A simple yet effective check.  It is best practice to keep your period lock dates in Xero up to date.  This avoids users posting transactions into periods that have been closed.  It can also help to lock periods when you are completing some reconciliation work like checking the VAT control account to make sure the figures do not move as you are trying to work.  Whilst the period lock date can be overwritten with periods being opened it should serve as a reminder to most to think about what they are doing.

If clients do not have advisor access in Xero they will not be able to open the period and back post items.  This can save time when completing year end accounts and finding that the opening balances no longer balance as someone has put a transaction in the wrong period.

For this alert Hindsight is simply looking at the period lock date in Xero and if it is older than 6 months flagging it up.  It would be reasonable for the period lock to be older than 3 months to allow for VAT returns to be submitted but after that we should be making an effort to have all transactions posted and the ledgers locked down.

Once you have updated the period lock date in Xero you can hit the complete button in Hindsight to let the system know you have completed your work.