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Report Banners & Status Messages
When you work in Accounting, Kraal shows banners and status messages that tell you the state of your data. Most of these are amber or yellow — they're not errors, they're guidance. Each one has a specific action that resolves it.
This page is a reference for every banner you may see while running reports, posting entries, or reconciling. If a banner is making you anxious, find it below and follow the steps to clear it.
How banners work
- Amber / yellow — informational. Something needs your attention but the page still works. You can ignore it temporarily.
- Red — blocking. The action can't proceed until you resolve the issue.
- Green — positive confirmation. No action required.
Every amber banner has a primary action button that takes you to the screen where you can resolve it.
Setup pending — financial package available
Where you see it: Top of any standard report page (P&L, Balance Sheet, AR Aging, etc.).
What it says: "The latest financial package is available for the period ending [date]. Review it here or run individual reports separately."
What it means: A monthly financial package has already been generated for this client. The banner is pointing you to the packaged review so you don't run individual reports unnecessarily.
How to clear it: Click Review Financial Package. The banner disappears once you open the package. If you'd rather run a one-off report, ignore the banner — your individual reports still work.
TIP
If the "period ending" date isn't a month-end (for example, May 7 instead of May 31), this means a stub close period was created at cutover or onboarding. See Financial Package Lifecycle below.
Package generation gated — reports still work
Where you see it: Top of any standard report page when setup isn't complete.
What it says: "Package generation gated. Individual reports still work. Finish the remaining setup steps before generating a new packaged monthly review."
What it means: Reports work fine. What's gated is the packaged monthly financial review — that requires setup to be fully complete (chart of accounts, bank feeds, opening balances, etc.).
How to clear it: Click the primary action button (usually labeled with the next setup step, e.g. Continue setup). This takes you to the client's setup actions page. Complete the remaining steps and the gate lifts.
Report is provisional · period unlocked · N pending
Where you see it: Bottom of any report page (the "Report Provenance" footer).
What it says: "[Report name] is provisional. The close period is not locked yet. Re-run or lock the period before external release." with badges showing PERIOD LOCK: UNLOCKED · N PENDING.
What it means:
- Provisional = numbers can still move. The close period for this date is open, so new postings, adjustments, or matches could change the report.
- N pending = the count of unresolved blocking items in the close checklist for this period. These are tasks like prepared packets awaiting review, drift detections, or missing source documents.
How to clear it:
- Open the Close screen for this client.
- Resolve the N pending checklist items (each item links to the action that closes it).
- Lock the period when ready (Lock period button on the Close screen).
- Re-run the report. The footer will now read PERIOD LOCK: LOCKED and the provisional label disappears.
WARNING
A provisional report is fine for internal review but not safe for external release (client deliverables, regulatory filings, board reports). Always lock the period before sharing externally.
No bank accounts connected
Where you see it: Banking view (Accounting → Banking).
What it says: "No bank accounts connected."
What it means: The client has no Plaid-linked accounts and no uploaded statements. Reconciliation and cash-flow reporting can't run until at least one bank source exists.
How to clear it:
- Click Connect a bank to link via Plaid, or
- Click Upload bank statement to upload a PDF or CSV from the client.
Period locked — entry blocked
Where you see it: Bills, Sales Invoices, Purchase Invoices, Journal Entries, and Payment Entry screens.
What it says: "This posting date falls inside a locked close period ([start] to [end]). New entries cannot be posted. Reason: [reason]."
What it means: The close for the period containing your posting date has been locked. To preserve audit integrity, new entries can't be added retroactively.
How to clear it (pick one):
- Change the posting date to a date in an open period (usually the next open period).
- Unlock the period from the Close screen (requires permission and a documented reason — see Unlocking a Closed Period).
- If you're booking a true correction, post the adjustment in the current open period and reference the original.
Approval required — prepared candidates
Where you see it: Bank Reconciliation view.
What it says: Amber panels showing prepared match candidates or duplicate-repair packets that need approval.
What it means: Kraal's auto-matcher found suggested matches but isn't confident enough to apply them automatically. They're waiting for you to approve or reject.
How to clear it: Open each prepared candidate in the panel and click Accept or Reject. Once the panel is empty, the banner clears.
Task status badges — review / waiting on user
Where you see them: Workspace lanes, Daily Board work queue, Command Center task lists.
What they say: Amber chip labels like Needs review, Waiting on user, Review work.
What they mean: A task or prepared packet is waiting on a specific human action — usually yours. The chip color identifies the lane; the action button on the row tells you what to do.
How to clear them: Click the action button on the task row (Open review, Open request, Approve, etc.). Complete the action. The task moves to its next state and the chip updates.
Connector issues pill
Where you see it: Top-right of every accounting workspace screen.
What it says: A red or amber pill like 15 connector issues or 3 connector issues.
What it means: Some of the client's integrations (ERPNext, Plaid, QuickBooks, Gusto, etc.) are erroring or out of sync. The pill counts the number of integrations with active issues.
How to clear it:
- Click the pill to open the Integrations screen.
- Each failing integration shows its specific error and a remediation action.
- Resolve each one (re-authenticate, re-sync, fix permissions, etc.).
- The pill turns green or disappears once all integrations are healthy.
For ERPNext specifically, see ERPNext Permissions. For Gusto, see Gusto Payroll Accounting.
Financial package lifecycle
The financial package banner can show in three different states depending on where the client is in setup:
| State | What you see | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Readiness | Hero card: "Package generation gated — reports still work" | Setup not complete. Finish setup steps before generating a package. |
| Generate | Hero card: "Generate your first monthly financial package" | Setup is complete, no package exists yet. Click to generate. |
| Review | Inline banner: "The latest financial package is available for the period ending [date]" | A package exists. Click to review the packaged version, or run individual reports separately. |
About the "period ending" date
The "period ending" date you see in the Review state reflects the close period the package was built from. For most clients on a normal monthly cadence, this is a month-end (Apr 30, May 31, Jun 30).
If you see a non-month-end date (e.g. May 7), it means a stub close period was used — typically because:
- The client onboarded mid-month and the first close period covers from the onboarding date to month-end.
- A custom partial period was created manually for a special-purpose close.
A stub package is valid for its date range, but for clean monthly reporting cadence you'll want to wait for the next full-month package to supersede it.
Provisional vs. final reports
Every report has a provenance state:
- Provisional — the close period for this date is unlocked, so numbers can still change. Internal use only.
- Final — the close period is locked. The numbers are immutable. Safe for external release.
The provenance footer (at the bottom of every report) tells you which state you're in.
Unlocking a closed period
WARNING
Unlocking a locked period is an auditable event. It should be done only for documented corrections — never as a workaround.
If you genuinely need to unlock a period:
- Open the Close screen for the client.
- Find the locked period.
- Click Unlock period.
- Enter a written reason. This is captured in the audit log.
- Make the correction.
- Re-lock the period as soon as the correction is posted.
Frequent unlocks are a sign that close discipline is slipping. If you find yourself unlocking the same period multiple times, look at why — usually it points to upstream issues (late bank statements, missed corrections in the open period, etc.).
Still stuck?
If a banner doesn't match anything on this page, or the action button isn't doing what you expect:
- Check the Troubleshooting page for common issues.
- Use the Kraven assistant from the Command Center — describe what banner you're seeing and what you've tried.
- Contact your firm admin or Kraal support.