A close is finished when someone other than the preparer can review it and sign it. In Odoo, most of the steps are built in: bank reconciliation, ageing reports, asset depreciation, lock dates. What is usually missing is the order, the evidence and the sign-off. This is the checklist we use, in the order we use it.
What has to be finished before the close starts?
- All sales invoices and credit notes for the month are posted and, in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, accepted by the ETA or cleared or reported to ZATCA.
- All vendor bills received are posted, and goods received without a bill are identified.
- POS sessions are closed and posted.
- Stock receipts and deliveries for the month are validated, with no draft moves dated in the period.
Step one: are the bank and cash journals reconciled?
Every bank statement line for the month is reconciled in Odoo, and the statement ending balance agrees with the bank’s own statement. Unreconciled items older than the month are listed with an explanation. Cash boxes are counted and agree with the cash journal. Outstanding receipts and payments accounts are reviewed, since items left there are often the first sign of a duplicate or a misposted payment.
Step two: what does the receivable and payable ageing show?
Run the aged receivable and aged payable reports and agree their totals to the control accounts in the trial balance. Review overdue customer balances for collectability and the expected credit loss provision, and review vendor balances for debit balances, duplicates and unapplied credit notes. Customer advances and vendor prepayments should sit in their own accounts, not netted inside receivables and payables.
Step three: which accruals and deferrals are needed?
Post accruals for goods and services received but not yet billed, such as utilities, professional fees and the goods received not invoiced balance. Recognise prepaid expenses and deferred revenue for the portion that belongs to the month. Depending on version and edition, Odoo can generate deferral entries from vendor bills and invoices, and accruals can be posted with an automatic reversal on the first day of the next month, so they do not double count when the bill arrives.
Step four: does inventory agree with the ledger?
Compare the stock valuation report with the balances of the inventory accounts. Under automated valuation they should agree exactly; any difference points to a manual entry on an inventory account or a category with the wrong accounts. Review the stock interim accounts for received and delivered goods for balances that should have cleared, post landed costs for the month’s imports, and record the results of any cycle counts.
Step five: are fixed assets and depreciation up to date?
Confirm that the month’s capital purchases are registered as assets, disposals are recorded and depreciation entries for the month are posted. In Odoo Enterprise, the assets app posts depreciation on its schedule. The asset register should reconcile to the cost and accumulated depreciation accounts.
Step six: are tax and other balance sheet accounts reconciled?
- VAT accounts agree with the tax report, and the VAT return figures agree with both.
- Payroll liabilities, social insurance and withholding tax accounts agree with their supporting schedules.
- Intercompany balances agree on both sides.
- Foreign currency balances are revalued at the month-end rate where the policy requires it.
- Suspense and clearing accounts are at zero or explained.
Step seven: who reviews, and when do you lock?
The preparer hands over the trial balance, the reconciliations and a short note on unusual movements. The reviewer compares the profit and loss with budget and with prior months, questions the large movements and reads the manual journal entries posted in the last days of the month. Only after review are the lock dates set in Odoo, so that nothing can be posted into the closed period without a deliberate, recorded change by an authorised person.
A close without a lock date is a draft.
Many owners we support through our Virtual CFO service start with a close that takes weeks and ends without review. Run consistently, the checklist above shortens itself: each month starts from reconciled balances instead of last month’s open questions.