Month-End Close Checklist: A Practical Accounting Guide

Before month end

Confirm the close calendar, transaction cutoff, entity scope, preparer and reviewer assignments, and the evidence standard for each account reconciliation.

• Confirm bank, credit card, payroll, AP, AR, inventory, and intercompany owners.
• Identify tasks with upstream dependencies and define the required completion evidence.
• Set the management review date and final approval deadline.

Day 1: capture the inputs

Lock the cutoff rules and collect the source data needed for the close. Early visibility matters more than pretending every task can start at once.

• Post or confirm recurring journal entries and payroll inputs.
• Collect bank statements, subledger exports, inventory counts, and intercompany balances.
• Flag missing inputs as blockers with an owner and next action.

Reconciliations and adjustments

Complete cash and bank reconciliations, accounts receivable, accounts payable, accruals, prepaids, fixed assets, payroll, revenue, inventory where applicable, and intercompany balances. Record proposed adjustments with supporting evidence.

Review, reporting, and lock

Review balance sheet reconciliations, investigate variances, clear requested changes, and prepare management reporting. The close is ready for final approval when required work is complete, evidence is attached, and open exceptions have an explicit disposition.

• Reviewer approves or requests changes with a clear note.
• Controller completes variance and management review.
• Final approver signs off and the period is locked according to policy.
• Record post-close issues and update the recurring checklist for next month.

Common dependencies

Payroll may depend on HR inputs, revenue recognition may depend on billing data, intercompany reconciliation may depend on another entity's ledger, and management reporting depends on the reviewed trial balance. Make these relationships explicit so a late input is visible before it delays downstream work.