Accounting
How to Close Your Books in 10 Business Days
The close calendar, checklist and automation our team uses to deliver reviewed financials by day ten, every month.
Published: 2 min read
Financial statements lose value every day they are late. A P&L that arrives six weeks after month end tells you what already happened, not what to do next. Our standard is reviewed financials by the tenth business day. Here is how we get there.
Days 1 to 2: capture everything
The first days are about completeness.
- Bank, credit card and loan feeds sync automatically into the ledger
- Payroll journals post from Gusto, Rippling or ADP
- Revenue imports from Stripe, Shopify or the billing system
- Bills and receipts flow in through an AP tool such as Bill or Ramp
If a transaction is not in the ledger by day two, it is chased that day, not discovered on day nine.
Days 3 to 5: reconcile
Every balance sheet account is reconciled to an external source: bank statements, loan schedules, payroll reports and merchant processor statements. Unreconciled differences are investigated immediately.
A reconciliation is not "the balance looks right." It is a documented tie-out to a third-party statement, with any difference explained.
Days 6 to 7: accruals and adjustments
Accrual accounting is what turns bookkeeping into financial reporting. We record:
- Unbilled revenue and deferred revenue for prepaid contracts
- Accrued expenses for services received but not yet invoiced
- Prepaid expense amortization (insurance, software subscriptions)
- Depreciation and amortization
- Payroll accruals for wages earned but not yet paid
Days 8 to 9: review
A second accountant reviews every close. They compare results to budget and prior periods, ask about anything unusual and confirm that every reconciliation is complete. Flux analysis catches errors that reconciliations miss, such as an expense coded to the wrong department.
Day 10: report
The management pack goes out with the P&L, balance sheet, cash flow statement, KPIs and two or three paragraphs of commentary: what changed, why, and what to watch.
Automation that makes it possible
| Task | Manual time | With automation |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction categorization | 6 hours | 45 minutes |
| Bank reconciliations | 3 hours | 30 minutes |
| Revenue recognition | 4 hours | 1 hour |
| Report preparation | 3 hours | 1 hour |
The tools matter less than the discipline: a fixed calendar, a written checklist and a reviewer who signs off every month.
Want a faster close without hiring? Our bookkeeping and payroll team runs this process for more than 250 companies.
