Running a month-end close

A month-end close is a short checklist that turns "I think that's roughly right" into "I actually know that's right." Ten minutes a week beats two hours of panic every quarter, and it adds up to a lot less stress at tax time.

1. Import the month's bank activity

Export the month's CSV from your bank and run it through the Smart-Mapper. Duplicate detection means it's safe to overlap with your last import if you're not sure exactly where you left off.

2. Clear the review queue

Categorize whatever's still sitting uncategorized. Anything a vendor rule didn't catch is either a new vendor worth a rule, or a genuine one-off you can just categorize and move past.

3. Reconcile the bank balance

Compare GBooks Air's bank account balance to your actual bank statement for the same date. They should match, exactly.

• They match — you're reconciled. Move on.
• They don't — the gap is almost always a missing transaction (the import didn't cover the full month), a duplicate, or a transfer that got categorized as income or an expense instead of a transfer. Start with the most recent transactions.

4. Match invoice payments

Cross-check invoices marked Sent against the month's deposits. Mark the ones that got paid, and match the deposit to the invoice rather than letting it sit around as unexplained income.

5. Review the audit flags

Open audit flags and clear what you can: missing receipts, uncategorized amounts, anything flagged as unusual. Keeping this list clean every month means year-end ends up being nothing but a formality.

6. Read the P&L

Generate the month's Profit & Loss and actually read it. Compare it to last month, and once you've got a year of history, the same month last year. Does the story it tells match what you remember about the month? A surprise here is worth ten minutes of digging now, instead of a much bigger surprise at tax time.

7. Back up

A month-end backup is a natural checkpoint to build the habit around. See Backups & recovery.