diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 785d5c96cd..0f1ef0bc29 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 dnl Process with autoconf to generate configure script   -*- sh -*-
 
-AC_INIT([LyX],[2.4.0dev],[lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org],[lyx])
+AC_INIT([LyX],[2.4.0-beta1],[lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org],[lyx])
 AC_PRESERVE_HELP_ORDER
 # Use ISO format only. The frontend needs to parse this
-AC_SUBST(LYX_DATE, ["2021-02-14"])
+AC_SUBST(LYX_DATE, ["2021-05-24"])
 AC_PREREQ([2.65])
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR(src/main.cpp)
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])