Capability template for finance and accounting

Month-end close checklist

Before the month ends, your controller holds the whole close on one page: every task with its owner, its date and what it waits on, the chain that sets the close date, and each gap already written as a question. Entries are prepared for approval, never posted.

The outcome

The close starts with a plan instead of a memory. Every task has a named owner and a real date, counted in your working days and skipping the days your office is closed. The page shows which tasks set the close date, so everyone knows where a late afternoon costs a whole day.

The problems that usually surface on day three are on the page before day one: a task nobody owns, an owner who is away on the due date, a reconciliation scheduled ahead of the entries it needs, a person reviewing their own work. Each arrives as a question for the controller, with the facts beside it.

Your accounting team still does the accounting. The checklist says who prepares each entry, who approves it and who posts it. The AI assistant posts nothing, assigns nothing and locks nothing.

Who starts the work, and when

The controller, the bookkeeper or the firm administrator starts it two or three working days before the month ends, in time to send the cut-off reminder. It runs again when something changes: an owner is away, a task is added, the target date moves. During the close, the same person can run it with each task's status to see what is late and what is waiting.

The controller approves the checklist before it is shared with the team.

What they supply

  • Your close task list. Last month's checklist or the standing list: each task, the working day it falls on, its owner, what it waits on and who reviews it.
  • The calendar. The period end, the date the books must be locked, and the days your office is closed.
  • Who is away. Any owner or reviewer absent during the close.
  • This month's notes. One-off items, such as an invoice that has not arrived, and anything left open from last month.
  • Statuses, only when it is run during the close.

What comes out

One checklist in date order. Each task carries its number, owner, due date, the tasks it waits on, its reviewer and a status. Tasks with a problem are flagged where they stand; none is silently moved or reassigned.

Under the tasks: the decisions the controller has to make before the close starts, the chain of tasks that sets the close date and how many spare days it has, the entries to be prepared with who approves and who posts each, and the items carried from last month with the task that picks each up.

A good checklist can be checked against a wall calendar in two minutes, and nobody on the team is surprised by their name.

An invented example

Illustrative example with invented data. The firm, the people, the tasks, the dates and the amounts below are all invented. The firm is an invented 45-person engineering consultancy whose finance team is a controller, a staff accountant, a billing coordinator and a payables and payroll clerk, reporting to a managing partner. First come the inputs the controller supplied, in full, then the checklist the capability returned.

The inputs

1. Close settings

Month being closed: October 2026
Period end: Saturday 31 October 2026
Today: Wednesday 28 October 2026
Working days: Monday to Friday
Office closed: Tuesday 3 November 2026
How we count: Day -1 is the last working day of the month. Day 1 is the
  first working day after the period end. Day -2 is the working day
  before Day -1.
Target: October locked by the end of Day 5
Entries: prepared by the task's owner, approved by the controller, posted
  by the staff accountant. The assistant posts nothing.
Review rule: nobody reviews their own work.

2. Close task list (the firm's standing list, exported)

id,task,day,owner,waits_on,reviewer
T01,Send the cut-off reminder: supplier bills and timesheets in by the end of Day -1,Day -2,Controller,-,-
T02,Confirm all October time is entered and approved,Day -1,Billing coordinator,T01,Controller
T03,Close payables for October; list goods and services received but not invoiced,Day 1,Payables and payroll clerk,T01,Controller
T04,Issue the final October invoices and close billing,Day 1,Billing coordinator,T02,Controller
T05,Prepare the payroll accrual entry,Day 1,Payables and payroll clerk,-,Controller
T06,Reconcile the operating and payroll bank accounts,Day 2,Staff accountant,-,Controller
T07,"Prepare the depreciation, prepaid release and supplier accrual entries",Day 2,Staff accountant,T03,Controller
T08,Prepare the unbilled revenue entry,Day 3,Billing coordinator,T04,Controller
T09,"Approve the prepared entries (T05, T07, T08)",Day 3,Controller,T05; T07; T08,-
T10,Post the approved entries,Day 3,Staff accountant,T09,Controller
T11,Reconcile the receivables ledger to the general ledger,Day 2,Staff accountant,T04; T10,Controller
T12,Reconcile the payables ledger and the remaining balance sheet accounts,Day 4,Staff accountant,T10,Controller
T13,Run the trial balance; compare with September and with budget; explain movements over the threshold,Day 4,Controller,T11; T12,Controller
T14,Draft the October statements pack,Day 5,Controller,T13,Managing partner
T15,Review the pack and sign off,Day 5,Managing partner,T14,-
T16,Lock October in the accounting system,Day 5,Controller,T15,-

3. Notes for this month (typed by the controller)

- The staff accountant is out on Thursday 5 November.
- Office fit-out: the work finished on 23 October. The contractor's final
  invoice has not arrived. My estimate is $18,400. It needs an accrual.
  Nobody is assigned yet.
- Carried from September: a $640 difference on the company credit card
  reconciliation, open since 12 September.
- Partners' meeting is Wednesday 11 November. The managing partner wants
  the pack by the end of Monday 9 November.

The output

MONTH-END CLOSE CHECKLIST: October 2026

  • For: Controller. Period end Saturday 31 October 2026. Target: October locked by Monday 9 November (Day 5). Statements needed by Monday 9 November.
  • Prepared: Wednesday 28 October 2026, from the close task list (16 tasks), the close settings and the notes for October.
  • Working days: Day −2 Thursday 29 October · Day −1 Friday 30 October · Day 1 Monday 2 November · Day 2 Wednesday 4 November · Day 3 Thursday 5 November · Day 4 Friday 6 November · Day 5 Monday 9 November.
  • Days skipped: Saturday 31 October, Sunday 1 November, Tuesday 3 November (office closed), Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November.
  • Tasks: 17 (16 from the list, 1 new this month). Tasks flagged: 4.

Thursday 29 October (Day −2)

  • T01 Send the cut-off reminder: supplier bills and timesheets in by the end of Friday 30 October. Owner: Controller. Waits on: nothing. Reviewer: none.

Friday 30 October (Day −1)

  • T02 Confirm all October time is entered and approved. Owner: Billing coordinator. Waits on: T01. Reviewer: Controller.

Monday 2 November (Day 1)

  • T03 Close payables for October; list goods and services received but not invoiced. Owner: Payables and payroll clerk. Waits on: T01. Reviewer: Controller.
  • T04 Issue the final October invoices and close billing. Owner: Billing coordinator. Waits on: T02. Reviewer: Controller.
  • T05 Prepare the payroll accrual entry, for approval. Owner: Payables and payroll clerk. Waits on: nothing. Reviewer: Controller.

Wednesday 4 November (Day 2)

  • T06 Reconcile the operating and payroll bank accounts. Owner: Staff accountant. Waits on: nothing. Reviewer: Controller.
  • T07 Prepare the depreciation, prepaid release and supplier accrual entries, for approval. Owner: Staff accountant. Waits on: T03. Reviewer: Controller.
  • T11 Reconcile the receivables ledger to the general ledger. Owner: Staff accountant. Waits on: T04; T10. Reviewer: Controller. FLAG, order: listed for Day 2, but it waits on T10, which is due on Day 3 (Thursday 5 November). Left where the list puts it; see decision 1.

Thursday 5 November (Day 3)

  • T08 Prepare the unbilled revenue entry, for approval. Owner: Billing coordinator. Waits on: T04. Reviewer: Controller.
  • T09 Approve the prepared entries (T05, T07, T08). Owner: Controller. Waits on: T05; T07; T08. Reviewer: none.
  • T10 Post the approved entries. Owner: Staff accountant. Waits on: T09. Reviewer: Controller. FLAG, owner away: the staff accountant is out on Thursday 5 November. See decision 2.

Friday 6 November (Day 4)

  • T12 Reconcile the payables ledger and the remaining balance sheet accounts. Owner: Staff accountant. Waits on: T10. Reviewer: Controller. Carried item: the $640 credit card difference, controller to confirm.
  • T13 Run the trial balance; compare with September and with budget; explain movements over the threshold. Owner: Controller. Waits on: T11; T12. Reviewer: Controller. FLAG, reviews own work: the owner and the reviewer are the same person. See decision 3.

Monday 9 November (Day 5)

  • T14 Draft the October statements pack. Owner: Controller. Waits on: T13. Reviewer: Managing partner.
  • T15 Review the pack and sign off. Owner: Managing partner. Waits on: T14. Reviewer: none.
  • T16 Lock October in the accounting system. Owner: Controller. Waits on: T15. Reviewer: none.

Day not set

  • N01 (new this month) Prepare the accrual entry for the office fit-out, for approval. The work finished on 23 October; the contractor's final invoice has not arrived; the controller's estimate is $18,400. Owner: not assigned. Waits on: not stated. Reviewer: not stated. FLAG, no owner, no day, no approval step: the note assigns nobody and gives no day, and the approval task, T09, names T05, T07 and T08 only. See decision 4.

Decisions for the controller before the close starts: 4

  1. T11, order. The receivables reconciliation is listed for Wednesday 4 November but waits on the entries posted in T10 on Thursday 5 November. The earliest day the order allows is Thursday 5 November, and the staff accountant is out that day. T13, due on Friday 6 November, waits on T11. Does T11 move, or does someone else do it?
  2. T10, owner away. The staff accountant posts the approved entries and is out on the day they are due. T10 is on the chain that sets the close date, and T11, T12 and T13 wait on it. Who posts on Thursday 5 November, or does posting move to Friday 6 November?
  3. T13, reviews own work. The controller both prepares and reviews the trial balance comparison, and the settings say nobody reviews their own work. Who reviews T13?
  4. N01, no owner, no day, no approval step. The fit-out accrual is new this month and nothing on the list waits on it. The note assigns nobody and gives no day. The approval task, T09, names T05, T07 and T08 only, so nobody is yet listed to approve this entry; the other entries are approved and posted on Thursday 5 November. Who prepares it, by which day, and who approves it: under T09 or in a separate step?

The chain that sets the close date

T01 → T02 → T04 → T08 → T09 → T10 → T12 → T13 → T14 → T15 → T16. The last task is due on Monday 9 November and the target is Monday 9 November: no spare day. Flagged tasks on the chain: T10 and T13.

Entries this month

  • T05, payroll accrual: prepared by the payables and payroll clerk.
  • T07, depreciation, prepaid release and supplier accrual: prepared by the staff accountant.
  • T08, unbilled revenue: prepared by the billing coordinator.
  • N01, office fit-out accrual: preparer not assigned.
  • Approved by the controller in T09 (T05, T07, T08). Posted by the staff accountant in T10, after approval.
  • Entries with no approval step: N01. Entries with no posting step: none.

Carried from last month

  • $640 difference on the company credit card reconciliation, open since 12 September. Picked up under T12 by its general heading, "the remaining balance sheet accounts"; no task names the credit card. Controller to confirm.

Also noted

  • The partners' meeting is on Wednesday 11 November. T14, T15 and T16 are all due on Monday 9 November, the day the managing partner wants the pack, so the pack is drafted, reviewed and signed off within one day.

Draft for the controller's approval. Nothing has been assigned, posted, sent or locked.

Where it fits

  • Finance and accounting, which owns the close and the statements that follow it.
  • Professional services, where the close waits on time entry and billing, and partners want the numbers on a fixed day.
  • Law firms, where the firm administrator runs the close around the partners' meeting.
  • Engineering firms, where unbilled work on projects has to be counted before the statements mean anything.
  • Established businesses, where the close lives in one long-serving person's head and should live on a page.

What has to change for your company

Start from your own task list; the capability adds no accounting tasks of its own. Decide how you count days: which day is day one, and which days the office is closed. Name who approves entries, who posts them and who locks the month, and decide whether anyone may review their own work. Set the target date and who must have the statements by when. Agree where the approved checklist lives and how the team marks a task done. It runs in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini, from files and notes you supply; it needs no connection to your accounting system.

What has been checked

Fully Powered AI wrote this capability template. It was editorially reviewed on 9 November 2026. It was tried on its invented example on 9 November 2026 in two runs; the record of the second is published with it, and lists the small edits made afterward that have not been run again. It has not yet been tested in a client environment. It has not yet been tested as a packaged version in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini.

Testing in your environment means running it on two or three past months your controller remembers well, plus hard cases written in advance, each with its expected behavior: a month that ends on a weekend, an office closure inside the close, a task with no owner, a reconciliation listed before the entries it needs. The controller checks every date against the calendar before anyone relies on it. Pilot acceptance-test preparation builds that test set, and What we test before we call an AI workflow ready shows the record.

The full capability template

Everything above is the outline. The complete capability template is the working version: the roles, the inputs, the procedure, the exceptions and stop conditions, the output format, the reviewer checklist, the acceptance tests, the instructions for an AI assistant and what to customize for your company. It comes with a download and the link to its folder in Fully Powered’s public repository.

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Next step

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