Month-End Close

Build a month-end close checklist with owners and deadlines

Turn a messy list of close tasks into an organized close calendar by business day, with owners, dependencies, reviewers and the evidence each task should produce.

Time
About 30 minutes
Level
Beginner
Works with
Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini

What you need

  • Your current close tasks, even as rough notes
  • Team roles (staff accountant, AP, payroll, controller)
  • Your target close day, such as business day 5
  • The systems you use (accounting system, payroll, bank portal)

Steps

  1. Brain-dump every close task you can think of. Order and format don't matter.
  2. Paste the prompt and your notes.
  3. Review the suggested additions with your team. Keep only what applies to you.
  4. Paste the table into Excel or your task tool and replace roles with names.

The prompt

Fill in the highlighted brackets
Help me build a month-end close checklist for a [industry] company with about $[revenue] in revenue and a finance team of [number] people.

Target: close the books by business day [5].
Systems: [accounting system, payroll provider, bank, other]
Team roles: [list]

Here are my current close tasks, in no particular order:
[paste notes]

Organize these into a checklist table with columns: Business Day (BD-2 through BD[5]), Task, Owner (role), Depends On, Reviewer, Evidence or Output, Purpose.

Then list standard close tasks that are missing for a company like mine (for example: accrual review, prepaid amortization, fixed asset rollforward, revenue cutoff, bank reconciliations, payroll accrual, sales tax, flux review, final package review). Mark each one "Suggested, confirm" rather than adding it to the main checklist.

Review before you use it

  • Dependencies are in the right order. A reconciliation can't be reviewed before it's prepared.
  • Every task has one owner and one reviewer.
  • Suggested tasks were kept only if they apply to your business.
  • The calendar is realistic for your team's capacity.

Never paste into an AI tool

  • Passwords or system credentials
  • Use a business or enterprise AI plan that does not train on your data, and follow your company's AI policy.

Educational content, not professional advice. AI output can be wrong; review it before relying on it. Disclaimer