Month-End Close Checklist
Run the close as an owned checklist with dates, dependencies, and a clear view of what is already late.
Every business day at 7:30am, read the open close checklist and email the controller the overdue items first, then what is due in the next two days.
The job, and what good looks like.
A month-end close tracked in a spreadsheet stops being a plan and becomes a record of what already happened. Nobody knows which task is late until the close date passes, dependencies hide in email, and when review notes come back there is no evidence of who decided what. The workflow treats the close as an owned checklist. Every task has a name, a single owner, a due date, and the tasks it blocks. Each morning the list is rebuilt: completed work drops off, anything past due is called out by owner, and anything blocked shows the upstream task that is holding it. A Friday check compares the remaining work against the days remaining and flags what would have to be deferred to hold the date, which turns a missed close into a decision rather than a surprise. When a task is signed off, the approver, the date, and any adjustment are recorded against it, so the audit trail assembles itself during the close instead of after it. A person still sets the calendar, assigns owners, and approves every manual journal.
When it is handled
- Close status visible without a status meeting
- Late tasks named while there is still time to fix them
- Every adjustment carries a recorded approver
Works with tools like
- FloQast
- Trintech
- BlackLine
- NetSuite
Ready-made automations. Pick the one that fits.
Each one is a plain-language document. Run it as it is, or change the timing, the rules and the tools to match your team.
Blocked Task Alert
When a close task is marked blocked, message the owner the upstream task holding it up and the date the dependent task is now at risk.
When a close task is marked blocked
Close Date Risk Check
Every Friday during the close window, compare the open close tasks with the days left and email the controller which items would have to be deferred to hold the date.
Every Friday during the close window
Close Status Digest
Every business day at 7:30am, read the open close checklist and email the controller the overdue items first, then what is due in the next two days.
Every business day at 7:30am during the close window
Journal Approval Reminder
Every business day at 4:00pm, pull pending journal approvals and email each approver the amount and age of what is waiting on them.
Every business day at 4:00pm
You stay in charge.
At every step.
It does the checking. You approve what gets paid and posted.
- Nothing paid or posted on its own
Payments, journals and approvals stay with you. It prepares them and flags what doesn't match.
- Undo what you don't want
Every step is recorded, and a file it changed can be put back.
- Only the books you open to it
Each automation reaches only the folders and systems you connect for it.
Close Status Digest
Approve before it sends the email?
Before you download.
- Where does it run?
- On your Mac or Windows computer, in the background. It keeps working after you close its window, and only reaches the folders and apps you connect for each automation.
- How does it connect to our CRM and other tools?
- Through each app's own connection where it offers one, signed in once by you, or by using the app in a browser the way you would. Each automation gets only the connections you give it, and the tools a page names are examples you can swap for your own.
- Does it run when my computer is asleep?
- It keeps your computer awake while a job runs and just before a scheduled one. While the computer is closed or off, nothing runs; when it wakes, it checks the inbox, calendar and other sources it watches for anything that arrived meanwhile.
- How does my team use it?
- Each person who runs automations installs the app. Keep a project in a shared folder, such as Google Drive or a network drive, and teammates can open it and follow every run, while one person owns it and runs it.
- Do I need anyone technical to set it up?
- No. Download the app, add an automation in plain words, and connect only what that job needs. Nothing runs until you switch it on.
Already have tools for this? Here is the difference.
Rules in your accounting software
Coding recurring transactions the same way every time.
They can't read an unusual invoice, ask the requester a question or explain why a match failed.
Flowchart automation tools
Moving data between apps at high volume.
Every exception becomes another branch someone has to build, test and maintain.
AI chat assistants
Explaining a document when you paste it in.
Nothing happens until you come back and ask again, and the procedure lives in a chat.
AUTOMATE.md
Your routine, written in plain words. It runs on its own, follows your rules, handles the exceptions a flowchart can't, and asks you when it matters. The file stays yours, whichever AI model runs it.
Related workflows.
Bank and GL Reconciliation
Match every bank and card statement line to a ledger entry and clear the residual difference before reporting.
4 automations
Financial reporting
Produce the management pack from closed figures that tie to the ledger, with every line traceable to the transactions behind it.
Write your own
Audit prep
Collect audit evidence while the period is still open, so the request list stays short and no figure has to be rebuilt after it is asked for.
Write your own
Start with one job.
Make it your own.
macOS — coming soon- 1
Get the app
It runs on your computer, next to your files.
- 2
Add the automation
Paste the instructions into the app, or save them as a file next to your work.
- 3
Try it, then turn it on
Run it once and check the result. It only runs on its own once you switch it on.