Closing the Month
Closing the month is part of Books & Financial Reports (Standard and above). If you've left Standard, the guide still opens, but it is read-only: you can look at your books through your last paid day and take your closing export. See Books & Financial Reports.
The Close the month guide walks you through the same job every month: clear what is still open, check that the books balance, read the statements, send the month to your accounting software, and lock it so nothing posts into it later. It puts the screens under Reports in the right order and tells you when you are done.
The guide never posts anything on its own. If it finds something to fix, it points you at the screen where you fix it.
Who can use it
Owners and admins can run it. Team members with read access to the books can open a run and look, but not change it.
Where to start
- The dashboard. In the first ten days of a month, while last month is still unlocked and hasn't been closed, a Close {month} card appears under "Needs your attention". It disappears once you finish or lock the month. If you left a close half done, the card says Pick up where you left off.
- The Trial Balance card. On Reports, click Close the month → in the Trial Balance card.
- From the dashboard. On the I want to… card, open Everything you can do and choose Close the month.
The first ten days are counted in your business's time zone (Settings → Business).
The five steps
1. Loose ends
Pick the month. It starts on the last one that isn't locked yet. You get one close per month; if the month already has one, the guide offers to open it.
Then you see what is still open in that month, each with a count and a link:
- vendor bills still waiting for review
- customer invoices still in draft for orders shipped in the month
- shipments with a tax exemption but no certificate yet
- card payments whose processing fee is still an estimate
- open payment disputes
- entries that were voided after you exported them (your accounting software still holds them)
Click Mark as reviewed on a line once you have looked at it. Nothing here stops you from closing; the guide just remembers what you skipped and lists it before you lock.
Three more lines tell you what Iraca does not book for you (card payouts, shipping postage, Iraca's own invoices). For postage and Iraca's invoices, New journal entry opens the entry form with the accounts filled in.
2. Check
You see the month's trial balance twice: what moved in the month, and where every account stands on the last day. Debits and credits must match. If they don't, the guide says so and the Lock button stays off; contact support before locking.
An optional inventory check shows what your books say you held at month end next to what the stock report says today. The two differ by everything that happened since, and by products without a cost.
3. Review
The month's Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet sit next to the month before, with the biggest changes in each described in words. The figures are the ones on your Reports page.
4. Export
Choose QuickBooks / Wave or Xero, and for Xero the tax rate name. Download CSV gives you the same file as the Reports page and records it in the export log.
If part of the month was exported before, the guide stops and asks: Export only what's new or Export everything again. It never decides for you. If you discarded a file, I didn't import it takes the export back so those entries go out next time. Xero needs an account code on every account; the guide lists any that are missing and links to your chart of accounts.
You can also choose I'll do this later and export from Reports.
5. Lock and finish
The last step lists anything from step 1 you never marked reviewed and whether you exported. Then you decide:
- Lock {month} stops anything from posting into the month. A shipment dated in it still goes out, but its books entry is logged as a failure for you to deal with. An owner or admin can unlock it later from Reports (see Period Locks).
- Close without locking finishes the guide and leaves the month open. Your choice is recorded.
Locking only happens when you click Lock; finishing the guide never locks by itself.
If your plan has the books read-only
Without the Accounting add-on you can still open the guide. The figures stop at your paid-through date, there is nothing to lock, and the export step offers your closing export (one ZIP of your books, downloadable once). Click Finish at the end.