HQ Invoice Locking lets a franchisor put a network's invoices on a lock schedule — once an invoice reaches a set age, shop staff can no longer edit its line items, notes, due date, or status directly. A shop that needs a correction after that point has to request a temporary unlock, and an HQ Admin approves, denies, or later revokes it. This is configured and reviewed from two HQ dashboard pages: HQ → Invoice Locking (the schedule) at `/app/hq/[orgId]/settings/invoice-locking`, and Invoice Unlock Requests (the review queue) at `/app/hq/[orgId]/invoice-unlock-requests`. Both are franchisor/HQ-level tools — a standalone shop with no franchisor org, or a shop staffer without HQ access, never sees either page. Shop staff only encounter the feature indirectly, when they open an invoice HQ has already locked.
Turn on a lock schedule
From HQ dashboard → Invoice Locking, check Enable invoice locking. It's off by default — every invoice stays editable until you turn this on.
With it enabled, choose a Frequency:
- Daily — locks each invoice a fixed number of days after it's created. Set Days until locked to anything from 0 to 90 (default 1). 1 locks the invoice one day after creation; 0 locks it immediately, with no same-day grace period.
- Weekly — locks every invoice once its creation week has fully ended. There's no separate day count to set for this option.
Once an invoice is locked, shop staff can still collect payment on it, but they can't edit its line items, notes, due date, or status — that requires an HQ-approved unlock. After you save, the page shows Last updated with the date and the name (or email) of whoever last changed the policy.
Review and decide unlock requests
HQ dashboard → Invoice Unlock Requests is the review queue. It's linked directly from the settings page whenever requests are waiting, and it has no "create request" button of its own — requests only ever originate from a shop's own invoice page when staff hit a locked invoice.
The list can be filtered by status — Pending, Approved, Denied, or Revoked — and each row shows the requesting shop, the invoice number, who asked, when, and their stated reason. Click a row (or its Review button) to open the detail dialog.
For a still-Pending request, you can:
- Add an optional reviewer note (shown as "visible to HQ only" — it's not shared back to the shop).
- Set how long the unlock should last, from 1 to 168 hours (up to 7 days), defaulting to 48.
- Click Approve to grant the unlock for that window, or Deny to close the request with no access granted.
One built-in safeguard: you can't approve or deny your own request. In a small network the same person sometimes wears both hats — shop staffer and HQ Admin — and this specifically blocks that person from rubber-stamping a request they filed themselves; a different HQ Admin has to decide it.
If a request is Approved and its grant is still active (hasn't hit its expiry yet), the detail view instead shows Revoke unlock now — this re-locks the invoice immediately, ahead of the grant's natural expiry. A revoked grant is tracked as its own status, separate from one that simply expired, so the history shows whether HQ took access back or the window just ran out.
What the shop sees
When a shop staffer opens an invoice that HQ has locked, they can no longer edit it directly. Submitting an unlock request needs the same permission that lets someone edit an invoice's pricing and line items in the first place — by default that's the shop's Owner, Admin, and Manager roles, not entry-level roles like Technician, Front Desk, or Service Writer, though an Owner can extend the permission to other roles. A staffer with that permission can submit a request with a reason explaining why they need to make a change; it shows up in HQ's queue as described above, and the shop can see its status update as HQ works it: pending, approved (with the time window during which they can edit again), denied, or revoked if HQ takes an approved grant back early.
Things to know
- This is an HQ-only feature. It requires the org to have the HQ add-on and the caller to have HQ dashboard access — a standalone shop with no franchisor org never sees a lock schedule or an unlock queue.
- Viewing either page — not just managing the schedule or deciding unlock requests — requires a specific permission your org's Owner grants per role, on top of plain HQ dashboard access. Someone with HQ dashboard access but not that permission sees a "you don't have access" message on both pages instead of the settings form or the review queue.
- The same permission that lets someone manage the schedule and review requests also lets them edit a locked invoice directly, bypassing the lock outright — that's intended: whoever is trusted to run the schedule is also trusted to override it.
- On the shop side, filing an unlock request needs the same permission used to edit an invoice's pricing and line items — by default the Owner, Admin, and Manager roles, not entry-level staff, though an Owner can grant it to other roles too.
- An HQ Admin can never approve or deny a request they personally filed, even if they also hold the shop-staff role that filed it.
- Unlock grants have a floor and ceiling — 1 hour minimum, 168 hours (7 days) maximum, defaulting to 48 — there's no option for an unlock with no expiry.
- Locking never blocks collecting payment on an invoice; only edits to line items, notes, due date, and status are blocked once it's locked.
- Every schedule change and every approve/deny/revoke decision is recorded in the org's audit log.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Where do I turn on invoice locking for my network?
A: HQ dashboard → Invoice Locking. It's off by default — check "Enable invoice locking," pick Daily or Weekly, and save.
Q: What's the difference between Daily and Weekly locking?
A: Daily locks each invoice a set number of days (0–90, you choose) after it was created — 0 locks it right away, with no same-day grace period. Weekly locks every invoice once the calendar week it was created in has fully ended, with no day count to configure.
Q: What can a shop still do once one of their invoices is locked?
A: They can still collect payment on it. They can't edit its line items, notes, due date, or status without an HQ-approved unlock.
Q: How does a shop actually get an unlock?
A: From the locked invoice itself, a staffer with the shop's pricing/line-item edit permission — by default the Owner, Admin, and Manager roles — can submit a request with a reason. It lands in HQ's Invoice Unlock Requests queue as Pending until an HQ Admin approves or denies it.
Q: How long does an approved unlock last, and can we take it back early?
A: Whatever the reviewing HQ Admin sets at approval time — 1 to 168 hours (7 days), defaulting to 48. HQ can also revoke an active grant early from the same queue, which re-locks the invoice immediately.
Q: Can I approve my own unlock request?
A: No. If you're both the shop staffer who filed it and an HQ Admin, a different HQ Admin has to review it — the system specifically blocks reviewing your own request.