Week 1 of the new month
- Import all bank transactions for the prior month
- Match transactions to invoices, bills and receipts
- Chase missing receipts via Dext / Hubdoc requests
- Categorise anything uncategorised
Week 2
- Reconcile every bank, credit card and merchant account (Stripe/PayPal/GoCardless)
- Review the Suspense and Uncategorised accounts — they should be empty
- Confirm payroll journals posted correctly
Week 3
- Run an aged debtors report; chase anyone over 14 days late
- Run an aged creditors report; schedule supplier payments
- Review draft P&L and balance sheet versus last month
Month-end close
- Lock the period in your accounting software
- File any returns due (VAT, CIS, PAYE)
- Take a 5-minute snapshot of gross margin, cash, debtors, creditors
- Note any anomalies in a running "month-end review" doc
Doing this every month makes year-end take days, not weeks.