month-end-and-year-end-close-playbook

name

month-end-and-year-end-close-playbook

description

Controlled month-end and year-end close workflow for any Chwezi-grade finance / accounting system. Covers task list, dependencies, evidence requirements, exception handling, reviewer sign-off, period-state transitions, retained-earnings close, lock and reopen governance, and release states. Use whenever a software system, SRS, SDS, test plan, proposal, or business plan touches month-end close, year-end close, period locking, or audit-period release.

Month-End and Year-End Close Playbook

Overview

Close is a controlled workflow, not a calendar reminder. Each close task has owner, due date, dependency, evidence, review state, exception state, and release decision. Close ends with a documented release state: pass, pass-with-caveats, or fail. Year-end close adds retained-earnings close, lock-period procedure, reopen governance, audit-request tracking, and a final report freeze.

Required first reads

• doctrine/accounting-finance-doctrine.md
• doctrine/references/ledger-invariants.md (period state)
• doctrine/references/required-patterns.md
• doctrine/examples/reconciliation-evidence-pack.md
• bank-and-mobile-money-reconciliation SKILL
• audit-ready-reporting-pack SKILL
• This skill's references/close-task-template.md.

Close task list (standard)

Grouped by area. The exact list is configurable per entity; the categories are not.

Pre-close

Task	Owner	Dependency
Cut-off review for sales and purchases.	Accountant	None
Open-items review (AR ageing, AP ageing).	Accountant	None
Goods received not invoiced (GRNI) clear.	Accountant + Inventory Manager	Receiving complete
Outstanding journals approved.	Controller	Manual-journal queue

Subledger close

Task	Owner
AR — invoices, receipts, credit notes posted.	Accountant
AP — bills, payments, credit notes posted.	Accountant
Inventory — receipts, issues, transfers, adjustments posted; count variance reviewed.	Inventory Manager + Accountant
Fixed Assets — additions, disposals, depreciation run.	Accountant
Payroll — payroll run committed; statutory deductions schedules complete.	Payroll Officer + Accountant

Reconciliations

Task	Owner
Bank — every bank account reconciled with evidence pack.	Accountant
Mobile Money — every provider account reconciled.	Accountant
POS — every drawer's Z-reports reconciled.	Accountant
Card Acquirer — every acquirer batch reconciled.	Accountant
Inventory tie-out — control accounts vs subledger.	Accountant
AR / AP control tie-out.	Accountant
Tax control accounts tie to return data.	Accountant + Tax Reviewer
Petty cash count.	Accountant
Cash on Hand count.	Accountant

Adjustments

Task	Owner
Accruals and prepayments.	Accountant
Depreciation.	Accountant
FX revaluation.	Accountant
Inventory NRV write-downs (Section 13 / IAS 2).	Accountant + Controller
Provisions and contingencies review (Section 21 / IAS 37).	Controller
Doubtful-debt allowance (Section 11 / IFRS 9 simplified).	Accountant + Controller
Tax provision (Section 29 / IAS 12).	Controller + Tax Reviewer

Reports

Task	Owner
Trial balance.	Accountant
SFP / SOCI / SCE / SCF.	Controller
AR / AP ageing.	Accountant
Inventory valuation.	Inventory Manager + Accountant
Fixed-asset register and depreciation schedule.	Accountant
Payroll register vs GL.	Payroll Officer + Accountant
Tax pack (VAT, PAYE, WHT, NSSF, income tax progress).	Tax Reviewer + Accountant
Bank, POS, mobile-money, card recon evidence packs.	Accountant
Management accounts pack with variance commentary.	Controller
Donor / grant utilisation pack (where applicable).	Controller
Audit-ready export index.	Controller

Release

Task	Owner
Reviewer sign-off (Controller).	Controller
Period soft-close.	Controller
Release state recorded.	Controller
Lock period (after waiting window).	Controller

Year-end specifics

• Retained-earnings close: close all 4xxx–9xxx accounts into 3300 Current-Year Profit/Loss; sweep 3300 to 3200 Retained Earnings at year-end.
• Lock-period procedure: after sign-off and audit window, lock all months of the financial year.
• Reopen governance: reopen requires Controller + CFO approval, time-boxed, audit-logged.
• Audit-request tracking: every auditor request logged with respondent, evidence, status, due date.
• Final report freeze: financial statements signed by directors; subsequent corrections become prior-period adjustments under Section 10 / IAS 8.

Period-state transitions

From	To	Permitted by
open	soft-closed	Controller
soft-closed	open	Controller (with reason)
soft-closed	locked	Controller
locked	reopened	Controller + CFO
reopened	locked	Controller
locked	archived	Controller (after audit window)

Release states

• pass — no blockers; all checks complete; all reconciliations matched; reviewer sign-off recorded.
• pass-with-caveats — no blockers; named items carry forward (e.g. tax provision pending tax-reviewer sign-off) with assigned owner and target date.
• fail — blocker(s) remain; close not released.

Control-preserving Kaizen for close

After each close, review elapsed time, late tasks, repeat exceptions, manual journals, unreconciled items, rework, evidence defects, and reviewer queries. Classify each finding as waste, data-quality failure, control deficiency, training gap, or accounting judgement. Select one small reversible improvement with a baseline, hypothesis, owner, timebox, guardrail, expected evidence, and rollback.

The guardrail must preserve double-entry, cut-off, period state, immutable audit trail, reviewer independence, segregation of duties, source-document traceability, tax/statutory verification, and report tie-outs. Re-perform the close, test a failure path, obtain independent review, and compare the result with the baseline before standardising the change in the close task template, runbook, training, and test fixture. Report the audit at min(raw score, 65) and make the remediation plan target 95/100; the cap never waives a close blocker.

Facility-change logic applies to ERP or close-process transitions: readiness evidence, continuity/fallback, cutover/rollback, stabilisation, reconciliation, and lessons-learned sign-off are required before the new close becomes standard.

Acceptance evidence

Evidence	Description
Close-task register	Every task with owner, due, status, evidence path.
Reconciliation evidence packs	Per bank-and-mobile-money-reconciliation.
Adjustment journal listing	All accruals, depreciation, FX revaluation, provisions, write-downs.
Subledger tie-out summary	Control account vs subledger reconciliation by account.
Reports pack	All reports per "Reports" task list, with print stylesheet applied.
Reviewer sign-off	In the audit log: preparer, reviewer, time stamps.
Gate manifest	State, blockers, caveats, evidence-pack path.

Forbidden patterns

• Closing a period without subledger tie-out.
• Posting to a locked period via a back door.
• Sign-off without reviewer identity in the audit log.
• Close report missing a print stylesheet.
• Reopen without Controller + CFO approval.

Files

• SKILL.md.
• references/close-task-template.md — full task template with owners and dependencies.
• references/year-end-extras.md — retained-earnings close, lock window, audit requests.
• examples/first-close-checklist.md — first close after go-live.

Last reviewed: 2026-05-12. Next review due: 2026-11-12.

Prerequisites

• Load doctrine/accounting-finance-doctrine.md before applying this skill.
• Load governance/finance-accounting-quality-gate.md when the output is a release, client artefact, SRS, SDS, proposal, business plan, or implementation plan.
• Use doctrine/source-register/ for final statutory, tax, payroll, FX, EFRIS, eTIMS, or authority-template values.

Inputs

Artifact	Produced by	Required?	Validation
Finance context map	finance-module-audit	Required	Entity, framework, jurisdiction, modules, users, and deployment context are named.
Doctrine baseline	Doctrine owner	Required	Doctrine version and reporting framework are stated.
Source-register snapshot	tax-statutory-source-register-and-country-packs	Required for final statutory output	Entries are verified-current or reviewer-approved verified-with-caveat.
Ledger/posting context	ledger-posting-engine-core	Required when postings are affected	Posting boundary, CoA mappings, control accounts, dimensions, and period state are known.

Outputs

Artifact	Consumed by	Acceptance evidence
Skill-specific decision record	Implementer, reviewer, quality gate	Scope, assumptions, chosen treatment, rejected alternatives, and caveats are recorded.
Implementation or workflow contract	Software, SRS, SDS, proposal, or business-plan engine	Contract names inputs, outputs, controls, evidence, and failure conditions.
Acceptance evidence	Finance quality gate	Tests, fixtures, examples, source links, reviewer sign-off, or evidence-pack references are present.
Plain-language explanation	Client, owner, manager, operator	Business meaning is stated before technical accounting treatment where client-facing.

Decision Rules

• Prefer IFRS for SMEs for typical SME entities unless full IFRS, local law, donor requirements, or client policy requires otherwise.
• Treat every money-touching workflow as ledger, control, reconciliation, evidence, and reporting scope.
• Do not finalize statutory values without source-register support and reviewer status.
• Use business-language output for operators and accountant-language output for ledger, reporting, and audit users.
• Escalate uncertain framework, tax, or statutory interpretations to the required reviewer role instead of presenting them as final.

Acceptance Evidence

• Inputs and outputs above are present or explicitly marked not applicable.
• Relevant quality-gate blockers have been checked and no blocker remains unresolved.
• Examples or fixtures cover at least one happy path and one failure or caveat path for this skill's domain.
• Reviewer role, review date, and open caveats are recorded for release-grade artefacts.

Anti-Patterns

• Treating draft planning assumptions as final statutory or accounting facts.
• Hiding tax, payroll, FX, or authority-template caveats in prose instead of source-register state.
• Producing technically correct accounting output without a plain-language layer for non-accountant users.
• Closing a remediation or implementation item without observable evidence.

Required References

• doctrine/accounting-finance-doctrine.md.
• governance/finance-accounting-quality-gate.md.
• docs/reference-manifest.md for declared reference states.
• Domain-specific references listed earlier in this skill.

Examples

• Include at least one normal workflow example for this skill's domain.
• Include at least one exception, rejection, reversal, stale-source, or reviewer-caveat example where the domain can fail.

Review Metadata

Last reviewed: 2026-05-15. Next review due: 2026-11-15.