For PE-backed finance teams
Close the books.
Open the discussion.
Make the month-end handoff explicit: what is due, who owns it, and what needs attention before the numbers reach the board.
Free to use. No account. Save a plan file to resume privately.
Start with a fictional example. Adapt each deadline and workstream to your business.
Calculate due dates around weekends and the holidays you specify.
Export a CSV for your team, then retain approvals and evidence in your own systems.
The working tool
Month-end close planner
Set the period end and reporting target. Assign a working-day offset, owner and status to every task.
Explore the fictional example below, start blank, or load a plan you previously downloaded.
Enter month end, your reporting target and every holiday your team observes.
Edit tasks and owners. Download plan JSON to resume, CSV to share, or a calendar snapshot.
Use the final calendar day of the month.
An editable planning target, not a benchmark. Preparing next month retains this target and resets task statuses.
YYYY-MM-DD, separated by commas or lines. No regional holidays are assumed. Review this list after preparing the next month.
Example ready · no unsaved changes
| Task | Workstream | Owner | Day offset | Due date | Status | Remove |
|---|
No tasks yet. Add a task or load the fictional example.
Calendar only: deadlines do not automatically enforce dependencies, reviewer approval or accounting policy. A “Complete” status is your input, not an assurance conclusion. The target does not reschedule tasks.
Edits stay in memory in this tab, with no automatic storage. Refreshing or closing it clears your work; save plan JSON to resume later. Loading a plan file reads its contents locally without submitting them to a server. You control your downloaded files and who can access them. CSV, calendar and print exports are snapshots and do not save a resumable plan.
Calendar exports contain one all-day event per task, including completed tasks, with the owner and planner status in the description. Events keep their identities within one plan and close period; a new close period has separate events. They have no reminders or automatic updates. The print brief highlights overdue tasks as of your device’s local date.
Worked calendar example
A Friday month end, with a holiday
For a fictional period ending July 31, 2026 (Friday), day +1 is August 3 (Monday). If August 3 is entered as a non-working holiday, day +1 becomes August 4 (Tuesday), and a five-working-day target falls on August 10 (Monday). Day 0 stays July 31. The example illustrates the calendar convention; it does not prescribe a close length.
Keep task dependencies and approvals in your operating process. Read the month-end close guide or the first acquired-entity close guide to adapt the task list.
Go beyond the checklist
Two closes. Different challenges.
A recurring close needs consistency. The first close after an acquisition also needs a carefully defined perimeter.
01 / The recurring close
A month-end checklist that makes the handoffs work
Scope, cutoff, reconciliations and review: build a process that ends with an approved reporting package, not a green task list.
Read the month-end close guide →02 / The acquired business
The first close after an acquisition
Separate the opening balance sheet, stub period and ongoing operations. Agree the mappings before consolidating results.
Read the first-close guide →The useful output is a decision-ready set of numbers.
After the close, connect actuals to the forecast at PEFPA and to financing obligations at Lender Reporting. Acquisition integration work belongs in the wider plan at Rollup CFO.
Questions before you start
How many days should month-end close take?
The appropriate target depends on systems, estimates, entities, staffing and reporting needs. This planner starts with a fictional seven-working-day target; it does not recommend seven days for every business. Agree a realistic target while preserving the required review and evidence.
Does the calendar include US or other public holidays?
No. Saturdays and Sundays are excluded. Add every holiday or non-working date your team observes, including dates in the following month. Teams with different calendars should maintain separate plans or review the dates manually.
Can I use this as an approval or accounting system?
No. Use it to organize tasks. Keep journal approvals, reconciliations, source files and review evidence in the systems appropriate for your organization. The planner does not determine accounting treatment.
PEClose · Close brief
Month-end close plan
| Task | Workstream | Owner | Day | Due | Status | Attention |
|---|
Calendar planning only. Completion is user-entered, not evidence of accounting approval. Dependencies and review evidence must be managed separately. Target changes do not reschedule tasks.
Created with PEClose.com · A resource by Seth Sokoloff · PEBackedCFO network