The month end close is a standard process for reviewing, reconciling, and reporting on a business’s financial activity over a given month.
Ask any accountant, though, and they might have more choice words for you: “It’s the time of the month I work longer, more stressful hours.” “A total headache.” “Absolute chaos.”
Does that sound like you?
Your month end close procedure is likely guided by a month end close checklist. At a minimum, it’s a list of tasks you check off once a month. At best, it’s highly organized and color-coded, but not quite working for your team. You know you could win back valuable time if you could improve it, but you’re not sure how.
At Dime, our all-in-one platform features an AI-powered checklist that does most of the heavy lifting for you. Think automatic reconciliations, error reporting, and audit-ready financials.
But more on that later. Today, we’re sharing how you can create the best version of your month end checklist for a more efficient, productive 2025.
Set up your month end close checklist
The most common delays to the month end close procedure are caused by a sudden scramble to gather information, establish timelines, and determine processes.
Follow these steps at the top of the month to avoid a time crunch when financial close comes around.
Make organization a team effort
Organizing toward your month end close starts weeks before you open a fresh spreadsheet.
Start by creating a folder for the month, with subfolders for the various documents you’ll need to prepare accurate financial statements. These include expense receipts, bank statements, accounts receivable, and supplier invoices.
Physical binders work for some teams, but they could be the culprit behind the chaos of month end close. Consider a digital or cloud-based solution, like Dime, to consolidate and organize necessary documentation in one easily accessible place.
Once you’ve created your digital filing cabinet, assign documents to the appropriate team members and make this a weekly recurring task on your team’s calendar.
Leverage historical data
Your business is constantly evolving, as should your month end closing checklist. To create an effective checklist, you’ll use last month’s hurdles to create this month’s opportunities for improvement.
Review past checklists and existing general ledger (GL) data. What team members performed which tasks? How long did each task take? Did any tasks take longer than anticipated? What delayed them? Make sure to note repeating roadblocks.
This doesn’t have to be a solo endeavor. Collaborating with team members can clarify the exact processes involved in your month end close and set realistic timelines for an updated month end close checklist.
Create a comprehensive task map
After reviewing your previous month end closes, compile a thorough list of required tasks.
For each task, assign an owner, a reviewer, a target completion date, and a target review date. Tasks should also be organized by category, frequency, and entity (if relevant).
Review the list: how much work does each team member have? Are they assigned a reasonable amount of work within a reasonable timeline?
If your team uses accounting software like Dime, you can add those dependencies from your previous research to your checklist. Dependencies will connect one task with another, allowing for better collaboration among your team.
Reduce roadblocks in the month end close process
You’re on the month end close highway: just your team, the open road, and your handy checklist in the passenger seat. A well-organized, realistic checklist is a great navigator to help you avoid unnecessary traffic jams.
Catch and reduce the risk of errors
By adding an assigned reviewer and target review date to your month end checklist, you've already reduced your risk of errors at month end close. But what happens when an error is caught? Without easily actionable, standard procedures in place, your team could repeat the same mistakes month after month or miss minute errors that have significant consequences.
Your month end close checklist should include documented procedures, either written or recorded, for catching and resolving discrepancies. When an error is caught, encourage your team to identify the root cause and incorporate safeguards into next month’s closing checklist.
That could look like reordering certain tasks, lengthening timelines for completion or review, or adopting software that catches errors as they happen.
Improve the reconciliation process
In conversations with accounting leaders, the reconciliation process is almost always mentioned as the most challenging hurdle of the month end close process.
Reconciliations can take days when done manually and only at the end of the month. To speed up the process, identify which reconciliations can be ongoing and make them part of your weekly tasks. Reference your month end checklist throughout the month to stay on track.
Even with increased frequency, reconciliations are time consuming. And they aren't always possible for small teams with limited resources or growing teams with rising workloads.
Dime allows accounting firms to skip manual reconciliations altogether. When you upload documents and data into Dime’s cloud-based storage, our AI automatically identifies, matches, and clears transactions across accounts.
Prepare more effective financial statements
Congratulations! You’re almost done with the month end close. Now, it’s time to create and review the month’s financial statements and translate these numbers into actionable insights for your clients.
Despite the hard work you’ve already put in, financial statements can take hours to prepare on an already tight deadline. Accounting software can help your team bypass time-consuming manual data entry and easily complete the month end close.
Look for a tool that generates audit-ready financials and sharable reporting. The most innovative accounting platforms can transform data into actionable narratives, with insights into month-over-month changes, why they happened, and what it means for your clients.
Reduce the stress of the month end close with Dime
A successful month end close checklist is your ultimate accounting partner. It can reduce the risk and impact of short- and long-term errors, create more time for high-value tasks, and better prepare your team for other high-stress reporting periods, such as year end close.
Accounting firms that want to move more efficiently without sacrificing accuracy use Dime to shave days off their month end close. From cloud-based storage solutions to automatic trial balance generation and AI-powered reporting, our Month End Close feature isn’t just a fancy spreadsheet — it’s the worker itself.
Get started with Dime today. Book a demo call to learn more about how our software can supercharge your month end close process.