accounts checked against Odoo's Annual Closing list.
• Accrual and deferral setup: accrual accounts, deferral modes and depreciation models set to match your policies.
• Lock date plan: who sets which lock, when, and who may approve exceptions.
• Upgrade clean-up: explicit earnings entries for years closed before Odoo 19.
• Advice and training: our Odoo consulting services turn the close into a written procedure your team can follow.

Odoo year end closing case study: Fernando Tax Management

A clean year end needs a clean ledger, and this Dutch tax firm first had to fix hidden journal lines and manual entry. Fernando Tax Management B.V., founded in 2008, had outgrown a rigid legacy system.

Staff were keying the same data into several places, which produced duplicate and inconsistent records they reconciled by hand. Journal entry creation was convoluted, and reports had translation gaps, a real risk for output that feeds government compliance.

We migrated the firm to Odoo 18 in 10 weeks, resolved the hidden journal lines issue that had obscured accounting data, and built localized tax compliance reports for the Netherlands and Curaçao. Manual data entry fell by 60%.

Read the full Fernando Tax Odoo accounting automation case study.

The bottom line on Odoo year end closing

In Odoo 19 and 20, a good year end close means a clean ledger, booked accruals and depreciation, a passed Annual Closing review, an explicit earnings entry and lock dates set in the right order. You do not need opening entries.

Start the pre-close review in early December, keep the Hard Lock for last, and write down what you did. Next year's close then takes days instead of weeks.

Ready to close your Odoo year without surprises?

Get a finance-led Odoo consultant on your year-end close. Plan your Odoo year end close with us, call +91-90235-15208, or email business@iventureteam.com.