Month-End Close Checklist
This is a free month-end close checklist for accounting and bookkeeping firms — 30+ line items grouped by phase, from account reconciliations through partner sign-off. Copy it into your workpapers or close tracker and use it to run a consistent, repeatable close for every client, every month.
The month-end close checklist
Phase 1 — Prep and cutoff
- Confirm the prior month is closed and locked (no back-posting).
- Set and communicate the cutoff date; stop new entries for the period.
- Collect all bank, credit card, and loan statements for the month.
- Gather payroll reports, merchant statements, and vendor bills.
- Request any missing documents from the client through the portal.
Phase 2 — Reconciliations
- Reconcile every bank account to its statement; clear or note reconciling items.
- Reconcile every credit card account to its statement.
- Reconcile merchant/payment processor deposits (Stripe, Square, PayPal) to the bank.
- Reconcile loans and lines of credit to the lender statement; confirm interest split.
- Tie the AR subledger to the general ledger control account.
- Tie the AP subledger to the general ledger control account.
- Reconcile payroll liabilities and clearing accounts.
- Reconcile sales tax payable to filings and the tax report.
Phase 3 — Adjusting entries
- Record accruals for expenses incurred but not yet billed.
- Amortize prepaid expenses (insurance, subscriptions, rent).
- Record depreciation and amortization for the period.
- Book deferred revenue movement and recognize earned revenue.
- Record payroll accruals for unpaid wages spanning the cutoff.
- Reclassify any miscoded transactions to the correct accounts.
- Clear and investigate the "Ask My Accountant" / uncategorized account.
Phase 4 — Review and analysis
- Confirm the trial balance ties out (debits = credits).
- Review the balance sheet; investigate negative or unexpected balances.
- Run a month-over-month P&L comparison; explain material variances.
- Check gross margin and key ratios against trend.
- Confirm intercompany accounts net to zero (if applicable).
- Verify fixed asset additions and disposals are recorded.
Phase 5 — Reporting and sign-off
- Generate the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement.
- Prepare the client-facing management report or dashboard.
- Document open items and questions for next month.
- Have a second reviewer check the workpapers.
- Partner signs off and locks the period.
- Archive the close package to the client file.
How to use this checklist
Assign an owner and a due date to each phase, not just the whole close. Most firms run Phase 1 in the first two business days, reconciliations by day 4, adjusting entries by day 6, and reporting by day 8. Track status per client — done, in progress, or blocked — so a partner can see the whole book at a glance. Keep the checklist attached to each client's workpapers so anyone picking up the file knows exactly where it stands.
Common mistakes and tips
- Skipping cutoff discipline. If entries keep landing after the cutoff, reconciliations never hold. Lock the period.
- Treating reconciliations as "done" with a difference. A reconciliation with an unexplained variance isn't reconciled — document every reconciling item.
- Leaving the uncategorized account for last. Clear it early; it often hides the entries that break your P&L variance review.
- No second review. The missed exception is almost always in the clean-looking accounts. Build a reviewer step in.
Run this checklist automatically in OCTA Flow
This checklist doesn't have to be a doc you tick off by hand. In OCTA Flow, each phase maps to a reusable Skill — bank reconciliation, accruals, financial statements — that runs on your real files. You connect QuickBooks or Xero, Flow executes the mechanical steps, flags only the exceptions by severity, and logs every action for the audit trail. Your team reviews and signs off. See the step-by-step month-end close in QuickBooks, pair this with the bank reconciliation template, or map deadlines with the month-end close timeline.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a month-end close take? It depends on client complexity, but firms that automate the mechanical steps often cut a multi-day close to under a day per client. The goal is a predictable, repeatable timeline rather than a fixed number.
What's the difference between this and a year-end close? Month-end close finalizes one month's books. Year-end close adds annual adjustments, tax-prep entries, and closing the fiscal year.
Can I customize the checklist per client? Yes. Add client-specific items — inventory counts, job costing, multi-entity consolidations — under the relevant phase. In Flow, those become part of that client's Skill so they run the same way every month.
See how firms run a faster, cleaner close → start a 30-day OCTA Flow trial.