Finance Close Checklist

Finance Close Checklist

Core Workflow

1. Identify close period, reporting package, responsible owners, deadlines, source systems, and approval requirements.
2. Read supplied finance close policy, reconciliation rules, metric definitions, and reporting glossary.
3. Group work by data readiness, reconciliations, accruals, revenue, expenses, metrics, commentary, approvals, and publication.
4. Mark dependencies, blockers, owners, due dates, evidence links, and reviewer signoffs.
5. Separate accounting decisions from checklist preparation.
6. Flag missing policy, unexplained variances, data quality issues, and external reporting risks.

Safety Rules

• Do not make accounting, tax, audit, legal, or investment judgments.
• Do not post journal entries, change systems, approve close, or publish reports automatically.
• Do not invent balances, reconciliations, approvals, or policy rules.
• Require finance owner review for external, board, investor, compensation, or compliance-facing reporting.

Deliverable Shape

For close work, provide:

• Close scope and period
• Checklist by workstream
• Owners and due dates
• Required evidence or source links
• Blockers and dependencies
• Review and approval gates
• Residual risk

References

• Read references/finance-close-checklist.md when preparing close, reporting, reconciliation, or finance handoff checklists.