Month-End Close, Reconciliation & Reporting
Prepare supported journal entries, reconciliations, financial statements, variance bridges, and SOX testing workpapers.
Before & after
Same prompt, same agent — the only difference is the skill.
Month-end close is important to get right. You'll want to make sure all your transactions are recorded correctly, reconcile your accounts to make sure nothing is off, and then prepare your financial statements. Accruals can be tricky—you'll need to think about revenue recognition, any expenses that need to be recorded but invoices haven't arrived yet. Then you'll want to look at your P&L and compare it to budget or prior periods to see if anything stands out. It's a process that usually takes a few days depending on how organized you are. You might need to journal some adjusting entries. Do you have a checklist of things to do, or would you like help thinking through the steps?
CLOSE CHECKLIST & DELIVERABLES ACCRUALS & ADJUSTING ENTRIES • Unbilled revenue (consulting delivered, invoice not sent): 47K JOURNAL: Debit AR_Consulting 47K / Credit Revenue_Consulting 47K • Accrued payroll (Sept salary not yet paid): 68K JOURNAL: Debit Payroll_Expense 68K / Credit Payroll_Payable 68K • Prepaid insurance (Q4 coverage, paid Oct 1): 12K JOURNAL: Debit Prepaid_Insurance 12K / Credit Cash 12K (reverse Oct 1) RECONCILIATION SUMMARY • Bank balance (9/30): $342,106 vs. GL: $341,980 → variance $126 (uncashed check, noted) • Accounts receivable aging: 92K outstanding, 14K over 60 days (2 follow-ups queued) • AP reconciliation: Vendor statements vs. GL → all match INCOME STATEMENT (P&L) Q3 2024 Revenue: $892K (+12% vs. Q2, +28% YoY) | variance: +18K (higher consulting), -5K (lower SaaS) COGS: $267K (-2% vs. Q2) | margin: 70% (healthy, stable) Gross Profit: $625K (+18% vs. Q2) OpEx: $510K (-1% vs. Q2, reductions in contractor spend offset higher headcount) Net Income: $115K (operating margin 13%, consistent) VARIANCE ANALYSIS Revenue beat by 18K: Consulting overrun (+2 extra projects), SaaS slight miss (-5K annual churn) OpEx beat by 7K: Contractor savings, marketing spend tracked lower (campaigns start Oct) Recommendation: Budget Q4 conservatively for marketing ramp. Schedule CFO review by Friday.
About this skill
Your reconciliation has a difference, the proposed entry balances, and the P&L still does not explain what changed. This skill connects those pieces into supported close workpapers, with traceable calculations and a clear distinction between proposed adjustments and recorded results.
What it does
- Drafts accrual, prepaid, fixed asset, payroll, and revenue entries with calculations, source references, and reversal treatment.
- Reconciles GL, bank, subledger, and third-party balances using signed bridges that distinguish timing items from errors.
- Builds financial statements from mapped balances and checks accounting identities, retained earnings movements, and cash flow ties.
- Explains budget and period variances with exact driver bridges, consistent signs, and explicit limits on unsupported explanations.
- Prepares SOX testing plans and workpapers that separate control design, operating effectiveness, exceptions, and missing evidence.
- Organizes close dependencies, unresolved items, owners, and release conditions without treating a balanced entry as a completed close.
What you get
A workpaper sized to your request: a supported journal entry, reconciliation, statement package, variance bridge, control test, or connected close package. Each identifies the evidence used, calculations performed, unresolved differences, and next action.
Best for
Corporate accountants, controllers, and FP&A teams preparing monthly closes and reporting, plus control owners assembling evidence for SOX testing.
SKILL.md preview
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name: month-end-close-reconciliation-reporting
description: Prepare accounting close workpapers by tracing source evidence through journal entries, signed reconciliations, statement tie-outs, exact variance bridges, and SOX test conclusions. Use when the user says "help me close the month", "draft this accrual", "my reconciliation keeps showing a difference", "turn this trial balance into financial statements", "explain why actuals missed budget", "review these journal entries", or "prepare SOX testing workpapers".
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# Month-End Close, Reconciliation & Reporting
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