Books & monthly close
Clean books every month. Clear answers right after.
We keep the books current, reconcile the accounts, close the month, and explain what changed. You get management-prepared reports you can use to understand profit, cash, expenses, debt, payroll, taxes, and the decisions coming next.
What you receive
The monthly close should answer four questions.
Are the books current?
Bank, credit card, payroll, payment, and operating activity is brought into the same reconciled picture.
What changed?
The report calls out material revenue, margin, expense, balance-sheet, and cash changes.
What is still open?
Missing records, unclear transactions, and cleanup items are listed plainly instead of hidden.
What does it mean?
A short narrative connects the reports to the questions an owner, founder, partner, lender, or board is asking.
More than transaction entry
One clean picture from every operating system.
A dependable close has to reconcile more than the bank. Payroll, cards, billing, payment processors, loans, owner activity, and other systems must agree with the ledger.
- Full-cycle bookkeeping and account reconciliations.
- Chart-of-accounts and balance-sheet cleanup.
- Payroll accounting and tech-stack integration.
- Accounts payable or receivable support where scoped.
- Management-prepared reporting and documented review.
The monthly method
The same disciplined sequence every month.
01 · Collect
Bring in the activity.
Connect systems, collect missing records, and identify transactions that need an owner’s answer.
02 · Reconcile
Make the accounts agree.
Tie out bank, credit card, payroll, payment, loan, and other balance-sheet activity.
03 · Review
One person prepares. Another checks.
The reviewer checks the close, documents open items, and confirms the report is ready to use.
04 · Close
Finish the management reports.
Complete the income statement, balance sheet, cash reporting, and the agreed operating views.
05 · Explain
Say what the numbers mean.
Flag what changed, what needs attention, and what the owner should understand before the next decision.
The finished report
A monthly snapshot built for the person running the business.
The report is not an audited statement or a technical exercise. It is a management tool. The exact package depends on scope and industry, but it should make the important changes easier to see.
- Income statement and balance sheet.
- Cash position and major movements.
- Revenue, margin, payroll, and expense changes.
- Industry-specific operating numbers where scoped.
- Open questions and a plain-English summary.
Scope clarity
What belongs in the base—and what may be added.
Books & monthly close
- Recurring bookkeeping and reconciliations.
- Close checklist and secondary review.
- Management-prepared monthly reports.
- Open-items list and monthly explanation.
Added when the scope needs it
- Accounts payable or receivable workflow support.
- Cleanup of older periods or more complex balances.
- Tax-planning checkpoints and draft preparation.
- Cash forecasts, budgets, and CFO decision support.
Slate and Summit is not a CPA firm. These are management-prepared reports. We do not perform audits, reviews, or compilations, issue CPA opinions, or represent clients before the IRS.
Frequently asked
Direct answers about the monthly close.
What does a monthly close include?
It generally includes collecting activity, reconciling accounts, recording adjustments, reviewing balance-sheet items, preparing management reports, documenting open questions, and explaining what changed. The exact checklist follows the agreed scope.
How quickly will the books close?
The close date, dependencies, and client responsibilities are defined in the engagement. Slate and Summit also publishes a separate close commitment with conditions and a remedy; review that page for the current details.
Do you clean up old months?
Yes, when cleanup is part of the scope. The first job is to make the numbers trustworthy. We may need to correct prior periods before recurring monthly reports become useful.
Are the reports audited?
No. Slate and Summit is not a CPA firm. The reports are management-prepared and intended to help you run the business. We do not perform audits, reviews, or compilations.
Can tax planning or CFO support be added later?
Yes. Most clients start with clean books. Once the monthly close is dependable, tax planning, cash forecasting, budgets, scenarios, and CFO help become more useful.
Start with the foundation
Find out what it will take to trust the books again.
Bring the late close, confusing balance, or cash question that keeps getting pushed forward. We will help you name the cleanup, define the monthly scope, and explain what happens first.