Month-end close is one of the most critical and time-consuming cycles for finance teams. From reconciling ledgers and calculating accruals to generating reports and reviewing variances, it often involves hundreds of manual tasks across multiple departments.
To help finance teams stay organized, compliant, and stress-free, we’ve created a free Month-End Close Checklist template—designed to bring structure, visibility, and accountability to your close process.
Why Use a Month-End Close Checklist?
Without a centralized system, it’s easy to lose track of key activities—especially when juggling:
- Dozens of journal entries
- Accrual calculations
- Multiple sub-ledgers
- Payroll and commission postings
- Internal deadlines for P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow reports
A month-end close checklist helps you break down these tasks, assign owners, track progress, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
What’s Inside the Template?
Our ready-to-use Excel template is structured by account type and task categories, so you can customize it for your business. It includes:
- Pre-filled task items like:
- Opening and closing accounting periods
- Inter-company reconciliations
- Processing bank statements
- Generating P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow reports
- Sales commission and payroll accruals
- Fixed asset depreciation
- Columns to assign:
- Task owner
- Status (To-Do, In Progress, In Review, Complete, Blocked)
- Due dates
- Comments or blockers
- Color-coded drop-downs for real-time progress tracking
How to Use the Template
- Customize tasks based on your workflows
- Assign owners and deadlines
- Use status drop-downs to track progress
- Reuse monthly for consistency
That’s it—simple, clear, and designed to help your team stay on track.
Who Is This For?
This template is ideal for:
- Controllers and Finance Managers managing monthly reconciliations
- FP&A teams needing input for timely reporting
- Accounting teams juggling multiple entities and ledgers
- Startups and growing companies looking to establish best practices
If you’re managing 100+ accounts to reconcile manually each month, this tool helps you gain clarity, improve collaboration, and reduce close timelines.
Ready to Move Beyond Excel?
As the finance landscape evolves, so do the tools. While Excel templates are a great start, they don’t scale well when you’re dealing with complex, multi-entity financials.
That’s where Peakflo comes in.
Peakflo’s AI-powered finance operations platform empowers teams to:
- Automate manual close tasks like reconciliations, approvals, and journal entries
- Gain real-time visibility into close progress with dashboards and audit trails
- Centralize communication across teams and entities
- Shorten the month-end close cycle and focus on strategic insights
Close the Books Faster with Peakflo
By combining automation, AI, and customizable workflows, Peakflo helps you:
- Seamlessly streamline mundane operations
- Eliminate back-and-forth follow-ups
- Generate board-ready financial reports faster
- Drive efficiency and transparency across your team
Want to see how finance teams reduce close time by 50%+ with Peakflo? Book a free demo
