period-close
Period Close — Under 100 People
What This Process Does
Period close is the monthly ritual that turns a month of transactions into financial statements you can trust. At this scale, you're closing one entity, one or two bank accounts, and a handful of credit cards. The output: a clean P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statement by day 5–10 of the following month, plus a short commentary for the founder.
The goal isn't to be perfect — it's to be consistent, timely, and explainable. A close that lands on day 5 with 2% variance on some estimates is dramatically more useful than one that lands on day 25 with perfect precision. Your board, your investors, and you yourself make decisions on old numbers when close drags; fast close is the single biggest finance leverage point at this size.
Start Here: ERP•AI Templates
ERP•AI's Monthly Close Checklist template has a 40-item list scoped to small-org complexity: bank/cc reconciliations, AR/AP aging review, standard journal entries, revenue recognition (if applicable), payroll accrual, prepaid amortization, deferred revenue recognition, and a financial-statement review. Deploy it, assign owners, set a day-5 target, and run it the same way every month. Deviation is the enemy of a fast close.