Month-end close: send your accountant a complete file

Before the close: calendar and owners

Closing should not be one person’s late night at month end. Set a calendar across the first five working days and write down who owns each step. A typical rhythm: day 1 bank and cash, day 2 sales invoices and receivables, day 3 expenses and documents, day 4 payroll and the VAT pre-check, day 5 reports and handover to the accountant.

Defining these steps as a recurring task template removes the “who counted the cash box this month?” question. In Müşavir, recurring tasks and multi-task templates in the tasks module are used for exactly this.

1. Bank and cash matching

The bank is the foundation of the close: a bank movement is a fact, and every other record is checked against it.

• Get the month-end statement for every bank account (TL and foreign currency), credit card and POS account.
• Match each movement to a record: customer collection, supplier payment, salary, tax and social security payment, bank fee.
• Put unmatched movements on a list and decide on each one before the close ends. Items left for “later” also break next month’s close.
• Check that the bank balance in the books equals the month-end balance on the statement to the cent.
• If you keep a cash box, count it and file the count sheet.

In the bookkeeping module, statements from Akbank, Denizbank, Fibabank, Garanti, Kuveyt Türk and Ziraat are imported, and recurring movements (rent, salaries, a particular customer’s transfer) match automatically once you define a rule.

2. Sales invoices and open receivables

This step answers two questions: was every invoice that should have been issued actually issued, and who owes us how much?

• Find work finished during the month that has not been invoiced. In service businesses this is where revenue most often leaks. If you use sales and service tracking, services marked “completed” without an invoice appear with one filter.
• Compare the list of e-invoices and e-archive invoices issued through your e-invoice provider with the sales invoices in your records. Count and total should agree.
• Check partially paid invoices and make sure each collection is linked to the right invoice.
• List overdue receivables by age bucket (0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 90+) and write the next action for each: reminder, call, installment plan.
• Check that return and discount invoices are linked to the original sales invoice.

To see what a late payment really costs, use the late payment cost calculator.

3. Expenses, receipts and documents

To your accountant, an expense without a document does not exist. The goal here is a document behind every payment that left the bank.

• Record incoming e-invoices and check supplier, amount, VAT rate and expense account.
• Collect staff receipts and expense claims, and record the approved ones.
• Check that recurring expenses (rent, software subscriptions, internet) were created this month too.
• Track amounts paid on a customer’s behalf and recharged to them (such as official fees) as pass-through money, not as income or expense.
• Attach scans of the documents to the matching records. In the files module documents are kept per company in their own space, with folders.

4. Payroll accrual

Payroll has the most steps in the close: no payroll before attendance is closed, and no accounting entry before payroll is approved.

• Close attendance: absences, overtime, sick-leave days.
• Check approved leave and remaining leave balances.
• Process advances paid during the month and the deductions due this month.
• Calculate, check and approve payroll. In the HR module, payroll approval creates the accrual entry automatically, and a separate payment entry is opened when salaries are paid.
• Social security and tax filings are made by your accountant; send them the payroll file and summary, and keep the filing archive in the panel.

To plan the full cost of a position, see the employer cost calculator.

5. VAT pre-check

Your accountant files the VAT return, but seeing in advance that the figure makes sense prevents surprises.

• Compare output VAT (from sales invoices) with input VAT (from purchase invoices and expenses).
• Look at the split by rate: 1%, 10% and 20%. A line entered at the wrong rate is the most common error.
• List withholding (tevkifat) invoices separately and check that the withheld amount sits in the right place on the seller and buyer side.
• Check the VAT effect of return invoices.
• For one-off invoice checks, the VAT calculator saves time.

6. Current-account reconciliation

You do not need to reconcile with every counterparty every month, but confirming balances quarterly with large customers and suppliers, and with all of them at year end, is a good habit. Since BA/BS forms were abolished from the September 2024 period, no filing flags balance differences for you any more; reconciliation fills that gap. We explain how in the current-account reconciliation guide. The e-reconciliation module prepares the letter from your records and sends it with an approval link.

7. The pack for your accountant

End the close by sending your accountant one pack. Emails arriving in pieces stretch the back-and-forth.

• Trial balance as of month end
• VAT report (output and input by rate)
• Sales and purchase invoice lists
• Current-account balance list and overdue receivables
• Bank matching summary and any items awaiting explanation
• Payroll summary and payroll file
• A list of missing or late documents

In Müşavir the trial balance, VAT report, balance sheet and income statement come straight from the records; you can give your accountant a separate user with read-only access.

After the close: what did you learn?

At the end of each close, spend five minutes writing down what slowed you down. It is usually the same two or three things: unmatched bank movements, late receipts, work that was never invoiced. Moving them into the month (weekly bank matching, a deadline for receipts, an invoice reminder when a service is completed) shortens the next close.

Common mistakes

• Leaving bank matching to month end. Matching hundreds of movements in one day is tiring and error-prone. Half an hour a week brings month end down to a day.
• Skipping payments without a document. Every undocumented payment means a separate exchange with your accountant. Ask for the document when you pay.
• Treating pass-through money as income. Amounts such as official fees you pay for a customer and recharge are not revenue; booking them as income inflates both profit and the VAT report.
• Tying the close to one person. When that person is on leave, the close stops. Keeping the steps as a written template lets someone else take over.
• Not logging corrections. Note every correction made after the close with its date and reason; your accountant needs to know which figure changed and why.