Bookkeeping
Month-end close checklist you can actually finish.
The twenty steps we run for clients, in order, with an owner and a status against each one.
The twenty steps we run for clients, in order, with an owner and a status against each one.
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Month-end close checklist
Excel (.xlsx) · 2 tabs · 20 steps · no email required
What is in the file
A month-end close goes wrong in one of two ways. Either nobody wrote the steps down, so a different subset gets skipped each month and the numbers move after you have already sent them out. Or somebody wrote down 60 steps, nobody can finish them, and the list quietly stops being used by March.
This is the middle version: twenty steps, in the order they have to happen, with a named owner against each one. It is the list we actually run. The reasoning behind the order, a realistic close calendar and how to close faster are in the month-end close checklist guide.
Most of the twenty steps depend on an earlier one. You cannot reconcile a bank account before the feed has finished importing. You cannot review revenue before deferred revenue has been released. You cannot sign off on the P&L before accruals are posted.
That is why the template is ordered rather than grouped by category. Working top to bottom means you are never blocked halfway through a step by something you should have done first — which is the single most common reason a close that should take three days takes nine.
| # | Step | Typical owner |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | Import and clear bank and card feeds, chase missing receipts | Bookkeeper |
| 5–8 | Reconcile every cash, card and loan account to statement | Bookkeeper |
| 9–11 | Revenue cut-off: invoices raised, deferred revenue released | Controller |
| 12–14 | Accruals and prepaids, payroll, depreciation | Controller |
| 15–17 | Review AR and AP ageing, write off what is uncollectible | Controller |
| 18–20 | Flux review, lock the period, issue the reporting pack | CFO or founder |
For a company under about $10M in revenue with clean feeds and no inventory, five to seven business days is normal and three is good. If you are still closing on day fifteen, the problem is almost never the checklist — it is usually unreconciled cash going back several months, or a chart of accounts that makes the review step impossible to do quickly.
Run it against a month you have already closed. You will find two or three steps that do not apply to you and one or two that are missing. Adjust it before you rely on it, not during the close where a surprise costs you a day.
The second tab maps each step to the screen it happens on, because the slowest part of a close for a first-time bookkeeper is not the judgement, it is finding the right report. Once your team knows the software, delete that tab.
Two QuickBooks settings make the whole list shorter. Turn on the closing date password so a closed period cannot be edited behind you, and turn on bank rules for anything that recurs, which removes most of steps one to four.