Bookkeeping month-end close checklist

Most month-end close checklists begin with "reconcile the bank account". That assumes you already have the statement. In a small firm you often do not, and the close starts late because the documents arrived late or arrived wrong.

This month-end close checklist starts earlier. Six phases: requests go out before month end, documents are collected and checked in the first five days, then you reconcile, review, report and close, and carry forward what is still open. Change the days to suit your firm. Keep the order.

Before month end: requests go out

• Confirm the document list for each client. New account, closed card, new payroll provider?
• Prepare the request to go out on the first working days of the new month. A request sent on the 28th gets you last month's statement.
• Write the month in full in the subject line and in every item: "August 2026 bank statement".
• Clear last month's open questions.
• Agree a close calendar inside the firm, for example: documents due day 5, reconciliations done by day 8, review day 9, reports out day 10.

What to request, with wording for each item, is in the client document collection checklist.

Days 1 to 5: collect and check documents

One rule for this phase: check every document on the day it arrives.

• Send the request on working day 1 to 3, due about a week later.
• When a file arrives, open it. Check the account, the period, the page count and that it can be read. The bank statement checklist has the six checks.
• If a file is wrong, send it back the same day with one clear sentence: what it is, and what you need instead.
• Keep one status per client that anyone in the firm can read: not sent, sent, partly received, complete, in review.
• Remind on a fixed schedule, and list only what is missing. After the last reminder, call.
• Do not wait for the whole set. Reconcile each account as soon as its statement is in.

Reconcile

Bank accounts

• Confirm the opening balance equals last month's reconciled closing balance. If not, someone changed a cleared transaction. Find it before anything else.
• Reconcile to the statement closing balance, not to the bank feed balance.
• List outstanding checks and deposits, and question anything old.
• Look for duplicates between the feed and manual entry.

Credit cards

• Reconcile to the statement closing date, which is often not the last day of the month.
• Check that payments to the card are recorded as transfers, not as expenses.

Loans and lines of credit

• Split each payment into principal and interest, using the lender's statement.
• Agree the loan balance in the books to the balance on the statement.

Payment processors

• Record gross sales, fees and refunds from the processor report. The bank deposit is the net amount.
• Reconcile the processor clearing account. At month end it should equal the payouts in transit.
• Compare processor sales with the register or store sales report, and explain the difference.

Review

Payroll

• Agree wages, employer taxes and deductions to the payroll reports for every pay date in the month.
• Check the payroll liability accounts return to the expected balance after the tax deposits.
• If a pay period crosses the month end, accrue the unpaid days if the client reports on the accrual basis.

Accruals and prepaid expenses

• Record bills that belong to this month and arrived after it: utilities, contractors, professional fees.
• Release this month's share of prepaid expenses such as insurance and annual software.
• Review aged receivables and payables. Old items need a question to the client.
• For cash basis clients, skip the accruals but still review the receivables and payables for errors.

Fixed assets

• Read through repairs, supplies and equipment expenses for purchases that should be assets under the client's capitalisation policy. A $3,000 "supplies" entry is usually a laptop.
• Ask for the invoice for each new asset. Record disposals too.
• Record depreciation monthly, or note that it is booked at year end.

Unusual items

• Read the client's note on unusual or large transactions and match each one to the bank statement.
• Clear the suspense or "ask my accountant" account to zero.
• Check owner contributions and draws. Personal spending on the business card goes to the owner, not to expenses.
• Compare the profit and loss with last month and the same month last year. Look at any line that moved more than sales did.
• Reconcile sales tax collected to the sales report, and the liability to what will be filed.

Report and close

1. A second person reviews the reconciliations and the reports. In a one person firm, do it the next morning with a printed checklist.
2. Produce the agreed reports: profit and loss, balance sheet, and whatever else the client reads.
3. Add three to five plain sentences: what changed, what needs a decision, what you need from the client.
4. Set the closing date in the accounting software, with a password if it allows one, so closed months stay closed.
5. Save the statements and reports in the client's folder, with consistent file names.
6. Note the date the close finished and what delayed it. After a few months the notes show which clients and which documents cause the delays.

The carry-forward list

Some things will not be resolved this month. Write them in one place per client, and read that list first when you prepare next month's request.

• Documents still missing, and the date you last asked.
• Questions the client has not answered.
• Outstanding checks and deposits that look too old.
• Estimates that need to be corrected when the real bill arrives.
• New accounts, loans or assets that need paperwork.
• Changes to next month's document list.

What blocks the close, and how do you unblock it?

The same ten things, month after month.

Printable month-end close checklist

• Document list confirmed for this client and month
• Request sent on working day 1 to 3, month written in full
• Each file checked on the day it arrived
• Wrong files sent back the same day with a clear note
• Bank accounts reconciled to the statement balance
• Credit cards reconciled to the statement closing date
• Loan balances agreed, payments split into principal and interest
• Processor clearing account reconciled, fees and refunds recorded
• Payroll agreed to the payroll reports, liabilities checked
• Accruals and prepaid expenses recorded (accrual basis)
• Receivables and payables reviewed
• New assets identified, invoices on file
• Suspense account at zero, owner items coded
• Profit and loss compared with last month and last year
• Sales tax liability checked
• Second review done
• Reports and a short note sent to the client
• Closing date set, files saved
• Carry-forward list updated

Questions

Doing this with Pingtail

Pingtail covers the first two phases of this checklist. A monthly request per client repeats on its own on a paid plan, and the due date never defaults to the past. Each upload is checked on the page, so a statement for the wrong month or a PDF with pages missing is caught while the client is still there. Reminders list only the missing required items, and after the last one you get an email saying it is time for a call. See the monthly close page. You can try it on yourself first: send a test request to your own email and upload the wrong file on purpose.