Month End Close Checklist
A dependency-ordered close calendar, the reconciliation and tie-out logs behind it, and a period record that tracks closed and locked separately.
Free download · No account needed
Close Checklist
[Entity] — [Month 20__] Close
Working days counted from the first business day after period end. Every row is typed, because the type is what tells you whether last month’s entry should already have reversed itself.
Before anything else
| WD | Task | Type | Owner | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Cut off AP entry for the period | Task | — | — |
| 0 | Snapshot FX rates, with source and time | Task | — | — |
Reconcile
| 2 | Every bank account to the GL cash detail | Task | — | — |
| 3 | Reverse last month’s accruals, and confirm each reversed | Reversing JE | — | — |
| 4 | Inventory to the count, shrink separate from cost | Task | — | — |
Close, then lock
| 6 | Mark the period closed | Task | — | — |
| 7 | Lock in the ledger, record who can post behind it | Task | — | — |
| 7 | List every entry posted between closed and locked | Task | — | — |
Three rows where every downloadable checklist has one tick.
Every close checklist you can download ends on the same line: lock the period. None of them says what a lock is or who can undo one. Closed is a checklist state your team owns. Locked is a system state the ledger owns, and it is weaker than the word suggests: Xero's accounting API models posting before the lock date as a permission a connection either holds or does not. This pack keeps the two dates in separate columns, with the entries that posted between them counted alongside.
Take a February close at a sixty-person instruments manufacturer. The books are marked closed on 9 March, the board pack goes out on the 10th, and the ledger is not locked until the 16th. Two entries post inside that window: a 4,120.00 facilities reclassification between two departments, and a 610.00 accrual correction. The departmental line the board read is no longer the line the ledger holds. The Period State Record puts both dates, the count and that sentence in one row, which is the whole difference between finding it and not.
The rest of the pack is built the same way. Accounting Policy Notes records the judgement behind each recurring accrual once, with who decided and what would reopen it, so next month's preparer inherits a decision instead of remaking it. The Reconciliation Log has no reconciled column, only the difference, what explains it, and what is left over with its age in days. Feed it from bank statement PDFs and a normalized trial balance, then explain the month with the variance narrative and board slide, or download the pack as Word and CSV files.
What's in the pack
Close Checklist
Ordered by dependency rather than by account, with every row typed as a task, a recurring entry or a reversing entry, and the WD0 cut-offs that cannot be done retrospectively.
Close Calendar sheet
Working day, owner, function, dependency and evidence per task, so a row waiting on the warehouse or on payroll reads as an upstream dependency instead of an accounting delay.
Accounting Policy Notes
One entry per recurring judgement: the treatment, who decided, the basis, and what would reopen it. The auditing standard on internal control lists accounting policy selection as part of the close itself.
Reconciliation Log sheet
Difference, what explains it, what is left over, and how old the leftover is. No reconciled column, because that is a conclusion a preparer signs and a reviewer accepts.
Tie-out Status sheet
Every balance-sheet account against its support, with the threshold column naming the policy row that governs it rather than carrying a number that nobody can date later. Proving those balances rather than logging them is the balance sheet substantiation pack.
Journal Entry Log sheet
Entry reference, type, amount, posted date, and a flag for anything posted after the close date. Reversing entries carry the entry they reverse, so a missing reversal is visible. Where prepaids and accruals carry their own month-to-month balance, the prepaid and accrual rollforward pack runs that schedule on its own cadence instead of being rebuilt at every close.
Variance Analysis sheet
One row per line per basis of comparison, because prior period and budget give different answers, and a reader who cannot see which was used cannot check the number.
Variance Commentary
Prose that names a cause rather than restating a direction, marks each entry timing or permanent, and carries an explicit list of what the data cannot explain.
Period State Record
Closed date, locked date, the ledger, who can post behind the lock by name, and the count of entries that posted in the gap between the two.
Close Retro
Four questions, fifteen minutes, one change with a name on it. Read down the column and three months of the same late input becomes a conversation with a provider.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Open the pack in River and let the agent build it from your own files, or download the blank Word and CSV files instantly with no account.
- 2
Send the close you already run
The general ledger export, the bank statements, the payroll register and last month's checklist in whatever shape it exists. In River the calendar is built from your own prior close rather than a generic one.
- 3
Log the differences, not the conclusions
Fill the ledger balance, the supporting balance and the difference. The explanation stays yours, and an empty explanation next to a real difference is a finding rather than an unfinished cell.
- 4
Record closed, then record locked
Mark the period closed when the sign-off happens. Come back when the ledger is actually locked, and list what posted in between before it reaches a board or a lender.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. Download the whole pack as Word documents and CSV sheets, with no signup and no credit card. Edit with AI is a separate, optional path for anyone who wants the agent to build the calendar and fill the differences from their own exports. The template library holds the rest of the packs.
What is the difference between closing a period and locking it?
Closed means your team has finished and nobody intends to post anything else. Locked means the ledger will refuse a posting dated into the period. Different owners, usually different dates. This pack records both, plus who holds the override and what posted between the two.
Why do the thresholds ship blank?
Because a number here would be invented. The standard on evaluating audit results permits an auditor to designate an amount below which a misstatement is clearly trivial, declines to publish one, and resolves uncertainty against triviality. Every threshold cell carries an owner and a pointer to the policy row instead.
What format are the downloaded files?
Word documents (.docx) for the checklist, policy notes, commentary, period record and retro, and CSV (.csv) for the five sheets, zipped into one file. They open natively in Word, Pages, Google Docs, Excel, Numbers and Sheets, with nothing to convert.
Does the calendar change at quarter end and year end?
Yes, and one difference catches people out. A registrant files a 10-Q within 40 days for accelerated filers and 45 days for everyone else, and no 10-Q is due for the fourth quarter at all. A twelve-identical-month calendar is right about the books and wrong about the filing.
What does Edit with AI actually do?
It creates a free River account and installs this exact pack as a private workspace. The agent opens ready to read your exports, build the calendar from the close you already run, and populate every reconciliation difference. Nothing is written until you send it something.
Who is this template for?
Controllers, bookkeepers and fractional CFOs closing a real set of books each month. Several entities in several currencies add the intercompany tie-out. Where the pressing question is weekly rather than monthly, the 13-week cash flow forecast is the companion. Fund GPs reporting to limited partners want the quarterly LP letter pack, and anyone running fund accounting end to end wants the fund CFO workspace.
Close the month, then prove it is actually locked
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open this exact pack in River and let the agent build the calendar from your own close.
Edit with AI