Month-end close
The month-end close is the accounting process of finalizing a period’s books. The manager reconciles bank accounts against the ledger, posts management fees and expenses, resolves discrepancies, and only then produces owner statements and distributions. In many property management companies it consumes the first one or two weeks of every month.
A typical close checklist
- Reconcile each bank and trust account against the books.
- Post management fees, late fees, and owner charges.
- Match every deposit to a tenant and property, and chase the ones that do not match.
- Review unpaid bills and owner balances.
- Generate owner statements and run distributions.
The close takes as long as the gap between the bank and the books. When payments settle inside the same system that keeps the ledger, each transaction posts with its accounting attached, so there is far less to reconstruct at period end. AXYS closes each period with a snapshot of every account balance plus automated invariant checks, so the close verifies the books instead of rebuilding them. For why the close stretches to two weeks in most shops, see The two-week month-end close.
Why does the month-end close take so long?
Most of the time goes to reconciliation: matching bank activity to ledger entries recorded in a different system, and investigating everything that does not line up.
Run the numbers in one system
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