Document dates and how far they can move

How to change how far back a document can be dated

Where

Settings → Business → Workspace settings

Plan

All plans

Permission

Organization → Setting → Edit

1. Go to Settings → Business → Workspace settings.
2. Type back date into Search settings.
3. Flip Override on for Allow Back Date and leave the value On. Switching it off locks every document on today’s date.
4. Flip Override on for Back Date Maximum and type the number of days you want to allow. It starts at 5.
5. Search future date and do the same for Allow Future Date and Future Date Maximum if you also want to change the forward side.

There is no Save button — each change saves itself. Close with the X.

The four settings

They sit in the Pos group, but they are not a till rule: they govern every dated document in the app. The group name is historical.

Setting	What it decides	Default
Allow Back Date	Whether a document may be dated before today at all	On
Back Date Maximum	How many days before today	5
Allow Future Date	Whether a document may be dated after today at all	On
Future Date Maximum	How many days after today	1

A maximum of 0 means no limit in that direction — not “today only”. The direction is closed by switching its Allow setting off, never by typing a zero.

The forward allowance of one day is not there so you can date tomorrow’s paperwork today. It exists to absorb the clock difference between a till and the server, so a device whose date is a few hours ahead does not start refusing sales.

How to set it for one shop only

The window is resolved location → company → account, and the narrowest level that has a value wins.

1. Go to Organization → Locations.
2. Open the shop’s ⋮ menu and click Scoped settings.
3. Check the badge at the top reads Location and names your shop.
4. Override the same four settings there.

A branch that catches up its paperwork weekly can have a wider window than the rest of the business, without loosening anything anywhere else. See Settings and how they resolve for how the levels interact.

You meet the limit in the calendar, not at save time

Date pickers only offer dates the window allows. Days outside it are greyed out, so the rule shows itself while you are filling the document rather than failing it on Save.

If a date does reach the server outside the window, the refusal names the field it was refused on — useful on a document that carries several dates, where only one of them is the document’s own date.

Which dates this applies to

It applies to a document’s own transaction or posting date — when the thing happened, or when it posts. A sale’s date, a purchase order’s order date, a receipt date, an adjustment date, a journal entry’s posting date.

It deliberately does not apply to:

• Forward-looking dates — an expected delivery, a payment due date, a planned production start, a next-visit date. These are meant to be in the future and have no bound here.
• Validity and expiry windows — a quotation’s valid-until, a price list’s date range, a coupon’s expiry.
• Dates on somebody else’s document — a prescription’s issue date, a line on a bank statement, a tax-exemption certificate. You are recording what the other party wrote, not choosing a date.
• Report and list date filters. A report can always cover closed history. See Stock reports for what an As of date actually rebuilds.

Editing an old document still works

The window is a rule about where a date may be put, not a rule a saved document has to keep satisfying. Editing a document re-checks its date only if you actually moved it.

So an invoice dated forty days ago — raised when the window was wider, or brought in by an import — stays editable. You can still fix its amount, its note or its lines. Change its date and the window applies to the new date.

It is not the period lock

Two other rules refuse dates, and all three run independently:

Rule	Protects	Where
This dating window	How far a date may be moved from today	Pos settings
Inventory period lock	A closed stock period	Stock → Counts & Periods → Inventory Periods
Accounting period lock	A closed month’s books	Financials → Fiscal Setup → Accounting Periods

A date can satisfy one and fail another. Yesterday is inside a five-day window but may sit in a month you have closed; a date inside an open period may still be further back than the window allows. The message tells you which rule refused it.

Related

• Settings and how they resolve
• Documents and how they connect
• Setting up your books — closing periods
• Plans and what they unlock — the till’s extra back-dating gate