Month end close accounting
- What approval costs a month
- $4,300.80
- Hours on routine handling
- 120
- Hours on exceptions
- 14.4
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. Monthendly publishes no benchmark close time, no industry average DPO and no accounting standard: the tasks, the minutes, the rate and the exception rate are yours, and the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own figures.
Month end close accounting is the work between the cut-off and the moment somebody says the month is done: cutting off payables and receivables, posting accruals and prepayments, reconciling the bank and the control accounts, reviewing the result and signing it off. Most teams run it from a spreadsheet checklist that was inherited, edited under pressure and never quite reviewed, which is why the same three tasks slip every month and nobody can say how long the close really takes. This page is the shape of a close for a small team, the reason it takes longer than people think, and how to price yours before deciding whether to change anything.
Open the Accounts payable invoice approval process Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Cut off, and know what is sitting unapproved
The close begins with a cut-off, and the pile of unapproved invoices at that moment is what turns into accruals. Teams that clear payables before the cut-off close faster than teams that are equally organised afterwards, which is why this hub treats payables as part of the close rather than a neighbouring job.
Post, reconcile and tie
Accruals, prepayments, the bank, and the control accounts. This is the part everyone thinks of as the close and it is rarely the part that overruns, because it is well understood and usually owned by one person.
Review and sign off, with the evidence attached
The month is closed when someone has looked at the result and said so. Attaching the reconciliations and the checklist to that moment is what makes next quarter's audit and next month's question answerable from a record.
Month end close accounting: common questions
How long should a month end close take?
There is no number we would honestly give you, because it depends on your transaction volume, your team and your systems. What we can do is price yours: the free checklist worksheet turns your own tasks, minutes and people into working days. On its worked example, 33 hours across two people at six hours a day is 2.75 days.
Why does our close keep slipping?
Most often because the checklist does not include everything that actually happens, so the work is real and the plan is optimistic. Counting the tasks honestly, including the chasing, is usually more revealing than any process change.
Would another person make it faster?
Arithmetically yes, and the worksheet shows by how much: the same 33-hour close across three people at six hours a day is 1.83 days rather than 2.75. Whether the tasks actually divide that way is your judgement, not the sheet's.
Monthendly Pro
Keeping what you make
The worksheets are free forever. Pro turns them into the record: the close checklist for each month with its owner and its dates, the payables queue that clears before the cut-off, the reconciliations attached to the month they belong to, your team's name on the pack, no watermark, and an export when the auditor asks.
- Download the finished sheet as a file
- Send it without the Monthendly line on it
- Save a close and reopen it next month
- Put your company name and logo on it
- Export every close and reconciliation at once
- Approval chases emailed to whoever is holding the close up
- Connect your own Stripe account and get paid online
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
$43per month, whole team
Start Monthendly Pro PricingRenews monthly at the price above until you cancel. We email you before any price change.
Will it do what you need for Month end close accounting?
Tell us how your close runs and we will tell you straight whether Monthendly Pro fits it today, whether it is coming, or whether you need a different product instead. A person reads these and replies.
Cite or embed this figure
On the worked example, 40 tasks at 45 minutes and 6 reviews at 30 is 33 hours, which is 2.75 working days across two people and 1.83 across three.
Accounts payable invoice approval process (What approval costs a month): $4,300.80, Monthendly, worked example.
Cite as: "Month end close accounting, Monthendly", updated 2026-09-04, https://monthendly.com/month-end-close-accounting/.