Stop 4 of 8 · Weekly
Month-end close
The checklist run as a conversation, one client at a time, ending in the questions email and a clear definition of done.
The close as a conversation
Farid closes eight months in the first ten days of every month. The checklist has not changed in four years: feeds categorised, payouts tied to deposits, sales tax payable checked, prepaid and accrual entries posted, P&L reviewed against last month, questions sent.
What changes is that he stops holding the checklist in his head while also doing the work. He runs it as one conversation inside the client Project, with the month's files attached, and Claude keeps the position for him.
The order, and why it is the order
| Step | Why it cannot move |
|---|---|
| Feeds fully categorised | Everything below reads from the categorised rows |
| Payouts tied out, clearing balance explained | Revenue is wrong until this holds |
| Sales tax payable checked against collected | A liability the owner will be asked for |
| P&L reviewed against last month | Only meaningful once the three above are true |
Farid works one client to the end before he opens the next. Eight closes half done on the 6th is eight closes to reopen on the 8th, and the context he had to rebuild each time is the expensive part. One client, one conversation, one email, then the next.
Running it
We are closing CL-05 for last month. Here are the bank export, the card export, the Shopify payout export and last month's closed P&L. Work through my close checklist one step at a time and stop after each step for my answer. Step one only for now: categorise the bank and card rows using the chart of accounts and rule list in this Project, and give me the ask-the-client list separately. Do not move on until I say the rows are posted. [upload the four files]
Compare this month's P&L to last month's. Flag every line that moved by more than 20 percent or 500, whichever is smaller. For each flagged line, name the transactions in the categorised file that caused the movement. If you cannot point at specific rows, say the movement is unexplained rather than offering a reason.
Turn the ask-the-client list and any unexplained P&L movement into one email to CL-05's owner. Group by topic, not by date. Eight questions maximum, each with the date and amount so she can recognise it. Plain English. Close by saying which two rows stay uncategorised until she answers, and that the month stays open until they are resolved.
What done means
Nothing uncategorised. The clearing balance explained item by item. Sales tax payable agreeing to what was collected. Every P&L movement either tied to transactions or listed as a question. If one of those is not true, the month is open and the owner has an email saying so, with a date by which the answer stops being useful.
Farid writes the status in one line at the top of the client folder: closed, or open on two rows with the owner. In February, when the CPA asks why August looks odd, that line is the answer.