Finalizing a cycle, and what locks

Close a cycle once its final review is clear. You need the System Admin or Total Rewards Admin role, and a cycle in Approval whose Overview tab reads Ready to finalize — see The final review.

Finalizing is permanent. A finalized cycle can never be reopened, unlocked or corrected in place.

Finalize it

1. Open the cycle.
2. In the cycle’s header, select Advance to Finalized.
3. Read the dialog: this is the final phase, it closes the cycle to further configuration, and it is permanent.
4. Select Advance to Finalized to confirm, or Cancel to leave the cycle in Approval with nothing changed.

A message confirms Cycle is now in Finalized. The phase stepper moves to Finalized, the cycle’s status becomes Completed, and its page reads This cycle is closed. Finalizing is recorded on the audit trail, with who did it and when.

What becomes read-only

From that moment, nothing in the cycle can change:

• Worksheets. Every value on a worksheet is shown as text, with no fields to edit and nothing to submit. Each one reads This cycle has been finalized, and is read-only whatever its own status shows.
• Approvals. No worksheet can be approved or returned, no approval step can be reassigned, and no worksheet can be transferred to a new owner.
• The cycle’s configuration. Every section of the Setup tab — participants, funding pools and budgets, guardrails, merit matrix, reason codes, worksheet columns and schedule — opens read-only with View. The merit matrix can no longer be sent to worksheets.
• The cycle itself. There is no further phase to advance to, and the ⋯ menu no longer offers Cancel cycle.

Everything stays open to read. Worksheets, approvals and results remain fully browsable, including from the cycle’s Worksheets tab.

For what the product does next, see What changes after finalize.