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 where the list comes from, what refreshes it, and the points at which it stops accepting changes.
Where the checklist lives
Go to Accounting → Close, pick a month in the left-hand rail, and the Close checklist card sits under the month's header. The card's own count reads, for example, 4/19 complete, and the same figure appears in the ring beside the month name.
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 and with inventory?
- Review — the three statements you read and sign off by hand.
- Sign-off — the final locking conditions.
- Custom — items set up for your business.
Each group heading carries its own count next to the name (2/5, 2/8, and so on) and gains a tick once every item in it is done. A group with no items is hidden entirely, and the numbering runs over the groups that appear — so a business with no custom items sees four numbered groups, not a gap at five.
Within a group the order is fixed: automated checks in the order SKU.io evaluates them, the three review items in the order listed below, and custom items in the order they were configured.
A month with nothing on its list shows No checklist items for this period.
Automated checks and manual items
The two kinds of row behave differently, and the difference matters at close time.
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 — no one can tick an automated check off by hand. Most rows also print a one-line result beside the title in the check's own words: 6 outstanding — 2 failed, 4 pending, 842.10 divergence (limit 1.00), 4 still in flight. Where the result points at records you can act on, the row ends in an arrow that opens exactly those records — hover it and it reads Open the fixing surface. Where the result describes a figure in one of the month's reports, the row ends in a document icon instead, and hovering that reads Open this report.
Manual items carry a tick box. Tick one and a grey line appears under the title recording who signed it off and when — Administrator · Sep 12. That is the whole format: the person's name, a middle dot, then the month and the day. No year, and no time of day.
An unticked manual item is not a blocker, but it is not free either: at close time it appears in the Close June 2026 dialog alongside the warnings, listed as Review Income Statement — not checked off, and you have to acknowledge it before the month closes. See what stops a close, and what only needs a tick.
The three statements you sign off by hand
Three review items ship with every close:
- Review Income Statement
- Review Balance Sheet
- Review Inventory Valuation & COGS
Each one is a reading task, and each links straight to its report in the pack below — open the report from the row, read it, then tick the row. If you have not read it by the time you close, you can still close, but only by acknowledging that item unticked, which puts "closed knowing" on the record 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 exactly as it is. A change to your close configuration cannot untick work someone has already done.
- A custom item that is removed from the configuration stays on the months where it already appears. Its history belongs to those months.
- 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, sign-off names, and custom items are left alone.
How fresh the results are
You rarely have to think about how current the automated results are — SKU.io keeps them fresh for you.
- Opening a month that is In Review re-runs every automated check when the existing results are more than about ten minutes old. You do not have to press anything.
- That automatic refresh pauses while any month's close is running, so a month can briefly show slightly older results while another close finishes.
- Re-check re-runs every automated check on demand against the current state of the books. It appears only while a month is In Review.
- 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 has failed since you last looked, the close stops and says so.
None of this is stamped on the rows themselves. A checklist row never carries a "last checked" time, so the rules above are what you go on. The one timestamp the close hub does show sits inside an open report, in a grey line at the top of the dialog: Computed and the date and time on a month still in review, Snapshotted and the date and time on figures a close froze.
What you see before you start the close
A month you have not started yet shows a live preview of the whole checklist: every automated check is evaluated as you look at it, so you can size up the month before committing to it. Nothing is saved, and no history is created.
In that preview the tick boxes are disabled, and hovering one explains why: Start the close to check items off. The header offers Start close instead of Close period.
Two actions quietly create the month's record without starting the close: exporting the pack and capturing provider balances. Both leave the month Open and the checklist a live preview — the month is only "started" once you press Start close.
After the month is closed
Closing freezes 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.
- Re-check disappears. The automated results you see are the ones the close evaluated.
- Every item you acknowledged in the close dialog carries an Acknowledged at close stamp under its title, so a reader months later can tell what was known and signed for.
- The same read-only rule applies while a close is running, when the month reads Closing….
Reopening the month makes the checklist editable again and clears the previous close's acknowledgements — they belonged to that close, and a warning may well be fixed before the next one. Ticks on manual items are kept.