For many Indianapolis business owners, the month-end close process feels like a marathon. The books don’t tie out, reports trickle in late, and you’re left waiting on numbers long after you need them.
The good news? You don’t always need more people, you just need a clear month-end close process! Here are five practical ways to speed up your month-end close without hiring more staff.
1. Standardize Your Closing Checklist
Create a repeatable checklist that can be used for every month-end close. Clearly outline who is responsible for each step and when it’s due.
- Bank reconciliations
- Accounts receivable review
- Accounts payable cutoff
- Payroll entries
- Journal entries
👉 When everyone knows the playbook, tasks move faster and nothing slips through the cracks.
2. Automate Where You Can
Leverage accounting software and apps to cut out repetitive work:
- Bank feeds to auto-import transactions
- Rules in QuickBooks (or Xero) to categorize common expenses automatically (ex: software subscriptions, rent, or utilities)
- Tools for recurring journal entries:
- QuickBooks Online → lets you set up recurring transactions for things like rent, depreciation, monthly allocations, or prepaid expenses.
- Xero → offers repeating journals for regular accruals and amortizations.
- NetSuite, Sage Intacct, or Microsoft Dynamics (for larger companies) → allow templates for recurring entries and scheduled postings, reducing manual input across entities.
👉 By automating journal entries you post every month, such as rent, depreciation, amortization, or intercompany allocations, you’ll free your team from repetitive data entry and reduce the risk of missing something during close.
3. Close in Stages, Not All at Once
Don’t wait until day five to start the entire process. Instead, move certain accounts toward “ready” before month-end:
- Cash → Reconcile bank accounts weekly instead of waiting until close. By the last day of the month, you only need to finalize the last few days.
- Accounts Receivable → Send customer statements mid-month, apply payments as they come in, and review aging weekly. This way, the AR subledger is nearly clean before close.
- Accounts Payable → Enter vendor bills and match payments as they happen. A weekly AP check makes it easier to cut off at month-end without a scramble.
👉 By spreading the work throughout the month, your month-end close week gets lighter with fewer surprises and fewer late nights.
4. Simplify Your Chart of Accounts
Too many accounts create unnecessary work at close. The issue isn’t reconciling them, it’s reviewing, categorizing, and explaining variances across them.
Example: Many companies over-slice Travel & Meals. Instead of:
- Travel – Airfare
- Travel – Hotels
- Travel – Meals
- Travel – Parking
- Travel – Miscellaneous
…you can often consolidate into one or two accounts: Travel and Meals & Entertainment.
👉 This makes expense coding faster for bookkeepers and makes financials easier to review without losing meaningful insight.
5. Review Reports with a Controller Mindset
Don’t just produce reports, review them as if you were your own controller. The close isn’t finished until the numbers are both accurate and tell a clear story.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Check for unusual variances. If payroll expense suddenly jumps 30% from last month, is it because of new hires, a bonus run, or a misclassified contractor bill? Catching it early avoids questions later.
- Scan journal entries. Are recurring entries posted correctly? Is depreciation consistent? Did an accrual get duplicated?
- Look at trends. Compare this month’s P&L to prior months and budget. If marketing spend looks off, verify it before leadership does.
👉 Example: “Professional Fees” account is 2x budget. A quick review might reveal that a contractor invoice was incorrectly coded there instead of “Contract Labor.” By catching the misclassification before financials went out, the team can avoid confusing leadership and having to reissue reports.
A few minutes of controller-level review during close can save hours of backtracking and protect your credibility with decision-makers.
The Bottom Line
Your month-end close process doesn’t need to be slow and painful. With standardization, automation, planned work, streamlined accounts, and disciplined review, you can cut days off your close cycle without adding headcount.
At Lean Street Finance, we help Indianapolis businesses simplify their month-end process, gain faster access to reliable numbers, and focus more on running the business — not waiting on reports.