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Monthly close checklist
What this file is
A monthly close checklist is the ordered list of checks that make a month final: refunds booked to their own days, ad spend taken from billing, fees reconciled against payouts, overhead spread, stock counted. Working through it means last month stops changing while you are looking at it.
What is inside
One header row, eleven filled rows.
A month is not closed when it ends; it is closed when every cost that belongs to it has been booked to it. This is the list, in order, with the day each task belongs on.
Rows 1 to 12 are the file, and the sheet scrolls to show them all. Click any cell to read it; the foot of the sheet says what its column is for.
A21
| Row | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | step | task | source | owner | due_day | done | |||
| 2 | 1 | Exclude cancelled and test orders from last month's sales | Shopify orders | founder | 1 | no | |||
| 3 | 2 | Book every refund to the day it was issued, refunds of older orders included | Shopify refunds | founder | 1 | no | |||
| 4 | 3 | Book last month's ad spend from each platform's billing page | Meta, Google, TikTok billing | founder | 2 | no | |||
| 5 | 4 | Add the marketing no platform bills: influencers, affiliates, print | Invoices | founder | 2 | no | |||
| 6 | 5 | Check that every product sold has a unit cost, and date any supplier price change | Supplier invoices | founder | 2 | no | |||
| 7 | 6 | Reconcile one day of payouts against its orders and fees | Payout report | bookkeeper | 2 | no | |||
| 8 | 7 | Book chargebacks: the amount to returns, the fee to payment costs | Payment provider disputes | bookkeeper | 3 | no | |||
| 9 | 8 | Check carrier and 3PL invoices against the rate card | Carrier and 3PL invoices | founder | 3 | no | |||
| 10 | 9 | Spread recurring fixed costs over their days and book one-offs to their own day | Bank statement | bookkeeper | 3 | no | |||
| 11 | 10 | Count the stock of the top ten SKUs and price any variance at cost | Inventory count sheet | warehouse | 3 | no | |||
| 12 | 11 | Compare the month with the one before, line by line, and note anything that moved | The month's P&L | founder | 4 | no | |||
| 13 | |||||||||
| 14 |
nouz-monthly-close-checklist
A · stepThe order to work in; the sequence follows the statement.
Every column, explained.
In the order they sit in the file. Point at one and it is outlined in the sheet.
Behind the file
Why it is built this way.
The purpose of a close is not tidiness, it is stability. A month that keeps moving after it ends cannot be compared with the one before it, and a store that cannot compare months is steering by feel. Most of the movement comes from three habits: refunds booked backwards, ad spend read from attribution rather than billing, and overhead landing as a lump on whichever day the invoice arrived.
Which is why the order matters. Revenue and refunds first, because everything below is measured against net revenue. Then the variable costs an order caused, then the fixed block spread across the days it covered. Following the same sequence as the statement means each check confirms the line above it, and the P&L statement, block by block explains why that order is the one to follow.
Two of the eleven steps are worth doing even when nothing else is: reconcile one day of payouts against its orders, and count the stock of your top ten SKUs. The first catches fee changes and missing transactions; the second catches the shrinkage that quietly raises the cost of everything you did sell.
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Your daily P&L, without the spreadsheet.
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