What should be on a month-end close checklist?

A complete close checklist covers subledger lockout, bank and balance-sheet reconciliations, accrual entries, intercompany revaluation and elimination if applicable, inventory review if applicable, consolidated review, and period lock. Each task should have a clear owner and a place in the dependency order, not just a due date.

By Zuny Fester, Head of Operations and Marketing

Reviewed by Zuny Fester

Published September 10, 2026Last reviewed September 10, 2026Editorial policy

Part of the month-end close guide.

Lockout tasks	Restrict new AP, AR, and payroll postings
Reconciliation tasks	Bank, AP/AR subledgers, prepaid and accrued schedules, fixed assets
Multi-entity tasks	Currency revaluation, intercompany elimination
Final tasks	Consolidated review, then period lock

The checklist, task by task

A well-built checklist doesn't just list tasks — it captures the dependency order between them, so a person running it knows what has to finish before the next item can start. Reconciliations come after subledger lockout, since a moving balance can't be reliably reconciled. Accruals come after reconciliations, since an accrual should reflect what reconciliation actually found. Elimination comes after revaluation, for the reasons that show up repeatedly across this cluster's currency-related pages.

Tasks that depend on the specific business

Inventory-heavy businesses add tasks like reviewing negative inventory and resolving date or period mismatches on inventory transactions. Multi-entity businesses add currency revaluation and elimination. Project-based businesses add work-in-progress and unbilled revenue reconciliation. The universal core (lockout, reconciliation, review, lock) applies to every company; everything else depends on the business model.

Next step

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Checklist

A complete month-end close checklist

Lock AP, AR, and payroll subledger cutoffs
Reconcile bank accounts against the general ledger
Reconcile AP and AR subledgers against the general ledger
Book accruals for expenses incurred but not yet billed
Review negative inventory and resolve date mismatches (if applicable)
Revalue foreign-currency balances (if multi-currency)
Run intercompany elimination (if multi-entity)
Consolidate and perform a controller/CFO review
Lock the period

Frequently Asked Questions

The core structure should be, with entries added only for genuinely period-specific items like a one-time adjustment — a checklist that changes shape every month is harder to trust and audit.

Usually the controller, even though individual tasks are owned by different teams — one person needs visibility across the whole sequence to manage dependencies.

No — a quick-close feature in an ERP still requires the underlying tasks to be complete; it just closes multiple periods at once rather than one at a time.

Sources

Topic

Month-End Close

Month-end close is the set of accounting tasks a company runs after a calendar month ends to turn raw transactions into a finished, trustworthy set of financial statements: reconciling subledgers, boo…

How-to

What is the month-end close process?

The month-end close process locks subledger cutoffs, reconciles balance sheet accounts, books accruals and adjustments, revalues and eliminates intercompany activity, consolidates and reviews the result, then locks the period. Each step depends on the one before it, which is why skipping ahead usually causes rework rather than saving time.

How-to

How do I lock periods to prevent backdated edits from unreconciling matches?

Lock the accounting period from the Period Close Checklist once reconciliations are complete, restricting new AP, AR, and payroll postings to that period. Only users with an explicit override permission can then post backdated transactions, which keeps an already-reconciled period from silently drifting out of balance.