Are the books done? How do I know?

48 default tasks become 41 for Northbrook Trading

Northbrook Trading is a single US company. It sells professional services, keeps its books in US dollars only and uses the accrual method. It closes October 2026 as a hard close. Day 1 is Monday 2 November and the target close is Day 7, Tuesday 10 November.

The skill starts from a default list. The list has 5 tasks before the close and 48 tasks on Days 1 to 7. Then it reads your chart of accounts and removes the tasks that do not apply. It states the evidence for each removal. So you can see a task that it removed in error and put the task back.

Many of the Day 3 tasks are adjusting entries: accruals, prepaid expenses and deferred revenue. Under the accrual method, you report income in the year you earn it. You deduct an expense in the year you incur it, whatever the payment date². These entries put income and expenses in the correct period before the numbers are final. Northbrook told the skill that it uses the accrual basis, so these tasks stay. Day 3 also checks that each accrual from last month has a reversing entry this month.

A task marked Complete with no entry in the books

On Wednesday 4 November, Day 3, the owner asks for the status. A usual checklist shows what each person says. The skill adds one more column: Evidence. It shows what the books show for each task that makes a journal entry. Before it reads, it states the test for each task: the account, the side and the dates. For depreciation, the test is a credit to accumulated depreciation, dated in October, with the amount compared to September's.

A posted entry shows that an entry exists. It does not show that the entry is correct or complete. The task owner still owns the task, and people run the close.

Some tasks wait for information from outside the business. The skill cannot see these tasks and cannot chase them. It shows them in a separate list. At Northbrook, the vendor statement from Crestline Logistics is not yet received.

Does October start where September ended?

On Day 7, the skill compares two figures for each balance sheet account. The first is the September balance in the trial balance that Northbrook reported last month. The second is the September balance that the books show now. They must be equal. It checks every account, not only the total. Two reads of the books today always agree, so the skill needs the reported trial balance. Without it, the skill writes "not performed", not a pass. A trial balance that balances proves less. Accounting software makes debits equal credits on every entry.

Someone moved $500 from accounts payable to accrued liabilities. The entry carries the date 30 September. Someone posted it on Tuesday 20 October, after the company reported September. Accountants call this a prior-period reclassification. It may be correct. The owner must know about it before the October statements go to anyone.

Any break means that someone opened a prior period and changed it after the company reported it. When the total still agrees, the change is a move between accounts.

Day 5 compares this month with the budget, the forecast and last month. Management reviews actual results against budgets, forecasts and prior periods. It investigates unexpected results so it can correct them³.

Seven business days for Northbrook, six calendar days at the median

The benchmark covers mostly larger organisations. A small business can close faster or slower. The skill does not set a target. You give it your close date.

After the close, the skill reads the time when someone created each entry to find where the close slipped. It does not use the entry date, because close entries carry the last day of the month. At Northbrook, someone entered the September deferred revenue release on Day 6, three days after its Day 3 due date. The August release also went in on Day 6. That is a slip the books measure, so nobody must remember it. If the books do not give the created time, the skill says so, and that measurement is manual.

It asks its questions in one message before it reads anything

1. Use MosoFin for this run, or upload the data yourself?
   MosoFin is the connection to your books and the other platforms you link. With it, the skill reads from there. Without it, you upload the files and the checks are the same. The skill asks this only if your account has a MosoFin connection. If not, it says once that the run is manual.
2. Which month do you close, and is it a soft close or a hard close?
   Required. A soft close and a hard close need different levels of care.
3. Your close calendar: the target close date.
   Required. The days in the task list change to fit this date.
4. Your reporting framework, for example US GAAP.
   Required. It is the basis the close reports on.
5. Do you report on a cash or an accrual basis?
   Required. It decides if most Day 1 and Day 3 tasks apply. The skill uses it on every read and writes it in the workpaper header.
6. Your team, the owner of each task, your close template and last month's close, if you have them.
   Recommended. Your books do not hold the names of the owners. Without them, the checklist is worth little. The skill records owners by role where it can, and it prefers your template to its generic list.
7. Your materiality threshold: the amount below which a difference needs less attention.
   Recommended. It decides which differences need full attention. The skill never assumes a threshold. Without one, it does not split the reconciliations by materiality.

Then it reads your answers back and waits for your yes. For Northbrook, the read-back is like this:

"Closing October for Northbrook Trading, a hard close, read from your Mosofin connection. Target close Tuesday 10 November. US GAAP, accrual basis. Owners from your template. Materiality $5,000. One company, one currency, no inventory, so those tasks do not apply. Shall I go ahead?"

Connect once, or upload the trial balances and the chart

A close workpaper with nine sheets

It asks whether you want the sheets as an Excel file before it makes one. If you say no, you get the same sheets as tables in the chat. After you see the results, it offers to save the task list, the owners, the dependencies, the materiality basis and the scoping decisions. It never saves statuses or results. It reads them again on each run.

A manager reviews the close and signs it off. The skill only observes and reports. When different people hold authority, custody and accounting, that helps prevent fraud, waste and abuse⁴.

Six terms, in plain English

Close

The work at the end of a month that makes the numbers complete and correct enough to report.

Soft and hard close

A soft close locks the books for reporting but still allows adjustments. A hard close is final, with more care.

Accrual

An entry for income you earned or a cost you incurred that nobody paid yet².

Materiality threshold

The amount you choose. A difference below it needs less detail. A difference above it gets full attention.

Tie-out

The final checks that show the books are ready to report.

Continuity

This month's opening balance equals last month's closing balance as you reported it, for each account.

Where the facts on this page come from

The sources are a close benchmark, an IRS publication and two US control standards. We found each one on 27 October 2026 in search results. We did not open the pages, so follow each link for today's wording. What the skill does comes from the skill's own files.

1. APQC: Cycle time in days to complete the monthly consolidated financial statementsIn APQC's benchmark, the median is 6 calendar days, weekends included, from the first trial balance to agreed monthly statements. Top performers take about 5 days and the slowest about 10. The benchmark covers mostly larger organisations.
2. IRS: Publication 538, Accounting Periods and MethodsUnder the accrual method, you report income in the year you earn it. You deduct expenses in the year you incur them, whatever the payment date.
3. GAO: Internal Control Standards: Management and Evaluation Tool (GAO-01-1008G)Management regularly reviews actual performance against budgets, forecasts and prior-period results, and investigates unexpected results.
4. GAO: Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government (Green Book), GAO-25-107721Separating authority, custody and accounting among different people helps prevent fraud, waste and abuse.

No outside authority backs the day-by-day structure, the task list, the scoping rules or the Evidence column. They are the skill's own rules. We made up Northbrook Trading and every figure in the example for this page. All four sources are US sources. APQC's benchmark is international.