Month-end close checklist – complete framework for 5–10 day close.

Pre-close activities (throughout the month)

Fast closes come from good daily habits, not heroic end-of-month sprints. Keep these current throughout the month:

• Daily: Transaction coding. Bank feeds and credit card transactions coded daily. Lagging by weeks creates a mess.
• Daily: Bill entry. Vendor bills entered within 24–48 hours of receipt. Approval routing initiated.
• Daily: Customer invoicing. Invoices generated promptly based on delivery or billing schedule.
• Weekly: Bank reconciliation. Reconcile bank accounts weekly rather than waiting for month-end.
• Weekly: Expense report review. Submitted expense reports reviewed and approved/returned within a week.
• Ongoing: Documentation. Source documents (contracts, vendor invoices, receipts) filed in shared document system.

Businesses that skip daily discipline end up with 15–20 day closes. Businesses that follow it close in 5–8 days.

Common close problems and fixes

Problem: AR aging doesn't tie to trial balance

Cause: invoices with special treatments (recurring with non-standard term), credits not applied, old write-offs not cleaned. Fix: regular AR clean-up between closes; investigate aging variance at each close; write off stale items per policy.

Problem: AP accruals missing

Cause: vendors who invoice in arrears weren't captured. Fix: standing list of accrued expense vendors with estimation methodology; review outstanding POs at month-end for uninvoiced receipts.

Problem: Inventory balance drift

Cause: transaction timing between physical receipt and invoice, cycle counts not performed, miscounted items. Fix: cycle count program with monthly discipline; reconcile receiving documents to invoice entries.

Problem: Deferred revenue balance doesn't match subscription schedule

Cause: contract modifications not reflected in schedule, new contracts not added, cancellations not processed. Fix: contract modification process that flows to bookkeeper; monthly reconciliation of subscription management system to accounting.

Problem: Close takes 15+ days

Cause: daily activities not current, missing documentation, understaffed close team, too many manual journal entries. Fix: assess root cause (usually daily habit breakdown), add staff capacity, automate recurring entries, invest in systems that reduce manual work.

Problem: Prior-period adjustments after close

Cause: errors caught after books closed, auditor adjustments, tax CPA changes. Fix: limit to material items only; document with narrative; prior-period comparison in future reports references the restated numbers.

Related: offshore month-end close, offshore controller, chart of accounts setup.