MONTH-END CLOSING CHECKLIST

You can set the date that is most efficient for your organization. If you know that all of your vendors have billed you by the 5^th of the month, such as utilities, telephone, vendor purchases and other transactions that are normal for a month and all these transactions have been accounted for and recorded, and the closing month bank statement is available you can determine when the close of the period should occur.

Listed above would include the usual day-to-day transactions related to the current period to be closed. There are also various transactions that only get posted on a monthly or quarterly basis that need to be accounted for. If your accounting system has the function to record recurring transactions based on the parameters you set, these entries can be automated.

Following is a monthly closing check list to help your month end process go smoothly:

Be sure to make changes to this list as necessary to make it your own. Then implement it as part of your month end accounting procedures and include it in your fiscal policy manual.

Resource for Fiscal Compliance

You will find this book to be invaluable when setting up and maintaining your systems for non-profit finance, compliance and reporting and organizational status reports to your Board of Directors and other interested parties. In addition to performing deliverables, as specified in your program plan, timely and effectively, you should not have to worry about discontinued funding due to non-compliance.