| Ref | Task | Owner | Evidence that it is done | Sign-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-01 | Cut-off Issue the close calendar for the month and a cut-off memo to stores, dispatch, purchase and sales: the last goods receipt, last sales invoice and last dispatch document that belong to the month. | Finance controller | Close calendar and cut-off memo sent, with acknowledgements | CFO |
| C-02 | Payables Chase vendor invoices, employee expense claims and credit notes not yet received, and list goods and services received but not invoiced. Tally: Start from receipt notes not yet matched to a purchase voucher and from the bill-wise outstandings. | Accounts payable | List of receipts not yet invoiced, with expected invoice dates | Finance controller |
| C-03 | Payroll Freeze attendance, joiners, leavers, increments and variable pay for the month and run the draft payroll. | Payroll | Input sheet approved by HR; draft payroll register | Finance controller |
| Ref | Task | Owner | Evidence that it is done | Sign-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-04 | Receivables Match unidentified bank receipts and on-account credits to customer invoices so that the ageing is right at month-end. Tally: Use the bill-wise outstandings to find receipts sitting as On Account. | Accounts receivable | Unapplied receipts list reduced to items with a stated reason | Finance controller |
| C-05 | Receivables List goods dispatched or services delivered but not invoiced, and invoices raised for goods not yet dispatched. Tally: Compare delivery notes with sales vouchers for the last week of the month. | Accounts receivable | Dispatch-versus-invoice exception list | Finance controller |
| C-06 | General ledger Prepare the standing journals for the month — prepaid expense release, rent, interest, lease and other recurring entries — with the schedule behind each. | General ledger | Recurring journal list with supporting schedules | Finance controller |
| C-07 | Inventory Plan the month-end count or cycle count: locations, count teams, how stock movement is stopped during the count, and how goods in transit and stock held by third parties are treated. | General ledger | Count instructions and count sheets issued | Finance controller |
| Ref | Task | Owner | Evidence that it is done | Sign-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-08 | Cut-off Record the last sales invoice, goods receipt, dispatch note, payment and receipt numbers of the month, and stop back-dated entry in the sub-ledgers. Tally: Use the back-dated voucher restrictions in user security levels, and keep the edit log on where it is available. | General ledger | Signed cut-off sheet with the last document numbers | Finance controller |
| C-09 | Payables Book every supplier invoice for the month that has been received and approved, and list goods in transit. | Accounts payable | Purchase register closed for the month; goods-in-transit list | Finance controller |
| C-10 | Bank and cash Count petty cash and cash at every location, and list cheques in hand and cheques issued but not yet presented. | Treasury | Signed cash count certificate; cheques-in-hand list | Finance controller |
| C-11 | Inventory Carry out the physical count or cycle count and record differences against the stock ledger before any adjustment is posted. Tally: Compare with the Stock Summary as at the month-end. | General ledger | Signed count sheets and a count-versus-book difference statement | Finance controller |
| Ref | Task | Owner | Evidence that it is done | Sign-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-12 | Bank and cash Reconcile every bank, cash credit and loan account to the bank statement as at the month-end, and age the unreconciled items. Tally: Use the bank reconciliation in each bank ledger, with bank dates entered from the statement. | Treasury | Bank reconciliation statement with the bank statement attached; old items listed | Finance controller |
| C-13 | Receivables Complete invoicing, credit notes and receipt entries for the month and agree the receivables ageing to the control account in the general ledger. | Accounts receivable | Sales register, receivables ageing and the tie-out to the general ledger | Finance controller |
| C-14 | Payables Complete invoice booking and debit notes and agree the payables ageing to the control account in the general ledger. | Accounts payable | Purchase register, payables ageing and the tie-out to the general ledger | Finance controller |
| C-15 | Payroll Finalise the payroll register, post the salary journal and agree PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS on salary payable to the register. | Payroll | Approved payroll register; salary journal; payable ledgers agreed | Finance controller |
| Ref | Task | Owner | Evidence that it is done | Sign-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-16 | Accruals and provisions Accrue expenses incurred but not invoiced and review provisions: bonus, leave, gratuity, audit fees, warranty, doubtful debts and disputed claims. | General ledger | Accrual schedule with the basis for each item; last month’s accruals reversed or carried with a reason | Finance controller |
| C-17 | Accruals and provisions Post the recurring journals and release prepaid expenses for the month. | General ledger | Prepaid schedule agreeing to the ledger balance | Finance controller |
| C-18 | Fixed assets Capitalise assets put to use in the month, review capital work-in-progress for items ready to capitalise, record disposals and run depreciation. Tally: Post depreciation by journal from the fixed asset register kept alongside the books. | General ledger | Fixed asset register movement agreeing to the ledger; depreciation working | Finance controller |
| C-19 | Inventory Value closing stock, reconcile the stock ledger to the general ledger, post approved count differences, and review slow-moving, non-moving and damaged stock for write-down. | General ledger | Stock valuation, stock-to-ledger reconciliation and slow-moving stock list | Finance controller |
| Ref | Task | Owner | Evidence that it is done | Sign-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-20 | Party reconciliations Reconcile statements of the largest and most active suppliers, and review debit balances in payables and long-outstanding advances. | Accounts payable | Supplier statement reconciliations; debit balances listed with an explanation | Finance controller |
| C-21 | Party reconciliations Review overdue customer balances, credit balances in receivables and unresolved deductions; obtain balance confirmations from the largest customers each quarter. | Accounts receivable | Ageing with follow-up notes; confirmations where obtained | Finance controller |
| C-22 | GST Agree outward supplies in the books to the GSTR-1 data and input tax credit in the books to GSTR-2B, and work out the reverse-charge liability and the net tax payable. | Tax | GST working tied to the GST ledgers; list of mismatches with the action taken | Finance controller |
| C-23 | TDS Agree tax deducted in the month, section by section, to the TDS payable ledgers and confirm the month’s deposit was made by the due date. | Tax | TDS working agreeing to the ledger; challan for the month | Finance controller |
| C-24 | Borrowings Agree loan and cash credit balances to lender statements, accrue interest for the month, and restate foreign-currency balances at the closing rate where there are any. | Treasury | Lender statements; interest accrual working; source of the exchange rate | Finance controller |
| Ref | Task | Owner | Evidence that it is done | Sign-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-25 | Review Review the trial balance account by account: suspense and clearing accounts at nil, no unexpected debit or credit balances, and manual journals above a set value read by someone who did not post them. Tally: Read the Day Book filtered to journal vouchers, with the narration. | Finance controller | Reviewed trial balance; manual journal listing initialled by the reviewer | CFO |
| C-26 | Review Check that every balance sheet account has a reconciliation or schedule that explains the balance, with the preparer and the reviewer named. | General ledger | Balance sheet reconciliation file with sign-offs | Finance controller |
| C-27 | Tax Estimate current tax for the month, and update deferred tax at least at each quarter-end. | Tax | Tax provision working | Finance controller |
| Ref | Task | Owner | Evidence that it is done | Sign-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-28 | Flux and variance review Compare the month’s profit and loss with budget, last month and the same month last year, and the balance sheet with last month; get an explanation for every movement beyond the agreed tolerance. | Finance controller | Variance analysis with explanations from the line owners | CFO |
| C-29 | Flux and variance review Post the adjustments arising from the review, re-run the trial balance and freeze it as the basis for reporting. | General ledger | Final trial balance; list of late adjustments with the approver | Finance controller |
| C-30 | Management pack Prepare the MIS: profit and loss against budget and last year, balance sheet, cash flow, working capital, KPIs and commentary, agreed to the frozen trial balance. | Finance controller | MIS pack with a tie-out to the trial balance | CFO |
| C-31 | Management pack Take the pack through with the CFO, record the sign-off and issue it to management. | Finance controller | Signed-off pack; distribution record | CFO |
| C-32 | Cut-off Lock the month in the accounting system so that nothing can be posted to it without the controller’s approval. Tally: Use the back-dated voucher restrictions in user security levels so that vouchers dated in the closed month cannot be added or altered. | General ledger | System report or screenshot showing the period closed | Finance controller |
| C-33 | Close scorecard Record which tasks were late and why, the adjustments posted after the first trial balance, and one change to make next month. | Finance controller | Close scorecard; lessons note | CFO |
The close runs on working days; statutory payments and returns run on calendar dates and do not wait for it. The usual monthly dates are TDS deposit by the 7th of the following month (the March deposit has a later date), GSTR-1 by the 11th and GSTR-3B by the 20th for monthly filers, and PF and ESI by the 15th. Confirm the dates that apply to your registrations, and note that the TDS deposit often falls before a working-day-5 close is finished — so the TDS working cannot be left to the end.
The Tally notes describe what a user sees on screen — Day Book, bill-wise outstandings, Stock Summary, bank reconciliation. The period lock in Tally depends on how user security levels have been set up, and the edit log on the release and edition in use.
This is the finance team’s own checklist. If you are reviewing a close rather than running one, the audit-side tools are the record-to-report audit workbook and the record-to-report internal audit checklist.
Books closed? Build the monthly MIS pack from the frozen trial balance, and track the working-capital days in the cash conversion cycle calculator.
A month end closing checklist is the list of tasks the finance team completes to turn a month of transactions into numbers management can rely on: fix the cut-off, close the sub-ledgers, reconcile bank and party balances, book accruals and provisions, run depreciation, value stock, finish payroll and tax workings, agree intercompany balances, review the trial balance and the variances, and issue the management pack. This generator arranges those tasks as a calendar, from two working days before the month-end to the working day you choose as the target.
You choose the accounting system, whether there is one entity or a group, whether the business carries inventory, and whether GST, TDS and payroll are handled in-house. The list changes accordingly: a group gets intercompany confirmation, agreement and elimination tasks; a business without stock loses the count and valuation tasks; and where a working is outsourced, the task becomes sending the data and agreeing the outside working back to the ledger, because the responsibility for the number stays with the finance team.
Each task carries four things: the role that owns it, the evidence that proves it has been done, the person who signs it off, and a planned date. Dates are real ones. The tool finds the last working day of the month you pick, counts working days either side of it, skips weekends and any holidays you add, and spreads the post-month-end work in six stages across the target — sub-ledgers and bank first, then accruals, fixed assets and stock, then party reconciliations and tax workings, then review, then the pack and the period lock.
The Excel download adds what turns a list into a routine: status, actual date, prepared-by and reviewed-by columns against every task, a close scorecard that counts tasks done on time and late for each role, and a month summary for the actual close date, late adjustments and one change for next month. Books of account under the Companies Act 2013 are kept on the accrual basis, which is why accruals, provisions and cut-off take up so much of the checklist.
An illustrative single-entity company on Tally that carries inventory and handles GST, TDS and payroll in-house wants the September 2026 books closed by working day 5. The week is Monday to Friday and 2 October 2026 is a holiday.
