Services/The 10-Day Close Guarantee
Services — Modern Controllership
Closed by the 10th business day, every month.
This is our close commitment, in writing. We deliver your management-prepared financials within 10 business days of month-end — and we tell you plainly what we hold ourselves to, and what we need from you, to keep that date. Meet the conditions and we still miss, you receive a service credit. Nothing about the timeline is left to guesswork.
What the guarantee is
A commitment with conditions — and a remedy.
Most firms treat the monthly close as whenever-it-is-ready. We treat the date as part of the product. For a routine monthly close within your agreed scope, your financial statements — income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow — are delivered within 10 business days of month-end.
It is deliberately bounded. The conditions are defined up front, in plain English, and the remedy if we miss is defined with them. That is what makes it real rather than a slogan.
What it covers, and what it does not
Bounded on purpose.
A guarantee is only honest if its edges are visible. Here are ours — stated before any work begins, not discovered later.
What it covers
- The routine monthly close, within your agreed scope
- Your three core statements — income statement, balance sheet, cash flow
- Delivery within 10 business days of month-end
- A service credit if we meet our side and still miss the date
What it does not
- Audits, reviews, or compilations under SSARS
- Backlog or prior-period cleanup
- Tax outcomes or savings of any kind
- Non-standard work — historical reconstruction, tax structuring, audit support
What we hold ourselves to
Speed is a discipline, not a sprint.
A 10-business-day close is not the product of working faster. It is the product of an operating system that removes the things that make closes late. Four steps make the date repeatable.
The Slate phase brings your books current and rebuilds the chart of accounts before the window opens. No fast close on a foundation we have not cleaned.
Every close runs the same checklist — reconciliations, accruals, cutoffs, and the final tie-out — so nothing depends on memory.
One person prepares the close; a second reviews it against the checklist. The preparer never signs off on their own work.
On the 10th you receive clean statements and the short narrative that leads with what changed and what it means — not a data dump.
What we need from you
A fast close is a shared discipline.
The date depends on a short list of commitments from your side. None of them is busywork. Each one removes a specific failure mode that would otherwise push the close past the 10th.
Complete access from day one.
Full, read-level access to every relevant account — bank, credit card, loan, and payment processor — at the start of the engagement, with statements complete and current. Granted once, through the secure portal. We never ask for raw passwords.
Accurate opening balances.
Prior periods closed before the guarantee window begins, or a one-time cleanup engaged first. The 10th-business-day commitment starts from a clean ledger, not a contested one.
A one-business-day reply on questions.
Bookkeeping and transaction questions answered within one business day. A single open question can hold an entire close; a quick reply protects the date.
Supporting documentation, promptly.
Receipts, invoices, payroll reports, and similar records provided when we request them. We reconcile to evidence, not to assumption.
No structural changes mid-close.
No switching accounting systems, reworking the chart of accounts, or adding accounts during the close period. Structural changes mid-close reset the work — save them for a planned transition.
Volume and complexity within scope.
Transaction volume and complexity stay within the agreed engagement scope. A material increase is something we will gladly re-scope; until we do, it moves the timeline.
A single point of contact.
One authorized person for communication, clarifications, and approvals. One clear line of decision-making is faster than five — every time.
Draft approval within two business days.
Draft financials reviewed and approved within two business days of delivery. The close is not finished until you have seen it; a prompt review is the last step that keeps it on schedule.
Routine monthly close only.
The guarantee covers standard monthly bookkeeping and close work. Non-standard requests — historical reconstruction, tax structuring, audit support — are valuable, and are scoped and scheduled separately.
Current periods, not backlog.
The guarantee applies to current, ongoing closes. Any backlog or prior-period cleanup is completed as its own engagement, before the clock starts.
The close, in numbers
The discipline behind the date.
The close lands by the 10th, every month.
The same checklist runs before anything ships.
The preparer never reviews their own work.
The query turnaround we ask of you — the variable that most often moves the date.
Definitional figures — what the process is, not what it scored.
The terms
What happens if we miss.
If the conditions are met and we still fail to deliver a qualifying monthly close within 10 business days of month-end, we provide a mutually agreed service credit. If a condition slips, the timeline may pause or reset — and we tell you which, and why, in writing, before it affects the date. The full terms live in your engagement letter, stated plainly, before any work begins.
We meet our side and miss
You receive a service credit, on terms agreed in advance.
A condition slips
The timeline pauses or resets, with written notice — no penalty to you.
Either way
You are never surprised by the date. A miss is flagged before it lands.
A guarantee you can read in full — conditions, remedy, and edges — is the only kind worth making.
Slate and Summit — close doctrine
Frequently asked
Direct answers, first.
Does the guarantee apply from the very first month?
No. The first close at the 10-business-day cadence is typically by the third month, after the Slate phase has brought the books current and rebuilt the chart of accounts. On the Clarity Call we will tell you when a 10-day close becomes realistic for your books.
Does “closed by the 10th” mean the statements are audited?
No. We produce management-prepared financial statements, labeled for management use. We do not perform audits, reviews, or compilations under SSARS. Where licensure is required, a partnered CPA or Enrolled Agent handles it.
What counts as a “qualifying” close?
A routine monthly close, within your agreed scope, with the client conditions met. Non-standard work and periods outside the ongoing close are excluded, by design.
What is the service credit?
A credit agreed with you in advance and written into your engagement letter, in plain English. We do not publish a single figure, because engagements are scoped to volume, complexity, and vertical.
What if I miss a deadline on my side?
The timeline pauses or resets — there is no penalty to you. We flag it in writing as soon as it happens, so the date never moves quietly.
Which systems do you close on?
QuickBooks Online or Sage Intacct. The guarantee assumes your general ledger lives on the stack we operate and support.
Book a Clarity Call
See whether the 10th is realistic for your books.
Thirty minutes with a principal. We look at the state of your books and tell you honestly when a 10-business-day close becomes achievable — and what the Slate phase needs to get there. No pitch. No deck.
Tue–Thu · 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Mountain Time · Confirmed by a principal, not a marketing system.
Informational only; not tax or legal advice. Slate and Summit is not a CPA firm and does not perform audits, reviews, or compilations; the financial statements we prepare are management-prepared. A partnered CPA or Enrolled Agent signs filings where licensure is required. This page describes a service-level commitment on delivery time, subject to the conditions stated above and to your engagement letter — it is not a guarantee of any financial, tax, or business outcome.