Month-end close runner

Purpose

Turn period-end data into a traceable close checklist with evidence status, numerical checks, exceptions, and unresolved evidence. The output supports a controller’s review and does not make or post accounting entries.

Scope

Recurring monthly close activities for an entity, including balance review, reconciliations, accruals, provisions, and variance analysis. Excluded: posting entries, approving the close, and jurisdiction-specific tax conclusions.

The review covers checklist completion, evidence dates, reconciliation tie-outs, unusual journal activity, carry-forward items, and ownership of unresolved work. It distinguishes a missing artifact from a failed control and never treats file presence alone as proof of completion.

Data basis

• Close checklist and close calendar.
• Reconciliation workpapers, journal export, supporting evidence, prior close memo, and owner list.

Result

A close status tracker with one row per task, a concise close memo, and an open-items register with evidence references.

Quality criteria

• Every completed task cites its evidence and period.

• Reconciliation differences and unusual entries are quantified.

• Open items name the missing evidence, owner, and due date when available.

• No task is marked complete solely because a file exists.

• Trial balance, general ledger, chart of accounts, prior close pack, client profile, reconciliation schedules, and accounting policies.

• The fixed records, tables, or folders in the skill scope that hold the relevant history or schema.

Result

A close checklist, open-items memo, and journal-proposal sheet with evidence and status.

Quality criteria

• The entity, period, currency, and reporting basis are stated.
• Every material account group has a status and evidence reference.
• Proposed entries balance and show the source and rationale.
• Variances use the client’s defined threshold or are marked as a default.
• Missing evidence is separated from accounting anomalies.

Instructions

Use the prior close as a comparison baseline but do not carry forward an error without checking current evidence. Group accounts by close activity and identify dependencies between tasks. Explain material movements using data, not generic commentary. Keep proposed entries separate from approved or posted entries. Apply company policies from scope and state when a rule is absent.

Adapt before use

Keep the source trail close to every conclusion and preserve the difference between a source fact, a calculated value, an assumption, and a recommendation. Use stable identifiers across the document and sheet so a reviewer can move from a summary statement to the underlying row and source. Prefer a complete, transparent partial result over a confident answer built on missing evidence.

• Add the client chart of accounts and close checklist.
• Define materiality and variance thresholds.
• Specify recurring entry policies and required evidence.
• Set the roles and review sequence for proposed entries.