Bookkeeping and monthly close

What the work produces

We organise transaction capture, bank reconciliation, receivable and payable review, accruals and a close checklist. Exceptions are recorded so unresolved balances do not disappear inside a final trial balance.

The agreed close pack can include the period’s ledger or trial balance, bank reconciliations, receivable and payable ageing, supporting balance schedules and an open-items list. We identify which outputs your current systems can provide and agree their format before the recurring work begins.

The monthly sequence starts with record collection and completeness checks, followed by transaction processing, reconciliation, proposed adjustments and management review. The final handover distinguishes completed reconciliations from items still awaiting information.

Inputs to organise

• Sales and purchase records
• bank and payment-gateway statements
• expense evidence
• opening balances
• loan and payroll schedules.

Nominate a business contact for missing invoices, disputed balances and classification questions. Agree a monthly record cut-off and a process for documents received afterwards. Keep evidence of owner-funded expenses, cash movements and transfers between accounts with the period’s records so they are not mistaken for ordinary sales or costs.

If opening balances are not reconciled, identify them at onboarding. Historical differences need a separate resolution plan; repeating them in each month’s opening balance does not make the current close reliable.

What good records help you see

A payment-gateway settlement is often net of fees and refunds. Recording only the net bank receipt can obscure sales and expenses; the settlement report is part of the reconciliation.

Example: the sales report, settlement statement and bank credit show different totals. We map the transactions, fees, refunds and unsettled amounts, then record any unexplained difference as an open item with an owner. The aim is a traceable reconciliation, rather than an adjustment created only to make the totals match.

Changes after a period’s close should remain traceable to the supporting record and approval. If an adjustment affects a previously supplied report, identify the revised version and explain the change in the handover.

Agree the boundaries

Covered transaction volumes, systems and turnaround depend on timely records. Tax filings and historical clean-up are separately identified.

Confirm the covered entities, periods, systems, deliverables and fees before work starts.

Clarify whether the engagement includes invoice preparation, payment processing, inventory records, payroll entries or management reporting; these are different tasks even when they use the same accounting system. Management remains responsible for business decisions, source-record completeness and approval of proposed adjustments.

Bookkeeping support does not by itself provide an audit opinion or assurance over every transaction. The audit-readiness service addresses preparation for a separate audit, while accounting cleanup addresses historic reconstruction and unresolved balances. Package pricing and assignment-specific scope are available on the pricing page.