A month-end close checklist lists every task the accounting team must finish after a month ends, with the close day it is due, who owns it, who reviews it and its status. ORM's free SaaS version has 33 tasks from BD-3 to BD+6, a progress summary, and tie-outs for deferred revenue, bookings, commissions and AR.
Get the month-end close checklist
Standard .xlsx, six tabs, no macros. Opens in Excel, and in Google Sheets through Drive (Open with > Google Sheets) or File > Import. Enter the month and your holidays once, and every due date fills in. Yellow cells are inputs. Everything else is a formula.
Work the close on this page
Tick tasks as you finish them. Your ticks stay in this browser only. For owners, due dates and tie-outs, use the spreadsheet.
0 of 33 tasks done (0%).
Get The Forecast Brief
You just worked through your month-end close. The Forecast Brief is a short email from Pete Furseth, ORM's COO, built on what ORM sees in its customers' forecasts.
What is in the template, tab by tab
The workbook is built for a controller at a software company. Most checklists that rank for this search are generic lists of accounting steps with no dates and no SaaS steps. This one puts each task on a close day, computes the date, flags what is late, and checks the balances a subscription business gets wrong most often.
| Tab | What it does | What you enter |
|---|---|---|
| Start here | How to use the file and how close days are counted | Nothing |
| Summary | % complete, late tasks, tasks due today, open tie-outs, the close day you are on, and progress by close day and by area | Nothing |
| Checklist | 33 tasks with close day, due date, area, task, done-when test, owner, reviewer, status, done date, Late or Due today flag, and a notes column. 10 spare rows. | Names for owners and reviewers, status each day |
| SaaS tie-outs | Deferred revenue roll-forward, bookings to billings, commission liability, capitalized commissions (ASC 340-40), AR aging to GL. Each shows Ties or Explain. | Balances from the GL, billing system and CRM |
| Settings | Month, status date, target close day, tolerance, holidays, the status and area lists | Once a month |
| Close calendar | Every date around month end with its close day, skipping weekends and your holidays | Nothing |
Close days count business days. BD-1 is the last business day of the month and BD+1 is the first business day after it. There is no BD0. Due dates come from a calendar tab built with WEEKDAY and COUNTIF instead of WORKDAY, so the file computes the same way in Excel and Google Sheets.
The month-end close process, day by day
A close runs in a fixed order because each step needs the one before it. Revenue cannot be tied out until billing is final, the balance sheet cannot be reviewed until accruals are posted, and the statements wait for both. The template uses a ten-day window with a target close on BD+5.
| Close day | Phase | What gets done |
|---|---|---|
| BD-3 to BD-2 | Plan and collect | Send the calendar with owners. Get the list of deals expected to close and their non-standard terms. Ask budget owners for open invoices. Collect payroll and commission changes. |
| BD-1 | Cutoff | Set the rule that only contracts signed by 11:59 pm on the last day count this month. Pre-reconcile cash through BD-2. |
| BD+1 | Record the month | Snapshot closed-won deals in the CRM. Run final invoices. Reconcile cash, post payroll, close AP. |
| BD+2 | Revenue and accruals | Post revenue schedules, roll forward deferred revenue, tie billings to revenue. Accrue unbilled costs, amortize prepaids, post depreciation. |
| BD+3 | Commissions, AR, bookings | Accrue commissions, capitalize and amortize them under ASC 340-40, review AR aging, tie CRM bookings to billings, accrue bonus and PTO. |
| BD+4 | Reconcile and review | Reconcile every balance sheet account above the threshold, approve manual journal entries, run the flux analysis, reconcile sales tax. |
| BD+5 | Statements and sign-off | Draft the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow. Build the SaaS metrics pack. CFO signs off and the period is locked. |
| BD+6 | Report and re-forecast | Budget vs actual commentary, actuals into the forecast, compare bookings and pipeline with the revenue forecast, close retro. |
The BD+4 review is where most errors get caught. A flux analysis compares each balance with last month and asks for a written reason on every change above a threshold. It answers "what moved". The BD+6 variance analysis compares actuals with the budget and answers "how far off plan are we, and why". Both need closed books, so neither can start before the reconciliations are done.
The SaaS steps a generic checklist leaves out
A subscription company bills in advance, recognizes revenue over the contract term and pays commissions on bookings that turn into revenue over years. That puts three systems in every close: the CRM, the billing system and the ledger. Each of the steps below is a task on the checklist and a block on the SaaS tie-outs tab.
1. Cutoff on bookings
Decide what counts as signed this month and write it down: a countersigned order form dated by 11:59 pm on the last day, in the company's time zone. Then take a snapshot of closed-won deals on BD+1 so the CRM number cannot move after the fact. Deals that sales marks closed-won on BD+2 with a date of the 31st are the most common cutoff problem in software.
2. Revenue recognition and the deferred revenue roll-forward
Revenue comes from the revenue schedule, not from invoices. New contracts need the right start date, term and performance obligations before the schedule is posted. Then roll deferred revenue forward: beginning balance, plus billings, minus revenue recognized, plus or minus adjustments, equals the ending balance. The ending balance must match the GL.
3. Billings vs revenue
Billings minus revenue recognized should equal the change in deferred revenue. In a month with many annual renewals, billings run far ahead of revenue and deferred revenue grows. When the gap does not match the change in deferred revenue, something was invoiced or credited without reaching the revenue schedule.
4. Bookings to billings
Start from the CRM's closed-won bookings for the month, take out bookings that will be invoiced later (future start dates, deferred invoice dates), and add invoices raised this month from earlier bookings (renewal dates, annual installments on multi-year deals). The result should equal billings in the billing system. A booking that is neither invoiced nor scheduled is revenue that will never be recognized.
5. Commission accrual and ASC 340-40
Accrue the commissions earned on this month's bookings, even if they are paid next month. Under ASC 340-40, incremental costs of obtaining a contract, such as sales commissions, are capitalized as an asset and amortized over the period the contract's benefit is expected to last. A practical expedient lets a company expense them as incurred when that amortization period would be one year or less (PwC Viewpoint, section 11.2). The close needs two roll-forwards: the commission liability and the capitalized commission asset. This is not tax or accounting advice; agree your policy with your auditor.
6. AR aging review
Tie the AR aging report to the GL, then review the accounts past due with collections and update the allowance for credit losses. Annual upfront billing makes AR lumpy, so the past-due share matters more than the total. The accounts receivable aging report template builds the aging buckets and the follow-up list that feed this task.
Worked example of an October 2026 close at BD+3
This is the example file. The company and every number are illustrative, made up to show the mechanics. October 31, 2026 is a Saturday, so BD-1 is Friday, October 30 and BD+1 is Monday, November 2. The status date is Wednesday, November 4, which is BD+3, and the target close is BD+5, Friday, November 6.
| Summary at BD+3 (illustrative) | Value |
|---|---|
| Tasks / that apply (one N/A: single entity, no intercompany) | 33 / 32 |
| Done / in progress / not started | 17 / 4 / 11 |
| % complete | 53.1% |
| Late (due BD+2, not done) | 2: the deferred revenue roll-forward and the expense accrual |
| Due today, not done | 3: ASC 340-40 roll-forward, AR aging review, bonus and PTO accrual |
| Tie-outs that need an explanation | 1 |
The open tie-out is the reason the roll-forward is late. These are the four SaaS tie-outs in the example file.
| Tie-out (illustrative, October 2026) | Amount |
|---|---|
| Beginning deferred revenue | $4,850,000 |
| Plus billings | $1,420,000 |
| Less revenue recognized | $1,105,000 |
| Expected ending deferred revenue | $5,165,000 |
| Ending deferred revenue per GL | $5,153,000 |
| Difference: Explain | -$12,000 |
| CRM bookings $1,260,000, less $250,000 invoiced later, plus $410,000 invoiced from earlier bookings | $1,420,000 = billings, ties |
| Commission liability: $210,000 + $112,000 earned - $205,000 paid | $117,000, ties |
| Capitalized commissions: $1,180,000 + $96,000 capitalized - $41,500 amortized | $1,234,500, ties |
| AR aging total vs GL | $2,310,000, ties |
The GL has $12,000 less deferred revenue than the roll-forward expects. In this example the cause is a credit memo for a mid-term downgrade, issued in the billing system on October 30 and posted to the GL, but missing from the billings feed the roll-forward uses. Entering -$12,000 on the adjustments line clears it. Three more things the example shows:
- Billings ran ahead of revenue. $1,420,000 billed against $1,105,000 recognized, so deferred revenue should grow by $315,000. It grew by $303,000 in the GL, and the gap is the same $12,000.
- Commissions split two ways. Of the $112,000 earned, $96,000 was capitalized and $16,000 was expensed under the one-year practical expedient. The tab checks that the two add back to the total earned.
- AR is mostly current. $1,520,000 of the $2,310,000 is not yet due, and $170,000 (7.4%) is more than 60 days past due. That $170,000 is the list for collections and the allowance review.
The tie-outs finish on the balance sheet, so the last step is to carry the reconciled balances into the statements. The balance sheet template lays out deferred revenue, capitalized commissions and AR the way a SaaS balance sheet reports them.
How long should month-end close take?
Most teams take longer than they plan. Two dated sources measure it in different ways:
| Source | What it measures | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Ledge, Month-end close benchmarks for 2025 (published April 10, 2025; survey of 100 finance professionals) | Business days to close | 1 to 3 days: 18%. 4 to 5 days: 32%. 6 to 7 days: 23%. More than 7 days: 27%. |
| APQC Open Standards Benchmarking (2022 data, 10,201 organizations, published May 5, 2025) | Calendar days from the initial trial balance to final monthly consolidated statements | Top performers: median 5 days. All organizations: median 6 days. Bottom performers: 10 days. |
The two numbers are not the same measure. Ledge counts business days, as reported by the people it surveyed. APQC counts calendar days, weekends included, and starts at the initial trial balance rather than at month end. In Ledge's survey, 3 to 5 business days was the most common answer for what a good close looks like. The template's BD+5 default sits at the slow end of that range. Pick a target you can hit every month, then remove one late task at a time.
Month-end close, quarter-end close and year-end close
The accounting close is the same process every month, with more work at quarter end and the most at year end. Quarter end adds the board pack, quarterly reviews of reserves and, for public companies, the 10-Q. Year end adds the audit, the tax provision and closing the income statement to retained earnings.
"Quarter close" also means something different to a sales team: the last two weeks of a quarter, when deals are pushed over the line and discounting is approved or refused. That is a sales process, not an accounting one, and ORM covers it in how to run an end of quarter close process. The two meet on BD+1, when the CRM snapshot becomes the bookings the accounting close starts from.
Who owns which tasks
The controller owns the close: the calendar, the assignments, the review of reconciliations and journal entries, and the draft statements. The CFO reviews, signs off and owns what the numbers mean for the plan. ORM's guide to controller vs CFO sets out where one role ends and the other starts. In a SaaS company, three more owners sit outside accounting and belong on the checklist by name: RevOps for the CRM snapshot and bookings, billing for invoices and credit memos, and FP&A for the forecast update.
What Pete Furseth checks when the close meets the CRM
Pete Furseth, ORM's COO, works with B2B SaaS revenue and finance teams on forecasts and plans. Two of his rules shaped the template.
- Bookings have to reconcile. Pete's view is that if you add up bookings for the year in a forecasting system, the total should reconcile to what the company reports internally. The bookings to billings tie-out does that every month, so the reconciliation never piles up at year end.
- The same number on every slide. "If you show one number on one slide, that number better show up on the next, or there should be a clear explanation for why it changed." That is why the close ends with the metrics pack and the forecast update, built from the same closed numbers as the statements.
Common month-end close mistakes
- No close day on each task. A list without due dates cannot tell you on BD+3 whether you are behind.
- Treating billings as revenue. Invoices go to AR and deferred revenue. Revenue comes from the schedule.
- Reconciling only cash. Deferred revenue, capitalized commissions and accruals are where SaaS balance sheets go wrong.
- Letting the CRM move after BD+1. Without a snapshot, bookings change after the close and the tie-out never holds.
- Commissions on a cash basis. Paying in the next month is fine. Expensing in the month paid is not, when the cost should be accrued or capitalized.
- No retro. The late tasks this month are next month's late tasks unless someone changes the checklist.
ORM's take on closing the loop with the forecast
A fast close tells you what last month was. The question a CFO gets next is what this quarter will be, and the revenue line of that answer depends on pipeline, win rates and renewals in the CRM today. That is why the last tasks on the checklist load actuals into the forecast and compare bookings and pipeline with it.
ORM forecasts new, expansion and renewal revenue from your CRM data and updates the forecast as the quarter moves, so finance can compare closed months with a forecast that is already current. ORM targets 95% forecast accuracy on the forecasts it builds.
Common questions
What is the month-end close process?
The month-end close is the set of tasks the accounting team runs after each month ends to make the books complete and correct: record every transaction, accrue what has not been invoiced, recognize revenue, reconcile every balance sheet account to support, review the changes, and issue the financial statements. It ends when the CFO signs off and the period is locked.
What are the steps of a month-end close?
In order: plan the calendar and owners, set the cutoff, record cash, billing, payroll and payables, recognize revenue and roll forward deferred revenue, accrue expenses and commissions, reconcile the balance sheet, review journal entries and run a flux analysis, draft the statements, sign off and lock the period, then report variances and update the forecast.
How long should month-end close take?
Most finance teams take four business days or more. In Ledge's 2025 survey of 100 finance professionals, 18% closed in one to three business days, 32% in four to five, and 50% in six or more. APQC's benchmark for monthly consolidated statements is a median of 6 calendar days, with top performers at 5. Set a target, track it every month, and shorten it one task at a time.
What journal entries are made at month end?
The usual month-end entries are revenue recognition from the revenue schedule, accrued expenses for costs incurred but not invoiced, prepaid expense amortization, depreciation and amortization, payroll, bonus and PTO accruals, commission accruals and, for SaaS, capitalization and amortization of commissions under ASC 340-40. Many accruals reverse on the first day of the next month.
Who is responsible for the month-end close?
The controller runs it: owns the calendar, assigns tasks, reviews reconciliations and journal entries, and prepares the statements. Staff and senior accountants do most of the reconciling and posting. The CFO reviews and signs off. In a SaaS company, RevOps and billing own the CRM bookings and invoices that the revenue tasks depend on, so they belong on the checklist too.
What is the difference between month-end close and year-end close?
The year-end close is the twelfth month-end close plus more: closing income statement accounts to retained earnings, the annual audit, income tax provision, a full review of reserves and capitalized costs, and annual disclosures. A clean monthly close makes year end shorter, because each balance has already been reconciled eleven times.
Close the month, then see where the quarter is heading
The checklist closes last month. ORM shows, week by week, where this quarter's revenue is going.
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