The Quarterly Close: A Checklist for Owners

Year-end panic is almost always the accumulated cost of four skipped quarterly reviews. The fix is a short, repeatable checklist.

Start with reconciliation. Every bank, credit card and loan account should tie to a statement with no unexplained items. An unreconciled account means every downstream number is provisional.

Review the aged receivables list next. Anything past sixty days needs a decision — a call, a payment plan, or a write-off. Carrying uncollectible balances inflates both your revenue picture and your tax exposure.

Then check payables and upcoming obligations: sales tax, source deductions, instalments. Put every due date on the calendar for the coming quarter before the quarter starts.

Finally, compare the quarter against the prior quarter and the same quarter last year. You're not looking for precision — you're looking for the line item that moved and shouldn't have. That one anomaly is usually worth the entire ninety minutes.