Monthly Bookkeeping Close Checklist

Confirm the client has uploaded every operating bank, savings, and credit-card statement to the SmartVault or TaxDome portal for the period. Missing the credit-card statement is the most common reason close slips a day — chase it before fieldwork starts, not during.

Verify the last pay date in the period has cleared Gusto / ADP / QuickBooks Payroll and that the journal entry has synced to the GL. Unposted runs throw off payroll expense, payroll liabilities, and the 941 tie-out later.

Open a ticket with Gusto / ADP / Paychex support and confirm an expected post date. If the run cannot be posted before close, document an estimated payroll accrual workpaper and flag the period for re-open if material.

Pull the Bill.com or Ramp queue and confirm everything received through the last day of the month is entered in QBO with the correct bill date. Late-arriving invoices for in-period services should be accrued, not pushed to next month.

Tie the bank-feed ending balance to the statement and confirm the QBO book balance matches after outstanding items. Save the reconciliation report to the client workpaper folder before moving on.

Pull the uncleared-transactions report and chase anything older than 30 days — usually old checks the payee never deposited or duplicate bank-feed matches. Aging uncleared items obscure cash and are a common partner-review red flag.

Match every charge to a Hubdoc / Dext receipt or vendor bill. Anything still sitting in Ask My Accountant after this step gets sent to the client as a coding question, not left in suspense.

Capture any reconciling item over $1,000 in the rec workpaper with a description, dollar amount, and proposed resolution. Anything that cannot be cleared by close gets flagged in the management commentary.

Run the A/R aging summary at period-end and confirm the total ties to GL account 1200 (or the client's receivables account). Off-by-pennies usually means a credit memo posted to the wrong account; investigate before signing off the rec.

Use the QBO statement run to send open-balance statements to every customer aged 31+ days. Weekly follow-up beats monthly — DSO drifts up fast when collections are batched only at close.

Anything 90+ is a write-off candidate. Pull each customer's history and note disputed invoices, broken payment plans, and accounts already in collections.

Draft a write-off memo for the client with proposed amounts, customer names, and the supporting collection history. Do not post the entry without owner approval — write-offs hit P&L and most owners want to weigh in.

Run A/P aging at period-end and tie to GL account 2000. Negative balances on a vendor usually mean a payment posted without a matched bill — clean up before close so 1099 prep doesn't inherit the mess in January.

Process the approved-bills queue per the client's pay schedule. Confirm ACH and check selections against the cash-position review before releasing — a batch that overdraws the operating account is a Monday-morning emergency.

Compare 30-day forward bills due to the projected operating cash balance. Flag any shortfall in the management commentary so the owner can plan a draw, line-of-credit pull, or vendor stretch.

Pull the period payroll register from Gusto / ADP and tie gross wages, employer taxes, and benefit deductions to the corresponding GL accounts. The journal entry sync occasionally drops a class or department — spot-check class tracking on a sample of employees.

Verify each federal deposit hit the correct due date per the client's lookback period. Semiweekly depositors with a Wed/Thu pay date owe by the next Wednesday; Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon pay dates owe by the next Friday. A one-day miss is a 2% penalty.

When the pay period straddles month-end, accrue gross wages plus employer payroll taxes for the unpaid days. Reverse the accrual on the first of the next month so the actual run isn't double-counted.

Add any new equipment, vehicles, or capitalized software per the client's capitalization policy (typically $2,500+ under the de minimis safe harbor). Remove disposed assets and book gain/loss on disposal.

Run the depreciation schedule from the fixed asset module (or the Excel roll-forward) and post the period entry. Reconcile accumulated depreciation on the balance sheet to the schedule total before signing off.

Tie each note-payable balance to the lender's month-end statement. Split the payment between principal and interest per the amortization schedule — bookkeepers commonly post the full payment to interest expense and overstate interest by thousands at year-end.

Pull the prepaid schedule (insurance, software annual contracts, retainers) and book the period's expense amortization. Tie the remaining prepaid balance to the schedule before posting.

For subscription and prepaid-service clients, recognize the period's earned revenue from the deferred-revenue liability per ASC 606. Match the recognition pattern to the contract terms — annual prepays straight-line over 12 months unless the contract specifies otherwise.

Post AJEs for the miscoded items identified during bank, credit-card, and sub-ledger recs. Every AJE needs a memo explaining the reclass — partners block close on AJEs without supporting workpapers.

Compare the period WTB to prior month and prior-year-same-month. Investigate any GL account with a variance over the client's materiality threshold (commonly 10% and $1,000). Unexplained variances at this stage usually mean a missed reclass.

Run the standard report package in QBO or Fathom: P&L (current month + YTD + prior-year comparison), balance sheet, and cash flow (indirect method). Export to PDF and save to the workpaper folder.

Two to four paragraphs covering top P&L variances vs. prior month and budget, A/R concerns, current cash position, and any flagged items from reconciliations. Owners read this section first — keep it plain language, not GL-account jargon.

Set the closing date in Account and Settings → Advanced and enable the password. This stops accidental edits to closed-period transactions — the most common source of next-month rec headaches.

Upload the PDF report package and management commentary to the SmartVault / Liscio / TaxDome client folder and send the notification. Include a one-line note with the scheduled review-call time.

The reviewing partner or controller signs off on the final package. Returned-for-revisions decisions kick the close back to the AJE step with notes on what needs rework before resending.