Month-end guide
A month-end close checklist for a small business
Updated 16 September 2026
The close runs in an order, and the order matters: nothing downstream of a step is trustworthy until that step is done. Here is the sequence, in 10 steps, with the one that gets skipped most often.
How to use this
The steps run in order, not in importance. Steps 01 to 07 are the close itself. Step 08 is the export. Steps 09 and 10 are the part the client sees, and they are the reason the close exists — a closed month that the client never hears about in words buys you nothing.
A note on scope: this is the checklist for one small-business client on QuickBooks or Xero, not a firm-wide production plan. A firm with 30 clients runs this list 30 times, which is why anything that can be cut from the per-client time should be.
Bank and credit card reconciliation first
Reconcile every account to the statement before anything else, because every later step reads from those balances. An unreconciled bank feed is the 1 thing that can quietly make the whole close wrong, and it is the only step that cannot be patched after the memo is sent.
Clear the uncategorised and unposted queues
Work down the transactions your software flagged for review. Anything still sitting in Uncategorized or Ask My Accountant at close will show up as a movement in an account the client did not expect, so clear it while the context is still findable.
Post the recurring entries
Depreciation, loan interest, prepaid amortisation, accrued wages, and the owner's monthly set. These are the entries that never have a receipt and never have a reminder, and they are the difference between a close and a copy of the bank feed.
Check the period lock and the comparison column
Confirm no transaction can still post into the month you are closing, then export the comparative Profit & Loss with 2 period columns, not 1. Every explanation you will write depends on having something to compare against.
Scan the movements worth asking about
Read down the comparison column and note what moved more than you would expect: an account that doubled, gross profit drifting away from income, a cost growing faster than the sales it belongs to. These are the 3 to 5 findings the month-end memo is built from.
Age the receivables and payables
Run the A/R and A/P aging as of the last day of the month, not today. The figure the client needs is what was owed at month end, and it is the number most likely to start a useful conversation about cash.
Tie the Balance Sheet to the bank
Cash on the Balance Sheet equals cash on the reconciliation, retained earnings moved by net income only, and loans match the statement balance. A client may never read the Balance Sheet, but their bank, their buyer or their tax preparer will.
Export the statements the client receives
The comparative Profit & Loss, the Balance Sheet, and the 2 agings if you send them. PDF for the client. This export is also the complete input the month-end memo needs — it contains what moved, by how much, and against what, and nothing about the client's bank or customer list.
Write the covering memo
The step most often skipped, because it lands at the end of the tightest 10 days of the month and nothing downstream depends on it. It is the only part of the close the client actually reads, and the first thing to drop when the month runs short. A template keeps it to a few minutes per client.
Send, and record what you told them
Statements, memo, and the questions you asked. Next month's memo starts from what this one said, so a note of what you told each client is what makes month 2 faster than month 1.
The checklist, to copy
Copy this into your close folder and tick it per client.
Month-end close — [client], [period]
01 Bank and credit card accounts reconciled to the statement 02 Uncategorised and unposted queues cleared 03 Recurring entries posted: depreciation, loans, prepaid, accrued wages, owner set 04 Period locked, comparative P&L exported with 2 period columns 05 Movements worth asking about noted: 3 to 5 findings 06 A/R and A/P aging run as of the last day of the month 07 Balance Sheet tied to the bank and to net income 08 Statements exported: comparative P&L, Balance Sheet, agings 09 Covering memo written: headline, findings with figures, questions 10 Sent, and a note kept of what was told to the client
Step 09 is free to copy from the month-end memo template.
Or have it written for you
Step 09 is the one Loopwork AI takes over. It writes the covering memo from the comparative Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet you exported in step 08, and never asks for the ledger. Your first memo is free and takes no card.