Month-End Best Practices

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Overview

A month end close checklist is a useful tool for managing your accounting records for accuracy. A good month-end close will consist of three types of procedures that are described in more detail below:

Balance Sheet Reconciliations
Process Integrity Checks
Analytical Reviews

Balance Sheet Reconciliations

Balance sheet reconciliations are used to ensure you are reporting the correct value of your assets and liabilities at month end. Reconciling the total of the balance sheet account value to a detailed listing helps you catch any errors that may have been made.

GL Account	Process	Goal
Cash	Bank Reconciliation	Find any missing transactions that are not recorded in your books.
Unapplied Cash	-Reconcile to balance by Customer. -Compare unapplied cash to outstanding AR for customers.	-Confirms that the customers with unapplied cash do not have invoices that their cash receipts should be applied to. -Confirms that any other transactions have not been accidentally booked to this GL Account.
Accounts Receivable	Reconcile to Balance by Billing record.	-Confirms that the amount owed in total matches the amount owed as a sum of the individual billing records. Ensures that cash has been applied in the correct period. -Confirms that any other transactions have not been accidentally booked to the AR Control Account.
Accounts Payable	Reconcile to balance by account payable record.	-Confirms that the amount owed in total matches the amount owed as a sum of the individual billing records. -Confirms that any other transactions have not been accidentally booked to The AP Control Account.
Vouchers Payable	Reconcile to balance by received Purchase Order Line.	-Confirms that the amount owed in total matches the amount owed as a sum of the individual received purchase order records. -Confirms that any other transactions have not been accidentally booked to this GL Account.
Payroll	Reconcile to labor expense for company if using labor costing from Accounting seed time cards.	Accurately account for labor in the general ledger
Inventory	Reconcile to quantity and value by Product.	Confirms Inventory is valued correctly.
Deferred Revenue	Reconcile to balance by billing record.	Confirms revenue has been recognized correctly.

Process Integrity Checks

Process integrity checks help you determine that all records are accounted for in your financials. The goals of these types of checks are to confirm the completeness and find missing records. These types of checks will vary greatly between different organizations. Below are some examples of process checks.

Process Name	Process Description	Reports Object(s) Used
Closed Won Opportunities	All closed won opportunities have been billed (If using Opportunity to billing). All order management opportunities have sales orders associated with them.	Opportunities
Recurring Billing	All recurring billing contracts have been billed.	Recurring Billing
Sales Orders	All inventory sales order lines have been allocated and shipped. All shipped sales orders have been billed (If using Shipping to Billing).	Sales Order Lines Sales Order lines with or without billing lines
Work Orders	All completed work orders have been built.	Projects
Purchase Orders	All closed purchase orders have been recorded in Accounts payable. All received purchase order lines have been paid.	Purchase Orders Purchase Order Lines with or without account payable lines

Analytical Reviews

Analytical reviews of your financial data help you to determine reasonableness in your GL account balances. Large fluctuations in balances should be subject to a more detailed review.

Area	Process
Balance Sheet	Trial balance review of opening balance, current period activity and ending balance.
Profit & Loss	Review transactions by Accounting Period and GL Account.

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Month-End Best Practices

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229950026

Month-End Best Practices

Overview

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