NetClose - Month End Playbook

Use case

This is your month-end companion. Once your implementation wraps, this is the page to bookmark and open every period. It walks the close in the order we recommend running it, links the how-to article for each step, and flags the few places where a small mistake causes a big cleanup.

Two things to know before you start:

  • Most of this is monthly. Some of it isn't. The Set up once, review when things change section covers configuration you review only when your chart of accounts, your team, or your calendar changes. In a normal month, skip it and start at Step 1.
  • The steps are in close order, not menu order. Amortizations and accruals post journal entries that change your balances, so you run them before reconciliations and flux analysis look at those balances.

Before you start each close

Confirm your SuiteApp is current. You can see your installed version against the latest on the same page where NetClose was installed. See Updating Your SuiteApp.

Open your dashboard to see where you stand. Before you dive into any one module, get the whole picture: what's assigned, what's done, what's overdue. Start here each morning of the close.

Set up once, review when things change

Skip this section in a normal month. Come back to it when your chart of accounts changes, someone joins or leaves the team, your work calendar shifts, or you add a new account type to track. Verifying this configuration up front prevents the most common silent failures later in the close.

Step 1 - Generate and work your close tasks

Your task list is the checklist that governs the whole close. Generate it first so everyone knows what they own and when it's due.

  1. Review your task templates. Go to NetClose > Lists > Tasks and switch the view to "Close Task Templates Only." Adjust or add templates as needed. See Update Task Templates and Create Close Tasks.
  2. Generate your close tasks, unless they auto-generate. If your tasks aren't set to generate automatically, go to NetClose > Close Management > Generate Close Tasks. See Generate Close Tasks. To have the list build itself each period instead, set up auto-generation.
  3. Work the tasks. Go to NetClose > Tasks > Task Board or Task List. See Prepare and Start Close Tasks and Review and Approve Close Tasks.

Step 2 - Amortizations

Run amortizations before reconciliations so the journal entries they post are reflected in your balances.

  1. Verify your amortization list is complete. Go to NetClose > Amortizations > Amortizations. Create any new ones (see Creating New Amortizations), then generate their schedules.
  2. Run your monthly amortization work.

Step 3 - Accruals

  1. Confirm your accrual settings. Review your Accrual Types if anything has changed.
  2. Clear last month's accruals. Match or adjust the accruals you booked last period: see match, adjust, and approve accruals.
  3. Create this month's accruals. See Create New Accrual, or automate them from a saved search.
  4. Approve them. See Approve Accruals.

Step 4 - Reconciliations

With your sub-ledger journal entries posted, reconcile the final balances.

  1. Generate your reconciliations, unless they auto-generate. If your reconciliations aren't set to build automatically, go to NetClose > Close Management > Generate Reconciliations. See Generate Reconciliations, or set up Auto-Generate Reconciliations so they build each period.
  2. Prepare and review. Go to NetClose > Reconciliations > Prepare Reconciliations. See Prepare and Review Reconciliations and Reconciliation Items.

Step 5 - Flux analysis

  1. Confirm your scenarios are current. Deactivate any you no longer need and confirm the rest are set for the period.
  2. Generate your flux. Go to NetClose > Flux Analysis > Generate Flux. See Generate Flux Scenario(s).
  3. Review and explain. Go to NetClose > Flux Analysis > Review Flux Analysis. See Review the Flux Analysis. Refresh balances if numbers changed after you generated.

Step 6 - Lock the period

Locking prevents changes to closed periods, protects your close as an audit control, and can be applied in stages through the close, not just at the end.

Confirm the close is complete

Before you call the period closed:

  • Every reconciliation is prepared, reviewed, and approved.
  • Every close task is complete or explicitly deferred.
  • Amortization and accrual journals have posted for the period.
  • Material flux variances have commentary.
  • The period is locked.

When your auditors ask for support, see Audit Resources: What to Export for Your Auditors. To enforce explanations on late work, see Require Explanations for Late Submissions.

Let AI do some of the work

NetClose can take on some of the repetitive close work so you can focus on review.

  • Flux commentary. NetClose can draft variance explanations for you to review and edit, instead of writing every one from scratch. See AI Generated Flux Analysis.
  • Find accruals and amortizations you may have missed. NetClose can expose its data to AI through a set of MCP tools, so you can ask questions in plain language and have NetClose run gap analysis to surface potential accruals and amortizations a period is missing. This works from any LLM connected over MCP, and from the NetClose plugin for Claude Cowork, which ships this knowledge as a single install. See AI Integration with LLMs via MCP.

When something looks wrong

Most close-day problems are quick to fix once you know the cause. The NetClose Troubleshooting & FAQs folder has module-by-module tips and fixes:

One situation worth calling out specifically:

  • Someone on your team changed roles or left. Reassign their reconciliations, tasks, and flux scenarios and regenerate before you remove their access, or reconciliations can silently stop generating. See NetClose User Offboarding Checklist.
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