Trigger
Month-end close project opens
1
Statement and Feed Gathering
Staff Accountant
This phase begins when the month-end recurring project opens in Financial Cents. Client emails are checked for pinned items, bank and credit card statements are downloaded, and the feeds are swept for anything left uncoded. Ends with a Role handoff from Staff Accountant to Staff Accountant reconciliation work. Transferred: complete statements and fully coded feeds for the month. Acceptance criteria: every account has a statement and no uncoded feed items remain.
PROCESS 1.1
Statement Collection Process
Check the client's email for pinned messages that affect the close.
End state
Pinned items reviewed and actioned or noted
Pull the month's statements from each bank portal. An intern-staffed bank statement project exists; the owner sized this work at four interns for five days across the client base.
Trigger
Statements available at each institution
End state
Every bank account has its statement filed
Same pull for every credit card account.
Trigger
Statements available at each institution
End state
Every card account has its statement filed
PROCESS 1.2
Feed Completion Process
Sweep the feeds for anything the weekly passes missed.
Trigger
Statements in hand
End state
Uncoded items identified
Categorize the stragglers against the client's chart of accounts.
Trigger
Uncoded items identified
End state
Feeds fully coded through month end
2
Reconciliation and Journal Entries
Staff Accountant
Role handoff in
This phase begins with a Role handoff within Staff Accountant work. Transferred: coded feeds and filed statements. Acceptance criteria: phase 1 checklist complete in Financial Cents. Every bank and credit card account reconciles to its statement, and the client's recurring monthly journal entries are prepared, validated, and posted. Ends when the trial balance reflects a fully reconciled, fully adjusted month.
PROCESS 2.1
Account Reconciliation Process
Standard QBO reconciliation per account. Account count per client is fuel.
Trigger
Feeds coded and statements filed
End state
Every bank account reconciled for the month
Same reconciliation for every card account.
Trigger
Bank reconciliations complete
End state
Every card account reconciled for the month
PROCESS 2.2
Recurring Journal Entry Process
Gather the point-of-sale, payroll, and other source reports the client's recurring entries are built from.
Trigger
Accounts reconciled
End state
Source reports staged for entry preparation
Build each entry from the client's entry types. Every client's entries differ; the firm treats entry types as a finite modular library.
Trigger
Source reports staged
End state
Entries drafted in the export template
Every account name on every line checks against the client's chart of accounts and each entry must balance; mismatches halt for a human answer, never a guess.
Trigger
Entries drafted
End state
Entries validated and balanced
Post via the export template into QuickBooks Online, attaching the pulled reports to the entries.
Trigger
Entries validated
End state
Month's recurring entries posted in QuickBooks Online
3
Reporting and Review Handoff
Staff Accountant
Role handoff in
This phase begins with a Role handoff within Staff Accountant work. Transferred: a reconciled and adjusted month. Acceptance criteria: reconciliations complete in QuickBooks Online. The custom financial reports refresh, the disclaimer is verified, an error pass runs, and the close formally hands to the lead accountant. This phase ends the workflow when the first task in the review project is checked, signaling the lead that the month is ready for review.
PROCESS 3.1
Report Refresh Process
Refresh the client's custom reports in QuickBooks Online for the closed month.
Trigger
Reconciliation and entries complete
End state
Report package current for the month
Confirm the standard no-assurance disclaimer renders on each report via QBO report notes.
Trigger
Reports refreshed
End state
Disclaimer present on every report
Staff-level sanity pass before the lead's formal review.
Trigger
Disclaimer verified
End state
Obvious errors resolved or flagged
PROCESS 3.2
Review Handoff Process
Contractors paid over 2,000 dollars this month go to the lead accountant, feeding the year-end 1099 process.
Trigger
Month's payments final
End state
Lead has the month's contractor payment list
Check the first task in the client's review project in Financial Cents; this is the formal role handoff to the lead accountant.
Trigger
All close tasks complete
End state
Lead accountant notified the month is ready for review
WORKFLOW MAP REVIEW
Notes & Assumptions
Sources and confidence
- Built from the Financial Cents "**Monthly Client - Month End Close" template (11 tasks, Staff Accountant role). TGF Holdings shows monthly close instances since March.
- Process 2.2 (recurring journal entries) is entirely draft: it is the heart of monthly work as described in the Session 4 training transcript (point-of-sale pulls, chart-of-accounts validation, balance confirmation, template export into QuickBooks) but does not appear in the close template. Locating where this work is tracked is the top close question.
- The whole map is marked DRAFT pending validation in the mapping session.
Structure notes
- Three phases, below the four-phase guideline; single-owner monthly loop with natural stages. Kept natural rather than padded.
- The template is flat (one section); the phase and process structure is our grouping.
Assumptions to verify
- Statement collection is placed with staff, but the intern bank statement project suggests interns do some or all of the pulls. The split needs mapping.
- Journal entries are placed after reconciliation; in practice some entries may need to post before accounts can reconcile.
FOR THE MAPPING SESSION
All open questions (6)
Phase 1: Statement and Feed Gathering
Jump to phase ↑- Q1
Walk the bank statement pull end to end: which portals, who actually does it (interns or staff), and how long it really takes per client.
- Q6
For each client: how many bank and credit card accounts, at which institutions, and where are the portal credentials kept?
Phase 2: Reconciliation and Journal Entries
Jump to phase ↑- Q2
Where do the recurring monthly journal entries live in your tracking?
They are absent from the close template but central to the month's work.
- Q3
Which clients have journal entry skills built already, and which entry types does the current skill library cover?
Phase 3: Reporting and Review Handoff
Jump to phase ↑- Q4
Custom financial reports: built where, how much do formats vary per client, and what does "update the dates and save" involve?
Workflow-wide
- Q5
What is the target close timeline: statements in by which day, close done by which day, financials delivered by which day?