A complete month-end close workbook in five tabs — free. Built by a CPA who has run SaaS close cycles at multiple companies and got tired of rebuilding the same checklist in Notion / Google Docs / Smartsheet every time. Free. Pay What You Want on Gumroad.
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This is the scaffolding that holds your close together. The technical schedules (commissions, leases, fixed assets) belong in dedicated workbooks — links at the bottom — but the close itself runs on a checklist, a reconciliation set, a JE log, and a sign-off. That’s what this workbook is.
What’s in the Workbook
Five tabs. You enter data on Setup, Close Calendar, Reconciliations, and JE Tracker; the Sign-Off page auto-summarizes everything.
README + Setup
The first tab. Six-step quickstart and the inputs that drive everything else: Company Name, Current Period, Fiscal Year End, Performance Materiality threshold, Reporting Currency, Period Locked status. Yellow cells are your inputs; every other tab reads from these via defined names.
Close Calendar
42 pre-populated tasks across 5 phases:
- Day 1-2 — Cutoff & Data Collection (12 tasks) — revenue cutoff, AP cutoff, payroll accruals, bank/CC reconciliation
- Day 2-3 — Subledger Reconciliations (10 tasks) — AR aging, AP aging, fixed asset additions/disposals, depreciation run
- Day 3-4 — Technical Accounting Schedules (10 tasks) — deferred commissions (ASC 606), lease accounting (ASC 842), prepaid amortization, accrued liabilities
- Day 4-5 — Equity, Tax & Other (4 tasks) — stock comp, tax provision, FX revaluation, intercompany
- Day 5+ — Statements & Review (6 tasks) — trial balance, financial statements, flux analysis, management review, period lock, close package
Each task has Owner, Due Date, Status (Not Started / In Progress / Done / Blocked / N/A), and Notes. Status dropdown drives conditional formatting — completed tasks turn green, blocked turn red, in-progress turn yellow, N/A grays out. The footer summary tells you at a glance: “32 tasks total | 28 done | 2 in progress | 1 blocked | 1 N/A.”
Add or delete rows for your team. The Sign-Off summary counts whatever’s in the Calendar.
Reconciliations (Subledger → GL Tie-Out)
18 standard reconciliations pre-populated. For each one:
- Account — the line on your balance sheet
- Source / Schedule — where the supporting balance comes from (subledger, schedule, workbook, statement)
- GL Balance — what your GL says (input)
- Sub / Schedule Balance — what the supporting workpaper says (input)
- Variance — GL minus Sub (formula)
- Within Materiality? — “OK” (green) if ABS(Variance) ≤ your Setup materiality threshold, “FLAG” (red) if above
- Status — Not Started / In Progress / Done / Blocked / N/A
- Preparer / Reviewer / Notes — sign-off and documentation
The 18 pre-populated accounts cover the standard balance sheet:
| Asset side | Liability + Equity side |
|---|---|
| Cash — Operating Account | Accounts Payable |
| Cash — Money Market / Savings | Accrued Liabilities |
| Accounts Receivable | Accrued Payroll & Benefits |
| Allowance for Doubtful Accounts | Lease Liability — Operating |
| Prepaid Expenses | Lease Liability — Finance |
| Deferred Commissions (ASC 606) | Deferred Revenue |
| Fixed Assets — Cost | Common Stock & APIC |
| Accumulated Depreciation | Retained Earnings |
| ROU Asset — Operating Leases | |
| ROU Asset — Finance Leases |
Footer row sums total GL, total Sub, total Variance, and FLAG count.
JE Tracker
50-row journal entry log. Columns: Date, JE Number, Description, Account, Debit, Credit, Source (dropdown: Manual / FA Workbook / ASC 606 Workbook / ASC 842 Workbook / GL System Auto / Other), Preparer, Reviewer, Status (Pending / Posted / Reversed / Voided).
Two safeguards at the bottom:
- Sum of Debits vs Sum of Credits vs Difference — three running totals so you see your aggregate exposure
- “Balanced?” flag — formula evaluates
IF(ROUND(Difference,2)=0, "✓ Debits = Credits", "✗ OUT OF BALANCE"). Conditional formatting turns the cell green when balanced, red when not. A one-sided JE shows up immediately.
The Source dropdown lets you track which workbook produced which entry — useful if you’re using our paid ASC 606 / ASC 842 / FA workbooks and want to keep their auto-generated entries separate from manual adjustments.
Sign-Off
Printable certification page. Header shows Company, Period, Period End Date — all pulled from Setup. Then 9 close metrics that auto-tabulate from the other tabs:
- Tasks total / completed / in progress / blocked / N/A
- Reconciliation flags (count of FLAGs)
- Reconciliations done (count of Done status)
- JE entries posted (count of Posted status)
- JE debit = credit? (Yes / No — investigate)
Plus three close gates: Period Locked in GL? • Financial statements attached? • Close package distributed? — each a Yes/No/N/A dropdown.
Then an exception list (6 rows for unresolved items, post-close follow-ups), and a signature block for Preparer, Reviewer, and Controller / CFO with Name, Date, Signature columns.
Set up for portrait fit-to-page printing. Print it, sign it, file it.
How a Typical Close Runs With This Workbook
Day -1 (last business day of the month): Open the file. Update Current Period on Setup. Skim the Close Calendar — assign Owner and Due Date for each task to the right person on your team.
Day 1-3: Your team works through Day 1-3 tasks. Each person updates their Status column as they go. Blocked items go red — visible in the Sunday status meeting.
Day 3-4: Technical accountants work the ASC 606 / ASC 842 / FA schedules (in those workbooks if you have them). As JEs get posted, log them in the JE Tracker. The Source dropdown distinguishes workbook-generated entries from manual ones. Sanity check stays green.
Day 4-5: Once all subledger JEs are posted, run Reconciliations. Pull GL balance from your accounting system; pull Sub/Schedule balance from each supporting workpaper. The FLAG column tells you where to investigate.
Day 5-6: Controller reviews. Open Sign-Off — the metrics show the state of the close at a glance. Address any blockers and flags. Get sign-offs. Lock the period.
What This Workbook Is Not
A close-management software replacement. If your company is past 25-30 reconciliations, has SOX requirements, needs real-time multi-user collaboration, or wants evidence storage tied to each task — evaluate FloQast, BlackLine, or Numeric. This is an Excel file. It doesn’t have access controls, audit trails, or workflow.
A technical-accounting computation tool. It does not amortize commissions, generate lease schedules, or run depreciation. Those live in the dedicated workbooks linked below.
Multi-entity. The Setup is single-company. Multi-entity consolidation, intercompany eliminations, and FX revaluation are out of scope.
The Three Paid Workbooks This One Holds Together
If you’re tired of rebuilding the technical schedules from scratch each month:
| Workbook | What it does | Price |
|---|---|---|
| ASC 606 Commission Accrual Workbook | Capitalizes and amortizes sales commissions under ASC 340-40. 50 deals, three amortization methods, JE generator, rollforward, reconciliation. | $79 |
| ASC 842 Lease Accounting Workbook | ROU asset, lease liability, amortization schedule for operating + finance leases. 20 leases, six-category JE generator. | $97 |
| Fixed Asset Rollforward Workbook | 50 capitalized assets, four depreciation methods, JE generator with GL system presets, five-way reconciliation. | $79 |
Or run them all on a free browser-based estimate first: Free Amortization Calculator →
Get the Workbook
Download the Workbook (Free) →
Pay What You Want on Gumroad. $0 minimum. $5 suggested if it saves you time.
Related reading
- Month-End Close Checklist for Controllers (full guide) — the long-form version of the workbook’s task list, with technical accounting context for each phase