Which monthly accounting close adjustments should you review?
This checklist is for companies in Colombia. Adapt it to your accounting framework, operations, and policies.
- Accruals and provisions: Identify goods and services received but not recorded. The accountant assesses the obligation and amount before approving the journal entry.
- Depreciation and amortization: Review asset activity and calculate the charges for the period.
- Reconciliations: Compare bank balances, accounts receivable, and accounts payable with supporting records. Document differences and assign someone to resolve them.
- Reclassifications and offsets: Review balances recorded in the wrong accounts or under the wrong counterparties. Keep the reason and approval for each adjustment.
- Unsettled advances and expenses: Identify advances, travel expenses, and other costs without complete documentation. Ask the responsible person to provide it and set a follow-up date.
- Final review: Check that every journal entry has supporting evidence and approval. Keep accepted exceptions and tasks carried into the next period visible.
What do you do with a missing invoice or an unsettled advance?
A missing invoice requires follow-up, but it doesn't determine the accounting or tax treatment on its own.
This is an illustrative example, not a client case. A company receives a maintenance service before the close. The requesting team confirms the service was delivered, but the vendor hasn't sent the invoice.
The dashboard assigns follow-up to purchasing, attaches the service confirmation, and marks the invoice as pending. Accounting reviews the contract and estimates the amount. If appropriate under the applicable framework, accounting proposes a journal entry for the obligation and sends it for approval.
IAS 37, 2021 edition, distinguishes accruals for goods or services received but not yet invoiced. Recognition depends on the facts and the framework that applies to the company.
The journal entry doesn't replace tax documentation. Colombia's tax authority, DIAN, says buyers who need to support costs, deductions, or creditable taxes must request an electronic invoice previously validated by DIAN.
If the vendor isn't required to issue invoices, the buyer prepares a support document for purchases from non-invoicing vendors. That document isn't a substitute for every pending invoice. The tax team should confirm which documentation applies before claiming the tax treatment.
In the same example, an employee has a travel advance without complete expense documentation. The dashboard shows the owner, missing documents, and target date. Accounting reviews the balance and decides how to treat it. It doesn't remove the item just to clear the dashboard. This guide isn't legal or tax advice.
How do you organize the close timeline?
This timeline is an example, not a legal deadline. Count business days from the end of the period and adapt it to your operation.
- Day 1: Gather information. Each team submits its activity and supporting documents. The close owner creates open items and records dependencies, such as confirmation that a service was delivered.
- Day 2: Reconcile and identify differences. Accounting compares balances with bank records and information from other teams. It records each difference on the dashboard with an owner and target date.
- Day 3: Propose adjustments. The team reviews accruals, unsettled advances and expenses, and reclassifications. Each proposal includes evidence and awaits approval. The responsible teams resolve their blockers.
- Day 4: Approve and document. The accountant reviews adjustments and open exceptions. If a decision is missing, the accountant escalates it to the designated owner and records the outcome before closing.
What should the accounting close dashboard show?
The dashboard turns the checklist into assigned work. Each task needs an owner, dependency, and target date. It also needs evidence, a status, and an approval criterion.
Use statuses that indicate the next action: pending, blocked, under review, and approved. A blocked task should show what's missing and who can provide it. The approval criterion explains what the authorized person must review before marking it complete.
For exceptions, add the balance or estimated impact and the escalation date. If an invoice is still missing after the target date, purchasing informs the close owner. The close owner and accounting decide whether the case needs further review or can remain open with follow-up.
Record who approved each decision and when. If the period must be reopened, record the reason, the change, and a new approval. That helps distinguish a planned adjustment from a later correction of an error.
To see whether the close improves, measure days from period-end to approval. Count overdue items and reopenings. Check how many approved tasks have complete evidence and record the causes of blockers.
For an automated comparison, check alerts against a sample reviewed by accounting. Record the actual differences the system detected and the incorrect alerts it generated. Also review the actual differences it missed.
If supporting documents come in different formats, AI can help extract data for review. Compare it with rules and manual work on the same documents. If it doesn't improve results or requires too many corrections, don't use it.
For a related reconciliation problem, see how to handle unidentified bank payments. If the blocker is receiving documents, see our guide to received invoice management.
What can you automate, and how do you choose a tool?
Before buying, check whether your accounting system already lets you assign tasks, store supporting documents, or generate alerts.
| Option | When it makes sense | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Current tool | The team can manage open items and approvals in it. | Permissions, history, and access to supporting documents. |
| Automation platform | You need to connect tools and apply follow-up rules. | Available connections and error handling. |
| Custom development | Multiple sources or controls aren't covered by your current tools. | Maintenance, security, and integration with the accounting system. |
Cost and timing depend on the connections, data quality, and required approvals. Rules can compare records and flag differences; a person retains accounting judgment.
