Monthly Bookkeeping Checklist for Small Business
A monthly bookkeeping close has nine parts: gather your statements, reconcile every account, clean up transactions, review receivables, payables, payroll, and sales tax, read the financial statements, and lock the month. This is the 43-step version we run for clients in QuickBooks Online. Check it off below or download the PDF.
When should each step happen?
Aim to close within ten business days of month end. This is a suggested rhythm; adjust it to your volume.
Days 1-2
Gather Your Documents
Days 2-4
Reconcile Every Account, Categorize and Clean Up Transactions
Days 4-6
Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Payroll and Contractors, Sales Tax
Days 7-9
Review the Financials
By day 10
Close the Month
The monthly close checklist
Check steps off as you go. Your progress is saved in this browser, so you can come back to it during the week.
Gather Your Documents
Days 1-2 · 0/5Reconcile Every Account
Days 2-4 · 0/5Categorize and Clean Up Transactions
Days 2-4 · 0/7Accounts Receivable
Days 4-6 · 0/5Accounts Payable
Days 4-6 · 0/4Payroll and Contractors
Days 4-6 · 0/4Sales Tax
Days 4-6 · 0/4Review the Financials
Days 7-9 · 0/5Close the Month
By day 10 · 0/4General bookkeeping guidance, not tax or legal advice. Confirm filing requirements with your CPA or tax professional.
What does skipping the monthly close cost?
Skipping the close does not save the work, it stacks it up. Take a hypothetical business with about 150 transactions a month. Closing monthly means 150 transactions to review while everyone still remembers them. Waiting until tax season means about 1,800 at once, most of them months old.
| Measure | Close every month | Catch up at year end |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions per sitting | About 150 | About 1,800 |
| Statements to reconcile per account | 1 | 12 |
| When you find a mistake | Within weeks | Up to a year later |
| Numbers you can decide with | Every month | Once, after the year is over |
Hypothetical example for illustration, not a client result.
Should you run the close yourself?
If you have the time and your books are current, yes. The checklist is complete enough to run on your own. It gets harder when volume grows, when payroll and sales tax enter the picture, or when the books are already behind. That is usually the point to bring in a bookkeeper.
When we run the close for a client, it happens in their own QuickBooks Online file. Statements come to us through Pinstripe Sync, questions go through secure messages, and the month-end reports land in the same client workspace, where you can follow the close in Pinstripe Close and read the result in Pinstripe Ledger. We are a QuickBooks ProAdvisor firm, and we work alongside your CPA rather than replacing them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Want us to run this every month?
We close the books inside your QuickBooks Online file each month. You keep your data and your software, and get your time back.