A month-end close checklist you can print and follow.

The checklist

Run these in sequence. Later steps depend on earlier ones being right: reconciling the bank after you have already reviewed the P&L means reviewing it twice.

1. Set the cut-offDecide the last date that belongs to this period and stop anyone entering ordinary transactions against it once the count and reviews below are done. In Factura Financials: the books-level cut-off date locks entries before it for everyone, not one voucher at a time — see the General Ledger →
2. Reconcile the bank accountsMatch every statement line to a ledger entry, one by one, for each bank account. In Factura Financials: reconciliation is manual tick-and-match against each ledger's transactions; there is no statement-file import, so mismatches are found by working the two lists side by side, not by an automated feed — see Bank & GL monitoring →
3. Review receivablesAge the outstanding customer balances and chase anything overdue before you close. In Factura Financials: bill-wise tracking ages every invoice against its payments, and the Receivables Control Tower groups what is overdue by customer — see Financials Analytics →
4. Review payablesAge what you owe suppliers the same way, so nothing overdue is missed and nothing already paid is double-counted. In Factura Financials: the same bill-wise mechanism ages supplier bills, surfaced on the Payables Control Tower — see Financials Analytics →
5. Count stock and check the valuationA physical count, reconciled to the system quantity, then a check that the value on the books matches the costing method you actually use. In Factura Financials: FIFO, LIFO, weighted average and standard costing are the methods wired into the engine, and stock movement is analysed by depot — read the stock valuation guide →, see Inventory →
6. Post accruals and prepaymentsRecognise expenses incurred but not yet billed, and spread payments already made across the periods they cover. Post each one as a manual journal entry against the ledgers it affects, and reverse or release it in the periods it covers.
7. Prepare the VAT and levies returnTotal output VAT, input VAT and the NHIL and GETFund levy buckets for the period — the COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy was abolished with effect from 1 January 2026 and no longer forms part of the return. In Factura Financials: the VAT return report totals VAT on sales, VAT reclaimed on purchases and total supplies for the boxes on the return — the levy breakdown itself is computed separately, in the GRA E-VAT plugin that issues each invoice — check a figure on the VAT calculator →
8. Post the payroll journalBring the month's payroll cost and statutory deductions into the accounts as one coded entry, not a re-typed summary. Factura HRMS exports a coded XML journal from the closed pay run for this — see Payroll in Factura HRMS →
9. Run depreciation on fixed assetsPost the period's depreciation charge for every asset still in use, and retire anything disposed of during the month. In Factura Financials: fixed assets are a distinct master with their own import route — see the General Ledger →
10. Eliminate intercompany balancesIf you run more than one company, match what one owes another and eliminate the pair before you consolidate. Treat it as a manual step: agree the balances between the two companies and record the elimination as a journal on each side — see the General Ledger →
11. Review the trial balance and P&LRead both before you lock the period — a trial balance that does not balance, or a P&L line that looks wrong, is far cheaper to fix now than after the period is closed. In Factura Financials: the Trial Balance and Profit & Loss reports run from the same ledger you have just been reconciling — see the General Ledger →
12. Lock the periodSet the cut-off date forward once every step above is done, so nothing else can post against a period you have already reported on. In Factura Financials: this is the same books-level cut-off from step 1, moved forward — see the General Ledger →

Questions finance teams ask