What it is
Signing the day freezes operations; closing the month freezes the accounting for that period. They are different things: you can have the whole month signed and the books still open, which is exactly when the accountant works. A closed month takes no new pólizas (journal entries): not the daily one, not manual ones, not those from invoices, payments, payroll, depreciation or banking. The month closes for the hotel's whole set of books, with all its properties.
When you use it
When the month's work is done: days signed, accruals captured, bank reconciled. The usual practice is to close it before you generate the month's trial balance in XML, so nothing changes it afterwards.
What Containn checks
| Check | What you will see if it fails |
|---|---|
| The month has ended, by your hotel's business date | El mes todavía no termina (the month has not ended). |
| The previous month is closed, if it had pólizas | El mes anterior sigue abierto y tiene pólizas (the previous month is still open and has pólizas). |
| Every signed day of the month has its póliza | How many signed days have no póliza, with their dates. |
| The month's active pólizas balance | Las pólizas del mes no cuadran (the month's pólizas do not balance), with the debits and credits. |
If any check fails, the Cerrar el mes (close the month) button is disabled and the reasons appear under Todavía no se puede cerrar (it cannot be closed yet).
Step by step
- Open Containn → Cierre de mes (month close).
- Choose the Año (year) and Mes (month), or click the month in the year table.
- Review the summary: active pólizas, debits, credits and signed days.
- Click Cerrar el mes. It shows as Cerrado (closed), with the date and the name of who closed it.
You need the Cerrar el mes contable permission (close the accounting month) or Configurar el catálogo y el mapeo (set up the chart and the mapping). The hotel's owner and administrator can always do it.
What can go wrong
- Unsigned days. The close checks signed days, not that every day is signed. A day signed after the close ends up without a póliza. Before closing, compare the signed days in the summary with the days in the month.
- A signed day with no activity. It creates no póliza, and today the close counts it among the signed days without a póliza, so the month cannot be closed. See a day with no activity.
- You need to fix something in a closed month. Reopening it requires a special permission and a reason (reopening).
It does not close the fiscal year or zero out the income statement accounts. The year-end close does that, once a year.