Month-End Close Process Overview with Flowcharts and Checklist

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It is essential to review the books and records for any current month activity that might not be reflected in cash or credit card account activity. This can include revenue that has been earned but not yet invoiced or received, as well as expenses that have been incurred for which bills have not yet been received or paid.

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Most accounting teams can provide answers due to their direct involvement in all the processes. They can analyze the numbers, check journal entries, and give some insight into your company’s financial health. Examine your checking and savings accounts, loan and credit accounts, and digital accounts, such as PayPal. Check your balances, deposits, and withdrawals to find discrepancies. Account reconciliations help you spot mistakes in your financial reporting.

That typically means manual and labor-intensive, relying on use of multiple spreadsheets. The bottom line is that a slow close will increase general and administrative (G&A) expense. It could also be an indication of underlying inefficiencies across other financial processes – such as billing, cashflow and accounts payable.

Check revenue and expense accounts

You have until ten month end closing process after month end to present your close information. During pre-close meetings, the team should discuss follow-up items from the previous month’s post-close meeting and determine the current month’s close schedule and timeline. You should also determine what staff should do if they run into barriers and how they should communicate any bottlenecks. If you have month-end close challenges, you may want to implement some of these month-end close best practices. BlackLine partners with top global Business Process Outsourcers and equips them with solutions to better serve their clients and achieve market-leading automation, efficiencies, and risk control. By outsourcing, businesses can achieve stronger compliance, gain a deeper level of industry knowledge, and grow without unnecessary costs.

Don’t leave the office for the day until the day’s goals are met.” She adds that it is helpful to participate in staff meetings to discuss timelines and deliverables so everyone understands expectations. Finally, communication is key to avoiding delays and helping improve overall quality. And yet the financial close has long been a source of frustration and pain for finance departments, with potentially significant ramifications for the organization as a whole.

Implement Automated Systems

Once you create a month-end close process checklist in Excel, you can use our financial close management software to automate tasks to save time, reduce stress and maintain accuracy. The month-end close is an accounting procedure that finalizes and closes out all financial activity for a business for the preceding month. This timeframe represents a well-defined period for accounting purposes.

• Learn about common procedures regarding month-end and quarterly…
• Traditionally, month-end closing has been regarded as a time-consuming and occasionally frustrating process—a sort of “necessary evil” in bookkeeping.
• It ensures the accuracy and timeliness of individual company’s numbers so they can be passed over to the group for consolidation and reporting and comply with regulatory reports – either internal or external.
• It also automates manual tasks like financial data collection and reconciliation.
• And you get faster insights by automating tedious, time-consuming tasks.