What am I actually paying for with a monthly close?

What am I actually paying for with a monthly close?

A number you can trust by the tenth of the month. A real close means the bank and credit cards are reconciled, every transaction is coded, open invoices are current, and a person has looked at the profit and loss to see if anything looks wrong.

That last part is the whole point. Software can categorize. It takes a human to notice your material costs went from 31 percent of revenue to 39 percent over two months and ask why before it becomes a quarter.

Without a close, you find out in March. A repair line that quietly doubled, a customer who stopped paying, a subscription nobody uses. By then it is history you cannot change.

This is also where a Fractional CFO for your service company starts being useful, because forecasting off clean books beats guessing. If yours are behind, get them current first, then QuickBooks does the boring part every month.

Want to know what condition your books are really in? Get a Free Bookkeeping Review at 104bookkeeping.com or call (480) 463-6635.