Month-end guide
A month-end memo template, in 4 parts
Updated 13 September 2026
Your client does not read the Profit & Loss. They read the note that comes with it. Here is the structure that note wants, a worked example, and the rules that keep it defensible.
What the memo is for
The statements prove the work. The memo is what the client actually reads, and it is the only part of the close that argues for your fee. A client who receives a bare PDF every month files you under data entry. A client who receives 5 sentences that name what moved files you under advice.
So the memo has one job: tell the owner what changed, with the figure attached, and hand them the 3 questions only they can answer. It is not a summary of the statements. It is a shortlist.
The template
Copy this and keep it in your close folder. The bracketed parts are the only parts that change from client to client.
Month-end memo — [client], [period]
Headline [The one movement that matters, with direction and figure. One sentence.]
What moved 01 [Account or total], [up or down] [X%] to [$figure], from [$prior figure]. 02 [Account or total], [up or down] [X%] to [$figure], from [$prior figure]. 03 [Account or total], [up or down] [X%] to [$figure], from [$prior figure].
Cash and what is owed [Closing cash, and the direction it moved. Receivables over 60 days, as a figure.]
Questions for you - [What drove the movement in 01?] - [What drove the movement in 02?] - [One timing question: is this a one-off or the new run rate?]
Closing line [What you will do next, and what you need from them, with a date.]
Keep it to 3 to 5 findings. A memo with 11 findings has no findings, because the owner has no way to tell which one to act on.
A worked example
Below is the template filled in from a comparative Profit & Loss for a plumbing company. The company is invented. The arithmetic is real — every percentage is the change between the 2 period columns, and nothing is inferred beyond them.
Sample · Client A · Aug 2026 vs Jul 2026
Net income fell 4.3% to $33,530 even as total income grew 5.3%, because cost of sales grew almost 4 times faster than sales.
What moved
- 01 Total income rose 5.3% to $159,600, but total cost of goods sold rose 19% to $44,000.
- 02 Subcontractors drove most of that, up 36% to $24,600 from $18,150.
- 03 Gross profit grew only 1% to $115,600, well behind the pace of income.
- 04 Advertising tripled to $6,300, up 200% from $2,100.
Questions for you
- What drove the 36% increase in subcontractor cost this period?
- Was the advertising increase to $6,300 a campaign, or the new monthly level?
- Are the extra subcontracted jobs at the same margin as the work you do in house?
These figures are drawn only from the statement totals provided, without underlying transaction detail.
Notice what the example never does. It does not say why subcontractor cost rose, because the statement cannot know. It asks instead.
The 5 rules that keep it defensible
- Cite a figure or say nothing. Never write “materially higher” or “a significant increase” without the number beside it.
- Direction and figure travel together. Write “up 9% to $214,300”, not “9% growth” and not “$214,300” alone.
- Turn every cause into a question. You know the account moved. You do not know why, and guessing in writing is the one thing that can cost you the client.
- Say what the figures came from. One closing sentence naming the statements, and the absence of transaction detail, protects the whole memo.
- Same structure every month. A client who recognises the shape of the memo reads it in 40 seconds. A client who has to re-learn it reads none of it.
When a number looks wrong
Sometimes the movement you are about to write about is a coding error, not a business event. Do not write around it and do not quietly fix it in the memo. Name it in the questions section as a timing or classification query, and hold the memo until the client answers if the figure changes the headline.
A memo that says “Repairs shows $1,150 this period against $4,800 last, which I believe is timing rather than a change in the work” is stronger than one that reports a 76% fall as fact.
What this costs you by hand
For most firms this is 20 to 40 minutes per client, unbillable, in the tightest 10 days of the month. At 20 clients that is a working day and a half you do not invoice, which is why the memo is the first thing dropped when the close runs late.
The template above is free to keep and use, with no attribution. If you would rather not fill it in 20 times, that is the thing we make.
Or have it written for you
This is the same structure Loopwork AI writes from your comparative Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet. Your first memo is free and takes no card. The ledger stays where it is.