#month-end-close
Streamline month-end closing procedures and checklists
An imprest fund holds a fixed balance of cash plus receipts; replenish monthly, book gaps to Cash Short and Over, and keep custody and approval separate.
Accrued interest is interest earned or owed but not yet paid; borrowers book Interest Payable, lenders book Interest Receivable, each at month-end.
Backflush costing books production costs backward from completed units — standard cost times output — skipping work-in-process tracking entirely.
Functional currency is the currency of an entity's primary economic environment — and it decides whether FX differences land in equity or net income.
Reconcile monthly, chase invoices weekly, pay IRS estimates quarterly — the daily-to-quarterly checklist that keeps small-business books clean.
Every balance sheet balance is a claim — reconciliation proves it against an independent schedule. The five-step monthly routine, per account.
The 10-column worksheet turns raw ledger balances into statements: add adjustments, prove the adjusted balances, extend each account to its statement.
GAAP books bad-debt expense up front through the allowance method; IRS Section 166 deducts only specific worthless debts. How the timing gap works.
Depreciation, amortization, prepaids, and accruals post monthly so each period carries its own costs — templates plus a quarterly review keep them honest.
The step-down method allocates service-department costs in ranked sequence, each step normalized over open departments only.
Adjusting entries record what timing left out; correcting entries fix prior errors. Reverse only accruals — reversing a correction resurrects the error.
The AR control balance must equal every customer balance added up — when it doesn't, a posting went to the wrong place. How the tie-out works.
