The close checks

A month's Close checklist carries 31 built-in rows: 28 automated checks that SKU.io grades for you, and three review items you tick. Your own custom items follow them. This page is the lookup for every row, in the order and the five groups they appear in on screen.

For how severity, acknowledgement and the counters work, see what stops a close, and what only needs a tick and how the close checklist works. This page is the per-row detail those two point at.

How to read an entry

Each check below is listed under the exact title that appears on its row, with:

• Measures — the condition the check tests.
• Severity — Blocking (the close is refused while it fails), Blocking, can be closed over (you can close past it with a reason and the Accounting → Period Override permission), or a warning (no chip; the close needs your acknowledgement instead). A few checks change severity with a setting.
• Scope — the month being closed, unless the entry says otherwise.
• Row reads — the one-line summary printed beside the title when the check fires. A passing check prints nothing at all.
• Arrow — where the arrow at the end of the row goes. Hover it and the tooltip says which kind of destination it is: Open the fixing surface for records, Open this report for a figure.
• Stands aside when — the conditions that make the row read Not applicable, with the reason printed underneath it.

Amounts in a summary are printed to two decimal places with thousands separators (1,301.15), and where a summary has two parts they are joined by a middle dot (3 still owed · 409.75 in clearing).

All the built-in rows at a glance

The built-in rows, in screen order. Your custom items sit below them in the Custom group, as the last line of the table shows.

Row	Group	Kind	Fires when
Ledger generation — individual entries	Data completeness	Blocking, can be closed over	Anything is still waiting to become a ledger entry
Ledger generation — batches	Data completeness	Warning	A batch whose period has ended has not posted
All entries balanced	Data completeness	Blocking	An entry dated in the month does not balance
Opening balance applied	Data completeness	Blocking (next month to close only)	Your starting balances are not finalized
Amazon settlements mapped	Data completeness	Warning	A settlement-mapping gap is holding settlements back
No mappings on Xero system accounts	Data completeness	Warning	A mapping points at an account Xero reserves for itself, so every sync that uses it fails
Amazon reserve balance reconciled	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	The Amazon reserve account doesn't hold what Amazon still holds
Amazon settlement deposits accounted for	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	An Amazon settlement that ended in the month has no deposit, no recorded charge, and no reason it doesn't need one
Payout-channel order AR cleared	Sync & reconciliation	Blocking	An order invoice on a payout channel, dated in the month, still carries a receivable its payout already booked
Marketplace facilitator tax	Sync & reconciliation	Warning, or Blocking by setting	Marketplace tax is off in the clearing account, reached Sales Tax, or a settlement tax code needs review
Entries synced	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	An entry dated in the month has not reached your provider yet
Needs-attention inbox clear	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	An entry dated in the month is parked for review
Cost changes resolved	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	A retroactive cost change over the month is undecided
Estimated duty can be cleared	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	Accrued customs duty has no active duty category its bills can clear it with
Customs duty is set up	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	With duty accrual on, no duty category is designated, or bill lines that look like duty have no category
Foreign-currency bills post in their own currency	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	Foreign-currency bills in the month posted, or will post, in your base currency
No old estimated landed cost still accrued	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	An estimate added to stock cost at receipt is older than your aging limit and still has no bill
Duty rates match broker bills	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	A duty rate's estimates have drifted from the actual duty on recent shipments
Provider documents reconciled	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	The month's documents do not tie to your provider's
Inventory reconciled to GL	Sync & reconciliation	Warning, or Blocking and can be closed over, by setting	Inventory value and the GL control accounts disagree
Inventory debt settled	Sync & reconciliation	Blocking and can be closed over, or Warning, by setting	Stock shipped without cost behind it is still owed
Trial balance reconciled to provider	Sync & reconciliation	Warning, or Blocking and can be closed over, by setting	An account balance differs from your provider's, or the provider's balances weren't captured or are out of date
Transaction categories settled with provider	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	A category's money has not settled either way
A/R and A/P match open documents	Sync & reconciliation	Blocking, can be closed over	Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable doesn't equal its open documents, or a payment didn't post
Payment clearing accounts settled	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	A payment clearing account holds more than receipts still in transit
A/R and A/P tie to the provider	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable differs from your provider's balance
Landed-cost bills paid by an Amazon payout are settled	Sync & reconciliation	Warning	An Amazon landed-cost bill dated on or before the month's end is still open although the settlement payout that paid it was reconciled before payment posting started, or falls in a closed period
Review Income Statement	Review	Manual	Left unticked
Review Balance Sheet	Review	Manual	Left unticked
Review Inventory Valuation & COGS	Review	Manual	Left unticked
Provider lock aligned	Sign-off	Warning	A connection's own lock date is behind or later than your hard close date
Earlier months re-signed	Sign-off	Warning	An earlier closed month changed after sign-off and waits for a re-sign-off
Your custom items	Custom	Manual	Left unticked

Which blocking checks can be closed over

Blocking check	Can be closed over?
All entries balanced	Never, at any permission level
Opening balance applied	Never
Payout-channel order AR cleared	Never
Marketplace facilitator tax, while its setting makes it blocking	Never
Ledger generation — individual entries	Yes, with a reason and Accounting → Period Override
A/R and A/P match open documents	Yes, with a reason and Accounting → Period Override
Inventory debt settled, while its setting makes it blocking	Yes, with a reason and Accounting → Period Override
Inventory reconciled to GL and Trial balance reconciled to provider, while Inventory and trial-balance breaks block the close is on	Yes, with a reason and Accounting → Period Override

Closing over a check records the reason and the exposure as it stood against the month. The same rules apply when you re-sign off a restated month. See what stops a close, and what only needs a tick. No check ever locks the month. Only your hard close date freezes it.

1. Data completeness

The question this group answers is whether the month's ledger is fully built and internally consistent — before anything is compared to an outside system.

Ledger generation — individual entries

Measures	No source document is still waiting to become a ledger entry. Anything queued, in flight or failed fails the row.
Severity	Blocking, and can be closed over with a reason and Accounting → Period Override
Scope	Your whole business, not the month — see the checks that are not scoped to the month
Row reads	6 outstanding — 2 failed, 4 pending. The headline is the total; the breakdown that follows names only the non-zero parts, in the order failed, in flight, pending.
Arrow	Accounting → Outbox. The Ledger Outbox opens on its default Backlog view, which is exactly this set — pending work, rows in flight, and failures no newer attempt has superseded. Remove the Backlog chip to see the full history.
Stands aside when	Never. This check always applies.

Two points about the way it grades:

• Any outstanding work fails it, not merely a stale backlog. An entry queued thirty seconds ago for a June invoice is as absent from June as one queued an hour ago. If you close over it, the entry still lands in June when it's generated, and June then shows as restated.
• The count is not filtered to the month. Generation work is tied to source documents rather than to accounting dates, so it cannot be narrowed to one month. The row's own description says so.

The check also tracks how many pending items have been sitting for more than about ten minutes, as a triage signal for a backlog that looks stalled rather than busy. That figure is not printed on the row — the summary shows only the headline and the failed / in flight / pending breakdown — and it changes nothing about the outcome: any pending work at all fails the row.

Ledger generation — batches

Measures	Every batch whose period has ended on or before the month end has closed and posted.
Severity	Warning
Row reads	86 overdue, or 3 still in settle window, or both together as 12 overdue · 3 still in settle window.
Arrow	Accounting → Batches, filtered to Status of Open, Dirty or Reopened with a Period End up to the month end.
Stands aside when	Never. A business with no batches has nothing outstanding and the row passes.

The settle window is the grace period a batch is given for late documents after its period ends. It creates the one case where a passing row still prints a summary: 3 still in settle window with no overdue count is the difference between nothing outstanding and nothing outstanding yet. Only overdue batches fail the row.

The arrow cannot split the two — the list it opens holds both sets. See batches and the close.

All entries balanced

Measures	Every journal entry dated in the month has line totals that agree with its header totals.
Severity	Blocking — one of the two blocking checks with no sanctioned way through
Row reads	2 unbalanced
Arrow	Accounting → Transactions → All, with the Out of Balance filter and the month's date range applied — exactly the entries counted.
Stands aside when	Never.

No setting, permission or acknowledgement lets a close past this row. It shares that with Opening balance applied and Payout-channel order AR cleared. See which blocking checks can be closed over.

Opening balance applied

Measures	The opening-balance document — the account starting positions carried in from before you began keeping books in SKU.io — is finalized before the first month you close.
Severity	Blocking, on the next month you close only
Row reads	not applied — still draft
Arrow	Accounting → Reconciliation → Starting Balances
Stands aside when	You never set one up — Not applicable — no opening balance was set up, so there is nothing to apply. Or the month isn't the next one you close — Not applicable — the opening balance is checked on the next month you close, and this isn't that month.

Because it stands aside on every later month, most closes never see this row in force. When it does apply, closing without it would sign off a balance sheet missing its starting figures. A blocking check that is standing aside drops its Blocking chip, so a dimmed row here is not something you have to clear.

Amazon settlements mapped

Measures	No Amazon settlement-mapping gap is holding settlements back. It counts three things together: mappings not assigned to a mapping group, mappings with no nominal code, and closed financial event groups waiting on those fixes.
Severity	Warning
Scope	Your whole business — mapping is configuration, not month data
Row reads	3 blocking mapping
Arrow	Accounting → Dashboard, where the Amazon settlement mappings card shows the same three figures under Ungrouped mappings, Missing nominal code and Held-back settlements, with a Fix mappings button.
Stands aside when	You have no Amazon integration — No Amazon integration connected.

The word blocking in that summary is not the severity term used elsewhere in the close. It counts settlements this row is holding back from posting; the row itself is a warning and never refuses a close.

What it deliberately does not count: settlements held back for reasons a mapping fix would not clear — a failed fund transfer, or a missing exchange rate. Those are a separate problem, they appear on their own Amazon settlements not posting card on the dashboard, and they never fail this row.

No mappings on Xero system accounts

Measures	No account mapping, and no payout or settlement mapping, points at a Xero system account. Those are accounts Xero runs itself, such as Sales Tax (GST), Retained Earnings and the currency-gain accounts. Xero rejects any invoice, bill or journal line coded to one, so each sync that uses the mapping fails.
Severity	Warning. The month's figures aren't wrong because of it; the entries just can't reach Xero.
Scope	Your whole business — mapping is configuration, not month data
Row reads	Each mapping it found, as the area, the mapping, then the account and the kind of system account, for example Account mapping Sales Tax → 220 Sales Tax (Sales Tax / GST). Two or more are joined by a middle dot.
Arrow	Accounting → Settings → Nominal Code Mappings
Stands aside when	Xero isn't your connected accounting provider — Xero is not connected.

Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable don't count here, even though Xero treats them as system accounts. SKU.io posts to them the way Xero expects.

SKU.io refuses to save a new mapping on a system account, so this row only finds mappings saved before that check existed. To clear it, create an ordinary account in Xero for the job, for example a current liability named Sales Tax Payable, then point the mapping at it. For a payout or settlement mapping, change it from the start of the year you want it to cover. See change payout mappings from a date.

2. Sync & reconciliation

The largest group, and the one that asks whether the month agrees with the world outside SKU.io — your accounting provider, and your inventory.

Amazon reserve balance reconciled

Measures	At the month end, your Amazon reserve account holds exactly what Amazon still holds: reserves it hasn't released, plus failed payouts it hasn't repaid. The two must agree within 1.00.
Severity	Warning
Scope	The month end
Row reads	Each problem it found, joined by a middle dot: Reserve account 1,240.00 vs 980.00 held by Amazon, 2 failed payout(s) unrepaid over 30 days, or 1 settlement(s) without an exchange rate left out
Arrow	Accounting → Dashboard
Stands aside when	You have no Amazon integration — No Amazon integration connected. Or no account is mapped for Amazon reserves — No Amazon reserve account mapped.

A settlement with no exchange rate can't be valued, so the row can't pass while one is left out.

Amazon settlement deposits accounted for

Measures	Every Amazon settlement that ended in the month says what happened to its money. It counts settlements that are awaiting a fund transfer, have a balance owed to Amazon with no recorded charge, have a transfer status Amazon hasn't confirmed, or posted to your books while their deposit didn't post. A settlement that was deposited, came to zero, failed, or whose negative balance was charged doesn't count.
Severity	Warning
Scope	The month — settlements by the date they ended
Row reads	Each reason with its count, for example 2 balances owed to Amazon · 1 awaiting fund transfer · 1 transfer status unknown · 1 deposit not posted
Arrow	Settlement Transactions on the Amazon Finance tab, filtered to exactly the settlements the row counted, across all your Amazon accounts.
Stands aside when	You have no Amazon integration — No Amazon integration connected.

A deposit that didn't post is counted only from your payment posting start date. A balance owed to Amazon is counted only in the month its settlement ended, so a balance Amazon took from a later settlement fails this row once, not every month after. How to work each reason is in check that Amazon paid out each settlement.

Payout-channel order AR cleared

Measures	On every channel whose payouts or settlements book its sales, no order invoice dated in the month still carries revenue and a receivable. The payout already booked that sale, so such an invoice counts it twice.
Severity	Blocking
Scope	The month
Row reads	280.39 of AR on 4 order invoices that payouts already booked
Arrow	Accounting → Reports → Payout-channel order AR, showing the channel with the largest amount. Repair open periods clears it.
Stands aside when	No sales channel books its revenue through payouts — No sales channel books its revenue through payouts.

Only invoices dated on or after the channel's cut-over count here. Invoices in frozen months (on or before your hard close date), and invoices from before the channel's payouts started booking its revenue, stay on the report but never fail this row. See Payout channels and order invoices.

Marketplace facilitator tax

Measures	Tax that marketplaces collect and pay for you stayed out of your books for the month: the Marketplace Facilitator Tax account nets to zero for each channel, within the tolerance, no Sales Tax line came from a marketplace order created after you adopted the clearing treatment, no settlement tax code needs review, and every sales channel says who collects its tax.
Severity	Warning, unless Block the close when marketplace facilitator tax doesn't tie out is on in the close settings. The per-channel allowance is the Marketplace facilitator tax tolerance, 1.00 to start — see close settings.
Row reads	Each problem it found, for example Clearing off by 12.40 on Walmart US; 2 tax codes mapped to income or expense; 1 channel unclassified (TikTok Shop).
Arrow	The Facilitator Tax report under Accounting → Reports, set to the month.
Stands aside when	The clearing treatment wasn't in force at any time in the month — Facilitator tax treatment not adopted.

How the clearing treatment works, and how to fix each problem the row names, is in account for marketplace facilitator tax.

Entries synced

Measures	No entry dated in the month is still on its way to your accounting provider. The statuses that count as in flight are Pending Sync, Syncing, Retrying and Synced, Pending Update.
Severity	Warning
Row reads	4 still in flight
Arrow	Accounting → Transactions → All, filtered on Sync to those four statuses plus the month's date range.
Stands aside when	You have no supported accounting connection — No accounting connection — entries never sync.

This is only about reaching the provider. Whether the entries exist in SKU.io's own ledger is what the Data completeness group above settles. To trace them, read why entries haven't synced.

Needs-attention inbox clear

Measures	No entry dated in the month is parked on a person. It covers four statuses: Needs Attention, Failed, Conflict and Synced, Deleted — entries that failed to sync, that changed on both sides, that were deleted in the provider after syncing, or that were flagged for review.
Severity	Warning
Row reads	5 needing review
Arrow	Accounting → Needs Attention, carrying a removable month chip (June 2026). Close the chip and the inbox widens back to every month.
Stands aside when	Never — the inbox exists whether or not a provider is connected.

The count and the list agree because both leave out the same records: batch summary rows, which belong to the Batches tab rather than the inbox, and reversed entries, which are superseded history and would otherwise sit in the inbox forever carrying a status frozen at the moment they were reversed.

Cost changes resolved

Measures	No retroactive cost change is still awaiting a restate-or-prospective decision over stock dated in the month.
Severity	Warning
Row reads	2 awaiting a decision · 1,240.00 impact. The impact half appears only when the change has a non-zero value.
Arrow	Inventory → Cost Changes, scoped to the month by a removable chip. With nothing left in the month the page reads No cost changes affect June 2026. and offers Show all periods.
Stands aside when	Never.

Matching is on the original stock event dates — the month's calendar days — not on when the cost change was raised. The row states the exposure and leaves the decision to you — see inventory and the close.

Estimated duty can be cleared

Measures	Every estimated customs duty still accrued has an active duty cost category that its bills can clear it with.
Severity	Warning
Scope	Your whole business
Row reads	3 receipt lines · 412.50 accrued, duty category archived, or … duty category missing
Arrow	Settings → Purchasing → Landed Cost Estimates
Stands aside when	Never. With nothing stranded it passes.

Customs duty is set up

Measures	While duty accrual is on, a customs duty category is designated, and every bill line that looks like customs duty is in a category.
Severity	Warning
Scope	Your whole business
Row reads	No customs duty category is designated, or 4 bill lines look like customs duty but have no category
Arrow	Settings → Purchasing → Duty Rates, or Settings → Purchasing → Landed Cost Estimates when no category is designated
Stands aside when	Never. With duty accrual off it passes.

Foreign-currency bills post in their own currency

Measures	Bills in a foreign currency post to your provider in that currency, so the provider books realised exchange gains and losses when they're paid.
Severity	Warning
Scope	The month
Row reads	3 bills posted in USD, then 2 purchase orders will post in USD when there are some
Arrow	Accounting → Settings → General, at Send supplier bills in their own currency
Stands aside when	SKU.io isn't generating your ledger entries.

It passes once Send supplier bills in their own currency is on, and in any month with no foreign-currency bills.

No old estimated landed cost still accrued

Measures	No estimated freight or duty that was added to stock cost at receipt is still waiting for its bill, on goods received more than your aging limit before the month end.
Severity	Warning; the aging limit is Flag accruals older than in Settings → Purchasing → Landed Cost Estimates, 90 days by default.
Row reads	1 receipt line · 3,769.77 still accrued · oldest 100 days (IS-00028), then Release what is not coming, or auto-release acts 120 days after the PO's last receipt, or, with auto-release off, Auto-release is off: release what is not coming.
Arrow	Opens the Accrued landed cost report, filtered to the lines older than the limit.
Stands aside when	No accrued landed cost or accrued customs duty account is chosen, so nothing is ever accrued — No Accrued Landed Cost account is mapped, so nothing is accrued.

An old estimate isn't wrong, since the bill may still be on its way, so the row only asks you to acknowledge it. When no bill is coming, release the estimate from the report or the shipment. See release an estimate when no bill is coming.

Duty rates match broker bills

Measures	No duty rate's estimates have drifted from the actual customs duty on its recent cleared shipments by more than your drift threshold.
Severity	Warning
Scope	Your whole business
Row reads	2 duty rates drifting more than 10% from broker bills
Arrow	Settings → Purchasing → Duty Rates, filtered to drifting rates
Stands aside when	Customs duty estimates aren't added to inventory cost — Customs duty estimates are not capitalised into inventory.

Provider documents reconciled

Measures	Per connection: the month's SKU.io-versus-provider document variance is within tolerance, and no unmatched documents remain on either side.
Severity	Warning; the Provider documents tolerance is 0.05 by default, and changeable — see close settings
Row reads	The failing connection by name with what is wrong — Sample QBO Connection: 12.40 variance, 3 unmatched. More than one failing connection is listed in one line, joined by a middle dot.
Arrow	Accounting → Reconciliation → Periods
Stands aside when	You have no supported accounting connection — No accounting connection.

Three behaviours worth knowing:

• It's one of two slower checks that a re-sign-off runs in the background. In the re-sign-off dialog, use Run all checks to bring its result up to date.
• It reads your local copy of the provider's documents, never a live call. Nothing about this row reaches out to your provider while the checklist grades.
• No local copy spanning the month is reported on its own. When the copy does not cover the month, the row reads Sample QBO Connection: mirror does not cover the period and says nothing else about that connection — quoting a variance of 0.00 alongside it would read as agreement when what you actually have is no evidence.

Inventory reconciled to GL

Measures	The gap between SKU.io's inventory value and the GL control accounts, at the latest comparison dated on or before the month end. Each earmarked account's gap is added as an absolute figure, so two errors pointing opposite ways cannot cancel out — and every earmarked account must actually have been assessed.
Severity	Warning. Blocking, and can be closed over with a reason and Accounting → Period Override, while Inventory and trial-balance breaks block the close is on. The Inventory vs GL tolerance is 1.00 by default — see close settings
Row reads	842.10 divergence (limit 1.00), or 2 accounts unassessed, or both joined by a middle dot. Where nothing has ever been compared, the row reads never compared — no reconciliation points captured.
Arrow	Accounting → Reconciliation → Inventory
Stands aside when	No inventory accounts are earmarked for reconciliation — No inventory reconciliation accounts earmarked.

The distinction the row is careful about: earmarking no accounts means nothing was ever claimed, so the check stands aside; earmarking accounts and never comparing them means there is a question with no evidence either way, so the check warns and asks you to acknowledge it. See inventory and the close.

Inventory debt settled

Measures	No claim for stock that shipped without cost behind it, incurred on or before the month end, is still outstanding.
Severity	Blocking while Block period close while debt is outstanding is on, which is the default; switch it off and the same row becomes a warning that still states the exposure.
Row reads	3 still owed · 409.75 in clearing — the number of claims, and the money sitting in the clearing account.
Arrow	Inventory → Fulfillment Debt, with the Inventory Debt Claims list already showing the month's Outstanding claims — the same set the row counted.
Stands aside when	Never; with no debt it passes and prints nothing.

Closing over it needs Accounting → Period Override and a reason, and the count and clearing balance are recorded as they stood at the moment the close committed — see close over outstanding inventory debt.

The figure quoted is money — posted less relieved — rather than quantity times estimate. The two diverge once a claim settles in slices, and it is the money that has to agree with the clearing account on the balance sheet you are about to sign off.

Alongside the claim count and clearing balance, the check records the units involved and the age of the oldest outstanding claim — but neither appears on the checklist row, which prints only 3 still owed · 409.75 in clearing. Follow the arrow to read them: the Oldest claim tile on Fulfillment Debt Report shows the age in days, with the number of claims over 30 days underneath it, and the claims table has its own Age and Outstanding columns. For why debt lands at the close rather than at the shipment, see inventory and the close.

Trial balance reconciled to provider

Measures	SKU.io's account balances agree with your provider's trial balance, account by account, as of the month end.
Severity	Warning. Blocking, and can be closed over with a reason and Accounting → Period Override, while Inventory and trial-balance breaks block the close is on. The Trial balance (per account) tolerance starts at 0.00, so any difference at all fails until it is raised — see close settings.
Row reads	2 of 9 accounts out · 1,301.15 total variance, then any differences carried from before your start date and when the provider balances were captured. With no capture, not compared — no provider trial balance captured for Jun 30, 2026. Use "Capture provider balances" in the report pack.
Arrow	Opens the Trial Balance Reconciliation report in the Report pack.
Stands aside when	You have no accounting connection — No accounting connection.

It compares against the captured copy of your provider's trial balance, never a live call. Start close and every Re-check capture it again. A month with no capture fails, and so does a copy older than Provider balances go out of date after in the close settings, or older than SKU.io's latest change to the month. It's one of two slower checks that a re-sign-off runs in the background: use Run all checks in the re-sign-off dialog. See capture your provider's trial balance.

Transaction categories settled with provider

Measures	Every transaction category's money has either reached your accounting provider or is excluded from syncing by design. Nothing may be left in flight or needing attention.
Severity	Warning
Row reads	4 of 8 categories unsettled · 6,783.55 — the count of unsettled categories and the money behind them.
Arrow	Opens the Sync Category Reconciliation report in the Report pack.
Stands aside when	You have no accounting connection — No accounting connection.

"Settled" is a two-sided test: money that reached the provider is settled, and so is money deliberately excluded from syncing. What fails the row is money that is neither — still queued, retrying, or parked for review.

A/R and A/P match open documents

Measures	At the month end, Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable equal what their open invoices, credits and bills add up to after the payments recorded against them, within the Provider documents tolerance. Every payment has posted.
Severity	Blocking, and can be closed over with a reason and Accounting → Period Override
Scope	The month end
Row reads	Each problem, joined by a middle dot: A/R off by 120.00, A/P off by 45.10, 2 payment(s) not posted. Differences carried from before your start date are added as carried from before and the date.
Arrow	Accounting → Transactions → All, filtered to customer payments, customer refunds and supplier payments
Stands aside when	Payment posting hadn't started by the month end — Payment posting has not started for this period.

When you close over it, the month records how far A/R and A/P were off at the time of the close. Differences that date from before your start date can be carried on Accounting → Settings → Close, under Differences carried from before your start date, so the row fails only on new ones.

Payment clearing accounts settled

Measures	Each payment clearing account holds only receipts still in transit, meaning the last 7 days before the month end. Everything older has been emptied by a payout or bank deposit, within the Provider documents tolerance.
Severity	Warning
Scope	The month end
Row reads	Each failing account with its unexplained balance, for example 1150 Stripe Clearing: 312.40 unexplained
Arrow	None
Stands aside when	Payment posting hadn't started by the month end — Payment posting has not started for this period. Or you have no payment clearing accounts — No payment clearing accounts.

Accounts linked to a bank account in your provider don't count. They're bank accounts, and you reconcile them there.

A/R and A/P tie to the provider

Measures	Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable equal your provider's balances at the month end, within the Provider documents tolerance.
Severity	Warning
Scope	The month end
Row reads	Each account that differs, for example 1100 Accounts Receivable: 85.00 variance
Arrow	Accounting → Reconciliation
Stands aside when	Payment posting hadn't started by the month end, you have no accounting connection, or no provider trial balance was captured for the month end — Capture the provider trial balance for 2026-06-30 to compare A/R and A/P.

Landed-cost bills paid by an Amazon payout are settled

Measures	Every Amazon landed-cost bill that a settlement payout already paid is settled in SKU.io. It covers bills whose payout was reconciled to the bank before your payment posting start date, or falls in a closed period, so no deposit in SKU.io will ever settle them.
Severity	Warning
Scope	Bills dated on or before the month's last day
Row reads	Each reason with its count, for example 1 bill still open although the Amazon payout paid it — contact SKU.io support to settle it
Arrow	Bills, searched to the auto-created Amazon bills.
Stands aside when	You have no Amazon landed-cost bills — No Amazon landed-cost bills.

The other reasons are a bill that also reached your accounting provider (void it there), a bill marked settled by a payout that no longer pays it, and a settled bill with a fee that has no account. What each one means and how to clear it is in landed-cost bills paid by an Amazon payout.

3. Review

Three built-in manual items, one per statement, in this order. They carry a tick box rather than a status icon, have no severity, and never block a close. Left unticked, each is listed in the close dialog as Review Income Statement — not checked off for you to acknowledge.

Row	Arrow
Review Income Statement	Opens the Income Statement in the Report pack
Review Balance Sheet	Opens the Balance Sheet in the Report pack
Review Inventory Valuation & COGS	Opens the Inventory Valuation report in the Report pack

Ticking one records who ticked it and when, underneath the title. See read the close reports.

4. Sign-off

Two rows. Both are warnings: they make sure you sign off knowing how the month sits against your provider's lock and against earlier months.

Provider lock aligned

Measures	Each accounting connection's own lock date equals your hard close date, so the same months are frozen on both sides. It flags a lock that's behind (earlier, or missing) and one that's later.
Severity	Warning
Scope	Your hard close date, whichever month you're closing
Row reads	With one connection out, that connection's sentence, for example Xero — Demo Books has no lock date. Your books are locked through Dec 31, 2025, so Xero — Demo Books can still be edited for those months. With more than one, 2 connections disagree with the hard date.
Arrow	Accounting → Dashboard with the Connections dialog open
Stands aside when	You have no supported accounting connection — No accounting connection.

SKU.io reads each provider's lock date in a daily import and never writes it, so a lock you set in your provider a moment ago may not show until the next import. How to align it is in keep your provider lock aligned.

Earlier months re-signed

Measures	No earlier closed month is waiting for a re-sign-off. This month's opening balances include any change waiting there.
Severity	Warning
Scope	Every month before the one you're closing
Row reads	The months by name, for example March 2026 changed after sign-off and needs a re-sign-off, or March 2026, April 2026 changed after sign-off and need a re-sign-off
Arrow	Opens the first of those months on the Close tab
Stands aside when	Never. With nothing waiting it passes.

A restated earlier month doesn't stop you closing this one. You acknowledge the row and close. The hard close date is different: it can't move past a month that's waiting for a re-sign-off, so Also lock through this month is refused while this row fails. See re-sign-off a restated month.

5. Custom

Anything your business has added, in the order it was configured. On the demo data these read Accrue freight invoices not yet billed and Email the close pack to the client; yours will be your own.

Custom items are tick boxes, exactly like the review items: no severity, no arrow, no automatic grading, and never a block. Left unticked at close time, each has to be acknowledged in the close dialog. New custom items are appended to a month already in review on the next Re-check, and an item is never removed from a month once it has been seeded — see close settings and custom checklist items.

The checks that are not scoped to the month

Every check on the list grades the month you are closing, with these deliberate exceptions:

Row	Why it is measured across the whole business
Ledger generation — individual entries	Generation work is queued against source documents rather than accounting dates, so it cannot be narrowed to one month.
Amazon settlements mapped	Mapping is configuration, not month data — a gap in it is a gap in every month.
No mappings on Xero system accounts	The same: a mapping on a system account fails every month's sync, not one month's.
Estimated duty can be cleared, Customs duty is set up and Duty rates match broker bills	They check how customs duty is set up, which applies to every month alike.

Each says so in its own description, which you can read by hovering the row title. Read their numbers as "outstanding across the account", not "outstanding in June".

Bank statement matching is not part of the close

Accounting → Reconciliation has a Statement Match lane, and no checklist row reads it. Unmatched imported bank lines never block a close, never warn, and are not counted, acknowledged or mentioned anywhere on the Close tab.

The other reconciliation lanes do feed rows:

Reconciliation lane	Row it feeds
Documents and Periods	Provider documents reconciled
Inventory	Inventory reconciled to GL
Starting Balances	Opening balance applied
Statement Match	None

If bank matching is part of your own month-end routine, add it as a custom checklist item so it is signed off on the record with everything else.

Next steps

• Fix a failing check
• What stops a close, and what only needs a tick
• Statuses in the close
• Close a month
• Review the ledger