A month-end close for a business with several systems has one job that a single-system close doesn't: proving that each system feeding the accounts agrees with Xero or MYOB before anyone trusts the report. The order matters. Set a cut-off for each system, confirm every sync and import has finished, reconcile each feeder system to its control account in the ledger, post the accruals for things that only exist in the operational systems, deal with intercompany, then review, sign off and lock the period. Below is each step, with what can be automated and what needs a person.
Why a multi-system close is different
If everything lived in Xero or MYOB, month-end would be bank reconciliations, a few journals and a report. In most growing businesses, jobs live in a job system, stock in Cin7 or Unleashed, hours in Deputy or a timesheet app, deals in HubSpot or Salesforce, and payroll somewhere else. Each sends summaries or transactions to the ledger, and every handover is a place where numbers go missing, arrive twice or land in the wrong month. So the close is mostly about confirming that what happened in each system reached the accounts, completely and in the right period.
If you're trying to work out why your month-end is slow in the first place, start with our page on why month-end takes too long, and our post on what a slow month-end costs your business. This post is the working checklist.
Before month-end: agree the cut-offs
Do this once, in writing, for everyone who touches a feeder system.
- List every system that sends numbers to the ledger. Job system, stock system, payroll, timesheets, CRM or quoting tool, expense app, bill-capture app, any spreadsheet that ends up as a journal.
- Set a cut-off for each one. For example: timesheets approved by 5pm on the last working day, goods receipts entered the same day, final invoices raised by noon on the first working day of the new month.
- Name an owner for each system. One person who confirms "everything for the month is in" for that system. Without a name, nobody confirms anything.
- Agree the close calendar: which day each step happens and when the report goes out.
Day 1: confirm every sync and import finished
Before reconciling anything, make sure the data you're reconciling is complete.
- Check each integration's sync log for failed, skipped or part-posted transactions.
- Check file imports covered the whole month and were imported once.
- Check summary journals. If a system posts daily or monthly summaries, confirm the last one posted and is dated in the right month.
- Clear the queue. Bills waiting in Dext or Hubdoc, unapproved expense claims and draft invoices: post them this month or carry them forward deliberately.
Automate: sync error alerts, a daily list of failed transactions, and a check that each summary journal exists for each day or month. Needs a person: deciding what to do with each failure.
Days 2 to 3: reconcile each feeder system to the ledger
For each feeder system, compare its report with the matching control account in Xero or MYOB at the same date. If they don't agree, find out why before moving on.
Bank and payments
- Reconcile every bank, card and clearing account. Clearing accounts should end at zero or with a balance you can explain.
Sales
- Compare invoiced sales in the job, CRM or order system with sales in the ledger for the month.
- List work completed but not yet invoiced. That's your unbilled revenue.
Purchases and bills
- Compare purchase orders received but not billed with your accrued purchases or GRNI account. Our post on goods received not invoiced covers this check step by step.
- Check aged payables for duplicates and bills entered directly in the ledger when they should have come through the stock or job system.
Stock
- Compare the stock valuation report in the inventory system with the inventory accounts in the ledger at the same date.
- If they differ, look for manual journals to inventory and stock adjustments that didn't post.
Payroll and timesheets
- Compare total approved hours in the timesheet system with hours paid in payroll for the month.
- Reconcile wages, PAYG withholding and super liabilities in the ledger to the payroll reports. With Payday Super in place since 1 July 2026, super for each pay run is due in employees' funds within 7 business days of payday, so check that each pay run's super was paid and that nothing is sitting in the liability account from earlier pay runs.
- Confirm labour cost reached the right job or cost centre.
Work in progress and unbilled time
- Build or refresh the WIP schedule from the job or project system: cost to date, billed to date, estimated stage of completion.
- Compare job costs in the job system with the costs in the ledger. Costs in one and not the other are the usual cause of WIP not making sense.
Automate: pulling each system's report and the matching ledger balance side by side every day, with any difference flagged. Needs a person: investigating the differences and deciding the fix.
Day 3: accruals for things that only exist in the operational systems
Some things happened in the month but aren't in the ledger yet. These need journals, and most should reverse on the first day of next month.
- Goods received but not billed, if your stock system doesn't accrue them for you.
- Subcontractor and supplier work done but not invoiced, taken from job progress or site dockets.
- Wages earned but not yet paid, when the pay period crosses month-end.
- Unbilled revenue or WIP adjustments from the WIP schedule.
- Prepayments and deferred revenue, such as contracts billed in advance.
Keep a standard accruals template with the source report for each line. An accrual with no source report is a guess.
Day 4: intercompany and multiple entities
Skip this if you run one company. If you run several, each in its own Xero or MYOB file:
- Match intercompany balances. What one entity says it's owed should equal what the other says it owes, at the same date.
- Check management fees and recharges were raised in both entities, in the same month, at the same amount.
- Check shared costs were split the way you agreed.
- Prepare the consolidation, removing intercompany balances and transactions so the group report doesn't count them twice.
Xero and MYOB Business don't consolidate separate files for you, so this needs a reporting tool or a well-kept workbook, and done by hand it's often the slowest step.
Day 5: review, sign off and lock the period
- Review the profit and loss against budget and last month. Look for lines that jumped or vanished.
- Review the balance sheet. Every account needs a reconciliation or a reason; clearing and suspense accounts should be zero or explained.
- Sign off each reconciliation: who checked it, when, with the supporting report saved.
- Lock the period. In Xero, lock dates are under the financial settings: a period lock date stops everyone except users with the adviser role from changing earlier transactions, and an adviser lock date stops everyone. In MYOB AccountRight, Lock Periods sits in the security preferences, and MYOB Advanced locks financial periods. Menus vary by version. With integrations, a late sync can otherwise post into a month you've already reported.
- Send the report pack.
The report pack
Keep it the same every month:
- One-page summary: profit, cash, the main movements, and anything that needs a decision.
- Profit and loss against budget and last year.
- Balance sheet with the main balances explained.
- Cash position and short-term forecast.
- Aged receivables and payables, with the accounts to chase named.
- Job or project profitability, or margin by product line, from the operational system matched back to the ledger.
- Notes on anything still open, so the reader knows what's provisional.
If the pack is rebuilt in Excel every month from several exports, it's the strongest candidate for automation.
What to automate and what needs a person
- Good to automate: sync error alerts, daily system-to-ledger comparisons, recurring accrual journals, intercompany matching, the WIP schedule pull, and the report pack.
- Keep with a person: deciding why a difference exists, judgement calls on accruals and WIP, supplier and customer follow-up, the review of the profit and loss, and sign-off.
The aim is to move people's time from building and copying to checking and deciding.
When it's worth getting help
Much of this you can do yourself: written cut-offs, named owners, lock dates and an accruals template cost nothing and often make the biggest difference.
Bring in help when the same reconciliation fails every month, nobody can explain why the stock or job system and the ledger differ, consolidation is a fragile spreadsheet, or only one person knows how the close fits together. Our $5,000 Process & Systems Audit maps your systems and month-end process and gives you a written report on what to fix first. If you already know the fix is the report pack, see our Xero and MYOB reporting and dashboards service. For more on how the pieces connect, see our Xero and MYOB integration and migration guide.
Frequently asked questions
What should be on a month-end close checklist?
Cut-offs for each system, sync and import checks, bank reconciliations, each feeder system reconciled to the ledger, accruals, intercompany, a review, sign-off, locking the period and the report pack. Do them in that order: reviewing the profit and loss before the reconciliations are done means doing it twice.
How do I reconcile my job or stock system to Xero or MYOB?
Run the system's report (stock valuation, job costs) and the matching ledger account at the same date and compare. Differences usually come from manual journals, transactions entered directly in the ledger, or a failed sync.
Should I lock the period in Xero or MYOB after month-end?
Yes. It stops late syncs and edits changing a reported month. If something must change, unlock it deliberately, note why, and lock it again.
Can month-end be fully automated?
No. Data collection, system comparisons, recurring journals and the report pack can be. Investigating differences, judgement calls and sign-off still need a person.
If your close keeps stalling at the same reconciliation, or the report pack takes days to build, book a free initial chat. We'll look at where your systems hand over to each other and tell you honestly which fixes are settings and which need building.