The monthly bookkeeping checklist.
The repeatable set of steps that closes one month of your books accurately — import and categorize every transaction, reconcile every bank, credit-card, and loan account, review AR and AP aging, record accruals and adjustments, review the P&L and balance sheet, check payroll and sales-tax liabilities, then back up and lock the period. Run the same way every month, it keeps the file accurate and CPA-ready instead of becoming a cleanup later. Free to use, no email wall.
A monthly bookkeeping checklist is the repeatable sequence that closes out one month of your books accurately and the same way every time.
It runs in order: get every transaction in and categorized, reconcile every bank, credit-card, and loan account to its statement, clear AR and AP aging, record accruals and month-end adjustments, review the profit & loss and balance sheet, verify payroll and sales-tax liabilities, and finally back up and lock the period so the closed month can’t drift. The checklist below is the full ordered system — free to use, with no email wall. What it can’t fix is a file that’s already months behind or won’t reconcile; that’s a ProAdvisor file review, not a checklist.
What a monthly close actually is.
A monthly close is the point each month where you stop adding to the books and verify them. Categorizing transactions as they come in is good habit, but it isn’t a close — a close is the deliberate pass that confirms the month is complete and correct: every transaction in and coded, every account reconciled to its statement, AR and AP cleared, adjusting entries recorded, the financial statements reviewed, payroll and sales-tax liabilities verified, and the period locked so it can’t quietly change later.
Done in the same order every month, it takes an hour or two on a current file and keeps your numbers trustworthy all year. The checklist below is the full ordered system, free to use with no email wall. What the checklist can’t fix is a file that’s already months behind, an account that won’t reconcile, or a balance sheet with numbers no one can explain — that’s catch-up and diagnostic work, a ProAdvisor file review rather than a routine close. And if the issue is your Intuit account, login, or billing, that stays with Intuit — not something an independent firm can reach.
What a monthly close should cover.
The checklist below works through these in order — this is the ground a real close has to cover before the month is done.
Cover 01 · Every transaction, in and coded
A close starts with completeness: every transaction from every account is imported and categorized to the right account — nothing stuck in For Review, nothing miscoded to Ask My Accountant and forgotten. If transactions are missing or wrong here, every report downstream is wrong too.
Cover 02 · Reconciliation of every account
Each bank, credit-card, and loan account is reconciled to its statement so the balance in the books equals the balance at the institution. This is the non-negotiable core of a close — an unreconciled month is an unverified month, and a P&L you can’t trust.
Cover 03 · AR and AP aging, cleared
Accounts receivable and accounts payable aging get reviewed so the balance sheet reflects what’s actually owed to you and by you — stale invoices, duplicate bills, and payments applied to the wrong customer or vendor are caught here, not at year-end.
Cover 04 · Accruals and month-end adjustments
The entries that make the month accrual-accurate: prepaids, accrued expenses, depreciation, loan-interest splits, and any reclassifications. These are what separate a real close from a bank-feed dump — and what your CPA expects to see done consistently.
Cover 05 · P&L and balance sheet review
A read of the profit & loss and the balance sheet for the month, looking for anything that doesn’t make sense — categories that swung for no reason, negative balances, an equity section that drifted, numbers that don’t match what you know about the business. The review is where errors get caught while they’re still cheap to fix.
Cover 06 · Payroll, sales tax, and a locked period
Payroll liabilities and sales-tax payable are confirmed to tie to what was actually filed and paid — these are the balances that trigger notices when they drift. Then the period is backed up and locked with a closing date, so the month you just closed can’t be quietly changed later.
The monthly bookkeeping checklist.
Seven steps, in order. Run them the same way every month — if you hit a step the file won’t pass, like an account that won’t reconcile, stop and get the file reviewed before it compounds.
- 1
Import and categorize every transaction
Bring in all transactions from every connected bank and credit-card account for the month, then categorize each one to the correct account. Clear the
For Reviewqueue completely, match downloaded transactions to existing entries to avoid duplicates, and resolve anything parked in an uncategorized orAsk My Accountantholding account. The month isn’t startable until every transaction is in and coded. - 2
Reconcile every bank, credit-card, and loan account
Reconcile each account against its statement — checking, savings, every credit card, lines of credit, and loans — until the ending balance in the books matches the statement to the penny. Reconcile every account, not just the main checking; a card or loan that’s never reconciled is where errors hide. Don’t force a reconciliation to balance; an unexplained difference is a flag, not a rounding issue.
- 3
Review AR and AP aging
Open the accounts-receivable and accounts-payable aging reports. Confirm open invoices are genuinely unpaid, chase or write off truly stale receivables, and check that bills aren’t duplicated or already paid. Make sure customer payments and vendor payments are applied to the right invoice and bill so the aging — and the balance sheet — tells the truth.
- 4
Record accruals and month-end adjustments
Post the adjusting entries that make the month accurate: amortize prepaids, accrue expenses incurred but not yet billed, record depreciation, split loan payments between principal and interest, and reclassify anything that landed in the wrong place. Keep a short, consistent set of month-end entries so the close looks the same every period.
- 5
Review the P&L and balance sheet
Read the profit & loss and the balance sheet for the month with a critical eye. Compare against the prior month or the same month last year and ask why anything moved sharply. Hunt for negative balances that shouldn’t exist, an undeposited-funds balance that’s growing, owner or equity accounts that drifted, and categories that don’t match how the business actually ran. Fix what the review surfaces before you move on.
- 6
Check payroll and sales-tax liabilities
Confirm payroll liabilities in the books tie to what was actually run and paid, and that payroll taxes are recorded against the right liability accounts. Check that sales-tax payable matches what you collected and what you’ll file. These are the balances that generate agency notices when they drift — verifying them monthly keeps a small mismatch from becoming a penalty.
- 7
Back up the file, then lock the period
Once the month ties out, back up or save a snapshot of the file, then set a closing date so the period is locked and the numbers you just verified can’t be changed without a deliberate override. Locking the period is what makes a close final — it protects this month while you start working on the next one.
When to hand the monthly close to a pro.
The books are months behind
If several months have gone by without a real close — transactions piling up unreviewed, nothing reconciled — you’re past a monthly checklist and into catch-up territory. A QuickBooks ProAdvisor brings the file current first, then hands you a clean baseline to keep up from.
Accounts won’t reconcile
When a bank, card, or loan account refuses to tie to its statement — or a prior reconciliation was forced to balance — the discrepancy compounds every month it’s ignored. That’s a diagnostic, not a checklist step: find the break, fix it, and re-reconcile cleanly.
The balance sheet has numbers no one can explain
Negative liabilities, a growing undeposited-funds balance, equity that drifted, or payroll and sales-tax liabilities that don’t match what was filed — unexplained balance-sheet numbers mean the underlying entries are wrong. That’s where a ProAdvisor file review and a focused diagnostic earn their keep.
A QuickBooks ProAdvisor runs the same checklist every month.
The value of a monthly close is consistency — the same seven steps, the same way, every month, so the books never fall behind and the reports are always current. A QuickBooks ProAdvisor holding the Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 2 runs exactly this checklist against a written scope: every transaction coded, every account reconciled, AR and AP cleared, adjustments recorded, the statements reviewed, payroll and sales-tax liabilities verified, and the period locked. If the file is behind first, we bring it current, then keep it current.
What people ask about the monthly close.
Is the monthly bookkeeping checklist really free?
Yes — completely free, with no email wall, no sign-up, and no catch. Read it, print it, share it with your team, adapt it to your business. We’re a bookkeeping and advisory firm and this is how we share what we’d actually do on a client file. If you’d rather we run it for you, that’s a paid service — but the checklist itself costs nothing.
How long does a monthly close take?
It depends on transaction volume and how many accounts you reconcile, but a clean file with a few accounts can close in an hour or two; a busier business with payroll, sales tax, and several cards takes longer. The variable is how current the file already is — a month that’s kept up closes fast, while a backlog turns a checklist into a cleanup. Running it monthly is what keeps it short.
What’s the difference between a monthly close and just categorizing transactions?
Categorizing transactions is one step of seven. A real close also reconciles every account to its statement, clears AR and AP aging, records accruals and adjusting entries, reviews the P&L and balance sheet, verifies payroll and sales-tax liabilities, and locks the period. Categorizing alone gives you a bank-feed dump; the full checklist gives you financials you can trust.
Do I have to reconcile every account, or just checking?
Every account — every bank account, every credit card, lines of credit, and loans. The accounts people skip, usually a card or a loan, are exactly where errors accumulate unseen. A close where only the main checking is reconciled isn’t really closed, because the balance sheet still hasn’t been verified.
When should I hand the monthly close to a ProAdvisor?
When the books are months behind, when an account won’t reconcile, when the balance sheet has numbers no one can explain, or when payroll and sales-tax liabilities don’t tie to what was filed. That’s a file review and a focused diagnostic or cleanup, not a checklist. We start with a free file review, then a focused diagnostic is a fixed-fee scope from $450, or a bookkeeping cleanup ($1,200–$15,000+) if the books are far behind.
Does this checklist work for QuickBooks Online and Desktop?
Yes. The seven steps are the same close in any system — QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, or another ledger. Some labels differ (for example where you set a closing date or run the reconciliation screen), but the order and the substance hold: get transactions in, reconcile every account, clear AR and AP, record adjustments, review the statements, check payroll and sales tax, then lock the period.
Can you run the monthly close for me?
Yes. If you’d rather not run the checklist yourself, monthly bookkeeping is exactly this work done for you every month by a QuickBooks ProAdvisor — books kept current, every account reconciled, and reports you can trust. The easiest first step is a free QuickBooks file review, where we look at your real file and show you where these steps need attention. Independent firm, written scope before any work begins.