How the close checklist works
The Close checklist is the working surface of a month-end close: every condition SKU.io can test for you, plus the items only a person can sign off. This page explains how the list is laid out, what refreshes it, and what it becomes once the month is signed off.
Where the checklist lives
Go to Accounting → Close and click the month's tile on the Year board. The month's drawer opens on the right, and Close checklist is its first section, already expanded. Report pack, Sync status — why isn't everything on the provider? and History sit below it, collapsed.
While a month is In Review, two things sit above the checklist:
- A progress ring with the count beside it, for example 25 of 33 done, and underneath, how many blocking checks are failing, for example 0 blocking checks. The month's tile on the Year board shows the same count as 25/33 done.
- A Blocking checks card, listed only while a blocking check fails. It repeats each failing blocking row so you don't have to hunt for it in the list. The same row also appears in its group below.
A row counts as done when it passed, when it doesn't apply to the month, or when it's a manual item someone ticked.
The five groups
Items are grouped, and the groups always appear in this order:
- Data completeness: is this month's ledger fully built and internally consistent?
- Sync & reconciliation: does it agree with your accounting provider, with inventory, and with the open documents behind your control accounts?
- Review: the three statements you read and sign off by hand.
- Sign-off: whether your provider's lock matches your hard close date, and whether any earlier closed month is waiting for a re-sign-off.
- Custom: items your business added in Accounting → Settings → Close.
Each group heading carries its own count, for example 6/6, and gains a tick once every item in it is done. A group with no items is hidden, and the numbering runs over the groups that appear. A month with nothing on its list shows No checklist items for this period.
The built-in list has 28 automated checks plus the three review items. Many checks stand aside on a business they don't apply to, for example the Amazon checks when you have no Amazon integration. For every check and what it looks at, see the close checks.
Automated checks and manual items
The two kinds of row behave differently.
Automated checks carry a status icon instead of a tick box. SKU.io evaluates them, and the only way to clear one is to fix the underlying data and re-check: nobody can tick an automated check off by hand. Most rows print a one-line result beside the title, in the check's own words, such as 6 outstanding — 2 failed, 4 pending or 842.10 divergence (limit 1.00). Hover the title for the check's fuller description.
At the right-hand end, a row can carry one of two buttons:
- An arrow, whose tooltip reads Open the fixing surface. It opens the records the row counted, with the check's filters and the month's dates already applied.
- A report icon, whose tooltip reads Open this report. It opens the report the row's figure comes from, in the same viewer the Report pack uses.
A blocking check carries a Blocking chip: red while it fails, grey while it passes. See what stops a close, and what only needs a tick.
Manual items carry a tick box. Tick one and a grey line appears under the title recording who ticked it and when, for example Administrator · Sep 12. It shows the person's name, then the month and day, with no year and no time.
An unticked manual item doesn't block a close, but you can't ignore it either. In the close dialog it's listed with the warnings, as Review Income Statement — not ticked on the checklist, and you acknowledge it before the month closes.
The three statements you sign off by hand
Three review items come with every close:
- Review Income Statement
- Review Balance Sheet
- Review Inventory Valuation & COGS
Each one is a reading task. Its report icon opens the report it names, so you can read it and then tick the row. If you haven't ticked it by the time you close, you can still close, but only by acknowledging it unticked. That records "closed knowing" on the month rather than "reviewed". For what these statements contain, see read the month's reports.
The checklist is only ever added to
The list grows; it never resets.
- Starting or re-checking a close adds any items that are missing and leaves every existing item as it is. A change to your close settings can't untick work someone already did.
- A custom item removed from the settings stays on the months where it already appears.
- A newly added custom item appears on months that are still in review the next time their checks run, and never on a month that is already closed.
- Re-checking updates the automated results only. Ticks, the names beside them and custom items are left alone.
Re-check means two things
The Re-check button sits in the drawer's header. What it does depends on the month.
On a month that's In Review, its tooltip reads Re-run every automated check against the current state of the books. The re-run happens in the background and shows in the job tray, and a message tells you Re-check started — the checklist updates when it finishes. It also fetches your provider's trial balance again; see capture your provider's trial balance.
On a Closed or Closed – restated month, its tooltip reads Compare every report with the live books again. It doesn't touch the checklist. It recomputes the month's reports and compares them with the pack signed off, which is how SKU.io finds a closed month that has changed. SKU.io also runs this comparison every night. The message reads Re-check started — this month updates when it finishes. See when a closed month changes.
There's no Re-check on an Open month you haven't started, or on a Hard-locked month. Running a re-check needs the Accounting → Sync permission; without it, the button is greyed out and its tooltip reads You do not have permission to run close actions.
How fresh the results are
SKU.io keeps a month's results fresh for you:
- Opening a month that's In Review re-runs the quick automated checks when the results are more than ten minutes old. The slower checks, such as Provider documents reconciled and Trial balance reconciled to provider, keep their last result until you click Re-check or close the month. Nothing refreshes on its own while a close is running.
- Everything is evaluated again at the moment you close, inside the close itself. A screen showing stale results can never close a month on those results. If something failed since you last looked, the close stops and the job tray says why.
A checklist row doesn't carry a "last checked" time. The one timestamp the drawer shows sits inside an open report, in a grey line at the top: Computed and a date and time for live figures, Snapshotted and a date and time for a signed-off pack.
Before you start the close
A month you haven't started shows a live preview of the whole checklist. Every automated check is evaluated as you look, so you can size up the month before committing to it. Nothing is saved.
In that preview the tick boxes are disabled, and hovering one reads Start the close to check items off. The drawer's header offers Start close instead of Close period.
Exporting the pack and capturing provider balances both create the month's record without starting the close. The month stays Open until you click Start close.
After the month is closed
Closing keeps the checklist as part of the sign-off record:
- Tick boxes are disabled, and hovering one reads This period is closed — the checklist is read-only. The same applies while the close is running and the month reads Closing….
- The results you see are the ones the close evaluated.
- Every item you acknowledged in the close dialog carries an Acknowledged at close line under its title. A manual item you acknowledged unticked shows a blue tick icon instead of a tick box; hover it and it reads Acknowledged at close: the month was signed off with this item outstanding.
A closed month can still change, because closing doesn't freeze it. When it does, the month reads Closed – restated and asks for a re-sign-off. The re-sign-off runs the automated checks again and asks you to acknowledge each outstanding item again, under Acknowledge each outstanding item to sign off with it unresolved:. Once the re-sign-off goes through, the month's checklist shows the results and acknowledgements of that re-sign-off, the latest one. Each earlier sign-off's report pack stays in History.
Reopening a month is only for pulling back a sign-off made by mistake. You can reopen only the latest closed month, and not one on or before your hard close date. Reopening makes the checklist editable again and clears the acknowledgements and overrides from the sign-off it pulled back. Ticks on manual items are kept, unless your close settings require an independent reviewer: then the ticks are cleared too, and the month is checked off afresh.