Month end close checklist for finance teams
A month end close checklist lists every task needed to finalize the books for a month, in the order they depend on each other: cutoff, cash and payment reconciliations, subledger tie-outs, accruals and prepaids, balance sheet reconciliations, review and reporting. Each task gets an owner, a due day and evidence that it was done.
Why a checklist beats a calendar reminder
Most close delays do not come from hard accounting. They come from a forgotten accrual, a bank account nobody reconciled, or a reviewer who learns on day eight that a schedule is missing. A month end close checklist fixes that by making every task visible, assigned and dated. It also makes the close repeatable when people are on holiday or new to the team.
Keep the checklist in one shared place, whether that is a spreadsheet, a project board or your close software, and keep one version of it. Copies emailed around drift apart within a few months, and then nobody knows which list is current. Each line should name the task, the owner, the reviewer, the due day and where the evidence lives.
The checklist below is a template you can adapt. It follows the order most controllers use, because later tasks depend on earlier ones: you cannot accrue expenses properly before you know what was paid, and you cannot review the balance sheet before the reconciliations behind it exist. For the software side of running this every month, see month end close software.
Prepare the close before day one
The fastest closes start before the month ends. In the last week of the month, confirm the close calendar with everyone who owns a task, remind department heads to submit invoices and expense reports, and check that last month's open reconciling items are resolved or have a plan.
- Publish the close calendar with owners and due days
- Send the cutoff reminder for invoices, expenses and purchase orders
- Review last month's open reconciling items
- Confirm access to every bank, card and processor account you need statements from
- Check that exchange rates for month end are agreed, if you report in more than one currency
Owners should confirm their tasks and due days in writing, even a one-line reply. A task nobody acknowledged is a task nobody owns, and it is usually the one still open on day five.
Day one covers cutoff and cash
On the first working day, lock the period for anyone who should not post to it anymore and collect every statement. Cash comes first because almost every later task depends on knowing what actually moved in and out of the bank.
- Download bank, card, processor and marketplace statements for the month
- Record all receipts and payments, including bank fees and interest
- Complete the bank reconciliation for every account
- Reconcile processor and marketplace payouts to deposits, as described in the payment reconciliation process
- Reconcile corporate card statements to receipts and expense entries
- List deposits in transit and outstanding payments with expected clearing dates
This is the step that stalls most closes. If your team spends the first days matching lines in spreadsheets, bank reconciliation software and credit card reconciliation software take the matching off their plate and leave a short exceptions queue.
Day two covers subledgers and revenue
With cash confirmed, tie each subledger to its control account in the general ledger and finish revenue.
- Tie accounts receivable aging to the AR control account
- Apply unapplied cash and review credit balances, see accounts receivable reconciliation software
- Tie accounts payable aging to the AP control account and reconcile key vendor statements, as in our guide on how to reconcile accounts payable
- Confirm revenue recognition entries, deferred revenue and unbilled revenue
- Reconcile inventory and fixed asset registers, if you carry them
- Record intercompany charges and confirm balances with each entity
Day three covers accruals and adjustments
Now record what happened in the month but has not been invoiced or paid yet, and spread what was paid in advance.
- Accrue expenses for goods and services received but not billed
- Accrue payroll, bonuses and payroll taxes for the period
- Amortize prepaid expenses and record depreciation
- Revalue foreign currency balances at month end rates
- Record any reclassifications found during reconciliations
Each entry should have a short description, a supporting schedule and a reference to the document behind it. Reviewers move much faster when they do not have to ask where a number came from.
Reverse last month's accruals automatically if your system allows it, then book the new ones. That keeps the accrual accounts from accumulating old balances that nobody can explain at year end.
Set a materiality threshold for accruals and stick to it. Chasing every small invoice delays the close without changing the numbers in any meaningful way, while a missed large accrual distorts the month. Agree the threshold with your auditor once, write it at the top of the checklist and apply it every month.
Day four covers balance sheet reconciliations and review
Every balance sheet account gets a reconciliation: a schedule that explains its balance, with support. High risk accounts such as cash, receivables, payables, accruals and intercompany are reviewed in full. Low risk accounts with no activity can be reviewed with a lighter touch.
- Reconcile every balance sheet account and attach support
- Investigate and clear old reconciling items
- Run a flux analysis on the income statement and balance sheet against last month and budget
- Explain every variance above your threshold in writing
- Reviewer signs off each reconciliation and the journal entries
The balance sheet reconciliation software page shows how these schedules are prepared and tracked in one place, and the general ledger reconciliation software page covers the account level detail.
Reviewers should look for patterns, not only balances. An accrual that is reversed and booked again every month at the same amount, a suspense account that never empties or a reconciling item that keeps rolling forward are signs that a process upstream needs fixing. Note them in the review comments so they are addressed in the lessons learned step.
Day five covers reporting and lessons learned
With reconciliations signed off, close the period for everyone and produce the reports.
- Lock the period in the accounting system
- Archive the reconciliations, schedules and approvals in the close folder for the month
- Prepare the financial statements and the management pack
- Send reports to leadership and any lender or investor who receives them
- Note what slowed the close and one change to try next month
That last item is the one most teams skip, and it is the one that shortens the close over time. If the same bank account delays the close every month, fix the feed or the file format once rather than working around it twelve times a year. If reconciliation discrepancies keep coming back from the same source, fix the source.
Track one or two simple measures over time, such as the day the close finished and the number of open reconciling items at sign-off. You do not need a dashboard. A line in a spreadsheet each month is enough to see whether the changes you make are working.