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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.