Month-End Close Checklist

Q: How does REDA actually “close” a period?

By closed-through dates on each entity. When you set AR / AP / GL Closed Through to a date, transactions of that type on or before that date are blocked from posting. There is no separate “status” to flip — the date is the lock, which makes partial and rolling closes simple.

Q: What’s different about the year-end close?

After closing the final period normally, you run the Year-End Close, which posts a closing journal moving net income to retained earnings and stamps the entity as closed for that fiscal year. It requires the GL to be closed through the fiscal year end first — and generating next year’s accounting periods at the same time keeps the new year ready for its first posting.

Best Practice 7 min read Updated June 2026

A clean month-end close is what turns a pile of daily transactions into financial statements you can trust. This checklist walks the close in the order REDA Financials expects — finish the month’s activity, run the period-end automation, reconcile, review, and then lock the books. Run it the same way every period and your close gets faster and more reliable each time.

Getting there. The close spans both apps. Post the month’s transactions and reconcile bank statements in REDA Financials AI (App Launcher — the grid icon at the top-left of any page); run the period-end automation and close the periods from the Operations and Accounting Periods areas of the Financial Admin Console tab in the REDA Financials Admin app.
Access you'll need. Owning the close requires the Accounting Admin v2 or Accounting Controller v2 permission set — these can run the period-end jobs and lock periods. Accounts Payable v2 and Accounts Receivable v2 users can post their own sub-ledger documents but cannot close periods, and Read Only v2 can view but not change anything.

Close in the right order: sub-ledgers before the GL REDA closes the books per entity using closed-through dates. The order matters: close Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable first, and close the General Ledger last. The system enforces this — the GL cannot be closed for a period until AR and AP are closed through it.

1. Finish the month’s activity

Before you reconcile or review anything, make sure every transaction for the period is actually recorded and posted.

Post all receivables. Every sales invoice, credit memo, and cash receipt for the period is created and posted — none left in draft.
Post all payables. Every purchase invoice, vendor memo, and cash disbursement is entered and posted.
Clear the OCR inbox. Process or set aside any documents waiting in the OCR inbox so no bills are missed.
Post all journal entries. Record accruals, prepayments, and any adjusting journals for the period.
Sweep for drafts. Check each module’s list views for anything still in Draft — an unposted document is income or expense missing from your results.

2. Run the period-end automation

REDA does much of the repetitive close work for you. From the Operations tab of the Admin Console, run (or confirm the scheduled run of) the jobs your business uses:

Recurring transactions. Confirm any recurring invoices, bills, or journals due in the period have been generated.
Post depreciation. Run Asset Depreciation Posting so the period’s depreciation and amortization hit the ledger.
Reverse your accruals. The Journal Entry Auto-Reversal job posts reversing entries for any journals whose reversing date falls in the period — so last month’s accruals unwind automatically.
Allocate expenses. Run Expense Auto-Allocation if you distribute shared costs across entities or dimensions.
Apply open items. Run the auto-apply jobs (receipts, credit memos, disbursements, vendor memos) so open balances are matched before you report.
Sync exchange rates. On multi-currency orgs, confirm FX Rate Sync has the period-end rates in place for conversions and FX gain/loss.

Check the outcomes Each Operations card shows the result of its last run — success, partial, or failed. Glance at them before moving on, and reprocess anything that did not complete cleanly.

3. Reconcile

Reconcile every bank account. Match each bank account to its statement for the period and resolve any outstanding items. Cash is where errors and fraud surface first, so this is non-negotiable.
Tie sub-ledgers to the GL. Confirm the AR and AP control accounts agree with the customer and vendor sub-ledgers — the aging totals should match the control account balances.
Review key balance-sheet accounts. Check that prepayments, accruals, taxes payable, and clearing accounts hold the balances you expect.

4. Review & analyse

Capture the aging snapshots. Take the period-end AR and AP aging snapshots so you have a point-in-time record of what was outstanding at close.
Check the Trial Balance. Confirm it balances (debits equal credits) and scan for anything unusual.
Review the Income Statement. Compare this period to prior periods and to budget; investigate variances before you lock the books.
Review the Balance Sheet. Confirm it balances and that each major account is supportable.
Post final adjustments. Book any corrections the review surfaces — then re-check the statements.

5. Close the books — in order

When the numbers are final, lock the period on each entity by moving its closed-through dates to the period-end date. Do it in this sequence:

Close Accounts Receivable. Set the entity’s AR Closed Through date to the period end. AR transactions on or before that date are now blocked.
Close Accounts Payable. Set AP Closed Through to the period end, locking AP for the period.
Close the General Ledger last. Set GL Closed Through to the period end. This is only allowed once AR and AP are closed through the same date — the sub-ledgers must be locked before the GL.
Repeat for each entity. Close-through dates are per entity, so close each one for the period.

From that moment the lock is active everywhere — postings, applications, imports and integrations alike. Anyone who tries to post into the locked window sees a clear refusal, for example: “Transaction Date 15/06/2026 is on or before the AR book closure date 30/06/2026. Reopen the books to post.” (AP and GL documents get the same sentence naming their own book.) Trying to unpost something already inside the closed window is refused separately, and reads differently: “Period is closed through 30/06/2026 for entity “REDA One UK Ltd”. Posted entries dated on or before the closure date cannot be unposted.” Applying or unapplying payments dated inside the closed window is blocked the same way. The mechanics of the closed-through model are covered in depth in Closing the Books.

Need to reopen a period? Closing isn’t permanent. To reopen, move the closed-through date backward — and reverse the order: reopen the GL first, then AP and AR. Reopen only with proper authorisation, and re-close once your correction is posted. (One hard stop: dates covered by a completed year-end close can’t be rolled back until that year-end close is reopened first.)

6. At year-end only

Your final period of the fiscal year has one extra step. After you have closed the period as above, run the Year-End Close for the entity. It creates and posts one closing journal entry per ledger that zeroes the year’s revenue and expense into the entity’s Default Retained Earnings account, dated at the fiscal year end — with a preview available before anything posts. Before you run it, the entity needs its GL closed through the fiscal year end, a Default Retained Earnings account, and a Fiscal Year Start Month — the screen tells you plainly if any of these is missing. See Year-End Close for the full walkthrough.

Distribute and document Once closed, share the period’s statements with your stakeholders and keep a short note of any adjustments and open items to carry into next month. A consistent record makes each close — and every audit — smoother.

Where to go next

Closing the Books — lock a period once the close is done.
Accounting Periods — how periods control posting.
Trial Balance — the first check in every close.
Standard Reports — the statements you produce at close.
Year-End Close — the annual counterpart to month-end.

Frequently asked questions

By closed-through dates on each entity. When you set AR / AP / GL Closed Through to a date, transactions of that type on or before that date are blocked from posting. There is no separate “status” to flip — the date is the lock, which makes partial and rolling closes simple.

So the sub-ledgers are final before you lock the general ledger they feed. If the GL could close while AR or AP were still open, a late receivable or payable could change a balance you had already reported. REDA enforces the order: the GL can only be closed through a date once AR and AP are closed through it.

No — that is the point of closing. Postings dated on or before the closed-through date are blocked. If you genuinely need to post into a closed period, reopen it (move the date back), post your correction, and close it again, with proper authorisation.

Only the ones your business uses. Many teams schedule depreciation, auto-reversal, FX sync, and recurring transactions to run automatically, then simply confirm the outcomes at close. Run the rest on demand as needed.

After closing the final period normally, you run the Year-End Close, which posts a closing journal moving net income to retained earnings and stamps the entity as closed for that fiscal year. It requires the GL to be closed through the fiscal year end first — and generating next year’s accounting periods at the same time keeps the new year ready for its first posting.

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