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Troubleshooting: Xero
What to do if you see the message "The document date cannot be before the period lock date"
What to do if you see the message "The document date cannot be before the period lock date"

This export error message appears when you try to export to Xero, but one or more expenses falls within a locked period.

Angela avatar
Written by Angela
Updated over a week ago

Error: The document date cannot be before the period lock date

Another error message with the same cause and solution looks like this:

The cause:

This error comes up when an expense (or expenses) has a presentment date that falls within a locked period. This can happen when:

  • The Pleo expense was not exported in time (i.e., before the books were closed for the respective timeframe).

  • There is a discrepancy between the UTC timestamp of presentments versus the date of the purchase in your timezone. For example, a presentment from May 31st at 23:30 should go into the May books in Xero. However, Pleo will have stamped it as June 1st.

The solution:

Log into Xero and open the books for the specific date range (under Accounting - Advanced - Financial settings).

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