Monthly Accounting Close Checklist

Verify the client has dropped every operating bank, savings, and corporate credit-card statement into the SmartVault or TaxDome portal. Missing statements are the most common reason a close slips a day — chase before kickoff, not on Day 1.

Check Gusto or ADP to confirm the last pay date in the period has fully posted, including employer taxes and 401(k) deferrals. If the period ends mid-pay-period, note that an unpaid-wage accrual will be needed in the AJE phase.

Pull the unbilled-time and unpaid-bill reports from QBO and Bill.com. Confirm every vendor bill dated in the period is entered and every customer invoice for revenue earned in the period has been issued. Cutoff errors here distort both AP aging and revenue.

Match book balance to bank balance for every operating, savings, and sweep account. Outstanding checks and deposits in transit are expected; uncategorized bank-feed lines and duplicate transactions are not — clear them before marking the rec complete.

Pull the Ramp, Brex, or Amex statement and reconcile to the GL liability account. Receipt-capture gaps in Hubdoc or Dext show up here — flag any line over $250 without a receipt for follow-up before AJEs are posted.

Run the uncleared-transactions report. Stale checks over 30 days and deposits in transit older than 5 business days are red flags. Items over $1,000 require an explicit owner and follow-up plan, not just a note.

Send the aged uncleared-items workpaper to the client controller with named items, dollar amounts, and a proposed disposition (void, reissue, write-off). Do not advance to AJEs until the controller responds in writing — voiding stale checks without authorization is a common audit finding.

The aged-receivables report total must equal the GL accounts receivable balance to the penny. Variances usually trace to journal entries posted directly to A/R or to credit memos applied incorrectly. Investigate before continuing.

Match deposits in the bank feed to specific open invoices in QBO. Lump deposits from Stripe, Shopify, or a lockbox need to be split against the daily settlement report — sitting them in Undeposited Funds bloats the balance sheet.

Review the 90+ bucket. Accounts with no payment activity in 120 days, no client response to three reminders, or known bankruptcy filings are write-off candidates. Document the rationale on the workpaper before posting any write-off entry.

Debit Bad Debt Expense, credit Accounts Receivable for each written-off invoice. If the client uses an allowance method, debit Allowance for Doubtful Accounts instead. Attach the controller approval and 90+ aging detail to the journal entry as the supporting workpaper.

For inventory and contracted-services bills in Bill.com or Ramp, match PO + receiving document + vendor invoice before approving payment. Mismatched quantities and unauthorized line items are caught here, not after the wire goes out.

Pull statements from the top 10 vendors by spend and tie open balances to the QBO A/P aging. Unrecorded credit memos and missed bills surface here. A common gotcha: vendors that bill in arrears (utilities, telecom) need an accrual when their statement hasn't arrived by close.

Build the payment run in Bill.com targeting bills due in the next 10 business days. Confirm DPO is tracking to plan and that no early-payment discounts (2/10 net 30) are being missed. Route to the approver per the client's authorization matrix.

Map gross wages, employer taxes, 401(k) deferrals, HSA contributions, and Section 125 amounts to the correct GL accounts. The auto-mapping in QBO Payroll is wrong out of the box for most clients with class or location tracking — verify the dimensions on the imported journal.

Match the FIT, FICA, FUTA, and state UI deposit confirmations from EFTPS and the state portal to the payroll liability accounts. Stale balances signal a missed deposit — late by 6+ days triggers a 5% IRS penalty, so flag immediately if any liability hasn't cleared.

Pull the prepaid schedule (insurance, software, prepaid rent) and post one period's amortization for each item. Tie the post-entry balance to the next period's expected balance on the schedule before moving on.

For SaaS or subscription clients, recognize the period's portion of each active contract per ASC 606. Annual contracts billed upfront are the most common driver. Verify the deferred-revenue waterfall matches the active contract list.

Pull the depreciation schedule (book, not tax). Post the period's depreciation by asset class. New asset additions need to be added to the schedule before posting; disposals need a gain/loss calculation.

Sweep up misposted transactions identified during bank, AR, and AP recs — owner draws coded to operating expense, capital purchases coded to repairs, etc. Every reclass entry needs a memo line referencing the reconciliation workpaper that surfaced it.

Run the WTB and review every account with a month-over-month variance over 20% or $5,000. Unexpected swings in OpEx categories and balance sheet accounts that should be static (long-term debt, equity) are the highest-yield review targets.

Generate current month, YTD, and prior-year comparative views. Cash flow uses the indirect method. Export to Fathom or Spotlight if the client subscribes; otherwise build the deck in the firm's standard QBO report template.

Three to five paragraphs covering: top P&L variances vs. budget and prior month, cash position and runway, A/R concerns by named customer, and any KPIs the client tracks (gross margin, CAC, burn). The commentary is what differentiates a bookkeeper from a controller — keep it specific.

Partner reviews the package, confirms the WTB ties, and locks the period in QBO with a close-date password. Deliver the report bundle to the client through the portal and confirm the monthly review call is on the calendar.