Every accounting firm publishes a month-end close checklist. Reconcile the bank. Categorise the transactions. Review the P&L. Send the report. What none of them say is that the bookkeeper controls none of the things that actually delay a close. Those sit with the founder.
We keep books for startups, and we can tell you exactly where a close stalls, because our pipeline records the state of every transaction. There are four states that need something from you. Everything else is our problem.
1. A question you have not answered
Most transactions in a month are settled without anyone deciding anything: a recurring vendor, a payroll run, a transfer between your own accounts. Rules and history handle them. The rest go through our categorisation model, and when it is not sure, it asks.
The question shows up on your Transactions page, in plain English, about one specific transaction (an international wire with no memo, or in a currency the feed did not label, is the usual reason): "$4,200 to Meridian Consulting on the 14th - is this a contractor for product work, or professional services like legal or accounting?" It is generated for that transaction, and it is asked once. If the same merchant appears twenty times in the month, you get one question, not twenty, and your one answer categorises all twenty and every future one.
The answer is stored as a fact about your company, not just a categorisation. "Meridian Consulting is an engineering contractor" changes how the next Meridian transaction is handled, without asking again.
What stalls the close is an open question with no answer. Until it is answered, that transaction and its siblings sit in review, and the expense line they belong to is understated on the draft P&L.
What we need: an answer, in a sentence. Not a category; a fact. "That's the design agency" is enough.
2. A bank connection that dropped
Bank feeds break. The bank rotates a credential, asks for a new two-factor confirmation, or de-lists an account you did not select the last time you logged in. When that happens, transactions stop arriving, and the books for that account are frozen at the last sync.
This one is silent unless someone tells you. We flag it: the account gets an amber "needs reconnect" badge, and a notification goes out, because a close with a frozen account is not a close.
What we need: thirty seconds on the bank connection page to reconnect. It is the same flow as connecting the first time, and it has to be you, because it is your bank login.
3. An account we cannot see
Twenty of seventy-seven transactions in one client's account, in a sample we read by hand, were transfers between two accounts the company owned. Transfers are trivial when both sides are connected: the two legs match and cancel. When one side is not connected, the visible leg looks like money leaving to nowhere, and it will be asked about, categorised wrong, or both.
The usual culprits: a savings account opened for the interest and touched quarterly, a second card programme, a Wise or PayPal balance used for one supplier, a Stripe balance that pays out to a bank we do not see.
What we need: every account money moves between, connected once. The one you forgot is the one generating questions.
4. A document that exists only in your inbox
A $30,000 bank debit to a law firm is categorised in a second. Whether it is a capitalisable financing cost, a deductible legal expense, or half of each, is on the invoice. The invoice is in your email.
We match uploaded bills and invoices to bank transactions automatically, by amount, date and counterparty. That match is what turns a bank line into a documented expense, and it is what a tax preparer or an auditor will ask for. Without the document the categorisation is a best guess, and the best guess is what you will defend later.
What we need: forward the invoice, or drop it in the file space. Bulk uploads are fine; we match what we can and tell you what we could not.
What we do not need from you
Everything else. Categorising the routine transactions, reconciling the bank, posting the entries, checking that the P&L foots, splitting the payment processor's fees out of the payouts, and reviewing what the model did before it counts. If a close is waiting on something and it is not one of the four above, it is waiting on us.
The honest version of a fast close is not a checklist. It is a short list of things only you can do, surfaced at the moment they block something, and cleared in minutes. The four above are that list. What the closed month feeds next is on the tax deadline calendar; what it says about how long you have is the runway calculator.
Common questions
What slows down a month-end close?
Four things only the founder can clear: an unanswered question about a specific transaction, a bank connection that dropped, an account money moves through that is not connected, and an invoice or bill that exists only in your inbox. Everything else in a close is the bookkeeper's job.
How many questions will I get about my transactions?
One per merchant, not one per transaction. If the same vendor appears twenty times in a month you get one plain-English question, and your one answer categorises all twenty and every future one. The answer is stored as a fact about your company, so the question is never asked again.
What should I do when a bank connection drops?
Reconnect it from the bank connections page. It is the same flow as connecting the first time and takes about thirty seconds, and it has to be you because it is your bank login. Until then, transactions for that account stop arriving and its books are frozen at the last sync.
Tools that go with this
- How Vecty works - the close from our side
- Startup tax deadline calendar - the filings a closed month feeds into
- Burn rate and runway calculator - trailing burn and runway from the closed months