Bank & credit card reconciliation
Every bank and credit card account reconciled to statements, every month. The single step most often skipped — and the one without which nothing else holds.
Accounting
Month-end close process and services
Close the books the same way every month. Then they’re finally usable.
Most small businesses don’t close — they leave the books open all year and panic in January. We run a real month-end close: every account reconciled, every accrual posted, every statement delivered on a published calendar — so the numbers for each month are locked, verifiable, and ready for decisions and your CPA.
$500–$2,500+/mo
What you can check before you sign
- Fixed fee, written first
- Your own QuickBooks® file
- No hourly billing
If your file needs our paid diagnostic first, its fee is credited in full against the cleanup. Either way, you get a fixed fee in writing before any work starts.
§ 01 · TL;DR
§ TL;DR
Month-end close finalizes the books for a completed month: every bank, card and balance-sheet account reconciled, accruals and depreciation posted and the financial statements delivered, so the month is locked. We run it on a published calendar, typically 5–10 business days after month-end, inside monthly bookkeeping at $500–$2,500+/mo. Not an audit, review or compilation.
They took something that felt overwhelming to me as a first-year business owner and made it simple.
What stood out the most was TechBrot Inc’s attention to detail.
Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 2 and QuickBooks Workforce Certification,
§ 02 · What’s included
What a real close actually covers.
Six workstreams, every month, every engagement — not just a bank reconciliation called “the close.”
Balance-sheet reconciliations
Loans to lender statements; payroll liabilities to filings; deposits held, prepaid balances, and intercompany accounts to source. The balance sheet is what proves the books are real.
Accruals & prepaids
Expenses incurred but not yet billed accrued in the right period; prepaid expenses amortized over their service life. The work that aligns the P&L with what the business actually consumed.
Depreciation & amortization
Fixed-asset depreciation and intangible amortization posted monthly per schedule, not just at year-end — so margin and basis are correct every period.
Adjusting journal entries & review
Any required adjustments posted with documentation, plus a balance-sheet review against expectations before the books are locked — catching errors before they ship.
Statement delivery on calendar
All three financial statements delivered on the published close calendar, with plain-language commentary, ready for your management use and your CPA.
§ 03 · When a real close earns its keep
Signs your month-end close is not working.
Most owners reach for a structured close when “the books are pretty much done” stops being good enough.
You don’t actually close.
Books left open all year mean every report is provisional and every tax return is a scramble. A real monthly close ends the perpetual draft.
Last month’s numbers keep changing.
If your January P&L looks different in March, the close isn’t closing. Locked periods are the whole point.
Reconciliations are months behind.
Unreconciled balance sheets mean the books don’t agree with reality. Every other report sitting on top is built on sand.
Year-end is a multi-week scramble.
A clean monthly close turns year-end into a documentation exercise, not a rebuild. If December takes weeks, the monthly cadence isn’t doing its job. See how the QuickBooks year-end close works.
Your CPA spends January untangling December.
If your tax professional is doing reconciliation work in tax season, you’re paying CPA rates for bookkeeping. A real close eliminates that handoff cost.
No one can answer “when do statements arrive?”
If statement delivery is unpredictable, accountability is broken. A published close calendar gives everyone the same expectation, every month.
§ 04 · The close calendar
A predictable cadence every month.
The published close calendar makes the process visible to your team and your CPA — same shape, every month.
- Days 1–3
Source documents in
Bank and credit card statements post; receipts, bills, and any payroll filings land; source documents from your team are due per the calendar.
- Days 3–6
Reconciliations
All bank, credit card, and balance-sheet accounts reconciled to source. Variances investigated and resolved before moving on.
- Days 6–8
Accruals, depreciation & entries
Accruals and prepaids recorded; depreciation and amortization posted; any adjusting journal entries documented and entered.
- Days 8–10
Review & statement delivery
Balance-sheet review against expectations, statements produced with plain-language commentary, and the period locked. CPA-ready package delivered.
§ 05 · The published calendar, day by day
When each step happens after month-end.
A typical close runs 5–10 business days after month-end. The windows below are the same every month, so your team and CPA know what lands when.
| Window | Workstream | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–3 after month-end | Source documents in | Bank and credit card statements post; receipts, bills, and payroll filings land; team source documents due per the calendar. |
| Days 3–6 | Reconciliations | Every bank, credit card, loan, and balance-sheet account reconciled to source; variances investigated and cleared before moving on. |
| Days 6–8 | Accruals, depreciation & entries | Accruals and prepaids recorded, depreciation and amortization posted, and adjusting journal entries documented and entered. |
| Days 8–10 | Review & delivery | Balance-sheet review against expectations, statements produced with plain-language commentary, the period locked, and the CPA-ready package delivered. |
§ 06 · Where the close stops
Bookkeeping and close — coordinated with your CPA, not replacing one.
Month-end close is bookkeeping and management accounting: reconciliations, accruals, journal entries, and internal financial statements delivered on a calendar. It is not an external audit, review, or compilation — those are licensed CPA engagements with their own independence and reporting standards. TechBrot delivers internal management and CPA-ready statements; we coordinate with your CPA or EA for tax filing and any formal engagement.
That boundary is what keeps the work accurate. A clean close hands your CPA reconciled, locked books so January is a filing exercise — not a reconstruction. Where a past period was never closed, that’s a catch-up or cleanup engagement first; once the past is rebuilt and reconciled, you transition into a recurring monthly close on a published calendar.
§ 07 · Beyond the close
A clean close is what makes every other report worth anything.
Forecasts, KPIs, performance reviews, budgets — none of it works on unreconciled books. The close is the discipline that makes the whole reporting and advisory layer trustworthy. Skip the close and every number above it is provisional; do the close right and the rest of the practice has a real foundation.
The close runs inside monthly bookkeeping, and advisory can be layered on top — KPI reporting, cash flow, performance reviews, up to a fractional CFO seat. As automation handles the routine, the close is the operational discipline that earns the right to do everything else.
§ 08 · In depth
The month-end close, step by step.
The six workstreams of a real close in order, the calendar that sets when each one happens, and what a finished month hands you and your CPA — set out in full below.
Monthly bookkeeping · Financial statements · Get the free file review · Send the details
Checked against TechBrot’s methodology.
§ 10 · Questions
Month-end close questions.
What is the month-end close?
The month-end close is the recurring process of finalizing the books for a completed month: reconciling every bank, credit card, and balance-sheet account, recording accruals and prepaids, posting depreciation and amortization, reconciling payroll liabilities, and producing the period’s financial statements. Along the way it records any transactions still missing and reviews the categorization, and it ends by confirming the statements tie out — the difference between books that are merely entered and books that are finished. A clean close means the numbers for that month are locked, verifiable, and won’t change — the foundation every report, forecast, and tax return is built on.
What happens during a month-end close?
Standard month-end work includes: reconciling all bank and credit card accounts to statements; reconciling balance-sheet accounts (loans, payroll liabilities, deposits held, intercompany) to source documentation; recording accruals for expenses incurred but not yet billed; amortizing prepaid expenses; posting depreciation and amortization; recording any required adjusting journal entries; running a balance-sheet review; and producing the period’s income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. Many businesses follow a published close calendar so each step happens on the same day each month.
How long should month-end close take?
For a small or mid-sized business with reliable bookkeeping and good source documentation, a typical close runs 5 to 10 business days after month-end — enough time for bank statements to post, source documents to land, and reconciliations to complete. Larger or more complex businesses may run longer; businesses behind on books often take significantly longer until catch-up work is finished. The goal is a consistent, predictable cadence — not the fastest possible close.
What's the difference between month-end close and bookkeeping?
Bookkeeping is the ongoing daily and weekly work — recording transactions, categorizing expenses, capturing receipts. Month-end close is the discrete event that finalizes the period: reconciliations, accruals, journal entries, and statement delivery. Bookkeeping happens continuously; the close happens once a month. They are part of the same engagement at TechBrot — the close is a structured chapter within monthly bookkeeping.
Do I need a close calendar?
Yes — a published close calendar is what turns the close from a scramble into a discipline. It defines when source documents are due from your team, when reconciliations are performed, when statements are reviewed, and when they are delivered to you and your CPA. The calendar makes accountability explicit and makes the cadence predictable for everyone involved.
What does month-end close cost?
Month-end close is included in TechBrot’s monthly bookkeeping engagements, which range from $500–$2,500+ per month with complexity adjustments based on transaction volume, accounts, locations, and reporting depth. Closes for past periods that were never properly performed are handled inside a catch-up or cleanup engagement, quoted as fixed-fee project work. To map out your close cadence, call a ProAdvisor at (877) 751-5575.
Ready when you are
Close the books on a calendar — every month.
Tell us where the books stand. We’ll tell you which engagement fits, if any.
Or send the details instead