Close the month with every balance supported.

A close where every clearing balance is reconciled or has a named owner, and the open items are on the page where everyone can see them.

Start with a finance review How it works

October close

10 of 12clearing balances reconciled, and two owned

Shopify payouts
TikTok Shop payoutsOne settlement split across two months
Commission, platform fees and returnsTrued up to actuals
Trail pant freight billOwner: supply lead
Merino crew deductionOwner: AR lead

Closed in five days

Where the October close stood on day five: every balance supported or owned.

Sound familiar?

The close waits on one payout nobody has explained.
Balances are reconciled in five places, and nobody can show the support.
A late freight bill reopens a month you’d already closed.

A close that drags makes every number late, and a quietly reopened month makes the next one suspect.

What changes.

TodayWith the engine

Status: A task list, and who is waiting on whomOne tracker: each balance, its support, its owner and its state
Support: Screenshots in a shared folderEvidence linked to each balance as it’s reconciled
Late items: Found after sign-offCarried as open items with an owner and a date
Reopening: Done quietly, when someone noticesLogged, with who approved it and why

How it works. 5 steps, 4 stages.

AI1
Rules and automation2
Your team2
Approval

1Prepare
1. Rules and automation
  Open the close calendar
  Tasks, dependencies and owners carry over from last month, so waiting shows up early.
  - NetSuite
  - QuickBooks
2Reconcile
1. Rules and automation
  Reconcile channel and clearing balances
  Payouts, fees, refunds and clearing accounts matched to the bank and the ledger.
  - A2X
2. AI
  Draft the support for each balance
  Gathers the evidence and drafts a note: what’s in the balance, and what’s left.
3Review
1. Your teamApproval
  Review the support, balance by balance
  Your controller reads what was found, and clears or reassigns each open item.
4Sign off
1. Your teamApproval
  Sign off, or reopen with a reason
  Your controller signs off the close. A reopened month is logged with who approved it.

Late items become next month’s earlier tasks

What you get. Real work, every week.

Close calendar · October

Task	Owner	Due	State
Reconcile payouts	Finance lead	Day 2	Done
True up commission and fees	Finance lead	Day 3	Done
Review balance support	Controller	Day 4	Done
Sign off	Controller	Day 5	Closed

The calendar your controller works from. Everyone can see who is waiting on whom.

Open items carried to November

Trail pant freight billCarrier invoice not received · 350 units at $3.90 booked$1,365Supply lead
Retailer deductionMerino crew · short-paid, under review$1,200AR lead

What was still open at sign-off, carried forward with an owner instead of buried.

How you’ll know it’s working.

Days to close
Tracked with the open items beside it, so speed never hides a gap.
Balances without support at sign-off
Every balance should be reconciled or owned. This should be zero.
Reopened months
How often a closed month has to change, and who approved it.

Baselines agreed before we build.

Works with what you have.

Commerce

NetSuite

Accounting

QuickBooks
A2X

Planning & BI

Excel or Sheets

We configure first: The close checklist in your accounting platform, and your accountant’s calendar. If they already track tasks and owners, we build on that.
We build when: Support for channel and clearing balances is still assembled by hand each month.

What a first build includes.

Built in your accounts, around your team. Scope, fee and baseline agreed before we start.

1Design
2Build
3Run it, or hand it over

Start with a review Scope this build

We build

A close calendar with owners and dependencies
Balance support linked to its evidence
Open items with an owner and a date
A log of every reopened month

We start from

Your last three closes
The chart of accounts and clearing accounts
Bank and processor access

From your team

Owner: Controller
Involves: Finance
Your accountant
Operations

Questions teams ask.

Do you give accounting, tax or audit opinions?

No. Accounting policy, tax treatment and audit conclusions stay with your accountant, your auditors and your leadership. We build the tracker, the support and the checks around the policy they set, and flag what doesn’t fit it.

Will this actually shorten the close?

It depends on what holds yours up. In a case published by its close-software vendor, GOAT Group reported a close that fell from eight days to five after rebuilding its team, processes and tools, so it wasn’t AI alone. We start by finding which balances block yours.

Who owns it once it’s running?

You do. It’s built in your accounts, documented, with training for the people who run it. Ownership usually sits with your controller. We can keep running it with you, or step back.

How do we start?

Usually with a finance review: two to four weeks, a fixed fee credited to the build, and a plan that’s yours. If the job is already clear, we can scope the build directly.