The month-end close with AI: complete checklist and time savings

Friday 31 July, mid-afternoon. The last working day of the month, and the closing list is not finished yet. The bank is up to date until Wednesday, the depreciations still need to go into the general journal, and the suspense account holds an amount that nobody can trace anymore. Monday starts August, and by then you want figures instead of a backlog.

This is how the month-end close goes at many companies: a tough exercise of lists, exports and yet more checking. It can be tighter. With an AI assistant that looks straight into your Exact Online administration, the close becomes a conversation. For each check step you ask one question and get an answer with the underlying entries alongside. Below you will find the complete checklist, with what you ask and what you get back at each step.

From a stack of reports to a conversation

Through Exact AI Connect you connect your own AI assistant to Exact Online, with MCP, the open connector standard for AI assistants. You can read about the technology behind it in our explanation of the connector. For the close, this is what matters most: every answer comes from your own administration, and every write action is first put to you for confirmation by the AI.

So you no longer switch between reports, exports and spreadsheets. You work through the checklist from top to bottom, in plain English, and ask follow-up questions wherever something stands out. The order below is deliberate: first make sure everything is booked, then check whether it is correct.

Start with the basics: bank, general journal and subledgers

Bank updated and reconciled. Ask which bank lines from last month have not yet been reconciled. You get the list with date and amount, and you can act straight away: connecting open invoices to payments, including part payments, and writing off a remaining difference to payment differences. Every connection comes back as a proposal first, and you confirm it.

General journal entries complete. Have the AI place this month's general journal entries next to those of last month. If the fixed depreciation entry or the payroll journal entry is missing, that stands out immediately. The AI can prepare the missing entry for you, with your approval as the final step.

Subledgers reconciled. Ask for the open balance of your accounts receivable and payable and place it next to the general ledger balances on the balance sheet. If it matches, you tick it off. If there is a difference, you know at once where to look, for example a manual entry that landed directly on the general ledger account.

Finish with VAT, suspense accounts and ageing

VAT categories correct. Ask for the VAT totals per code for the past month and have the AI search for entries without a VAT code or with a code that does not match the turnover. It also recognises reverse-charge VAT and EU supplies. Anyone who keeps this up monthly starts the quarterly return without surprises.

Suspense accounts empty. An empty suspense account is the quickest proof that the month is correct. Ask which suspense accounts still hold a balance and ask follow-up questions for each: which entries are in it, and which relation do they belong to? Cross entries, query items and amounts still to be invoiced surface by themselves this way.

Ageing reviewed. Finish with the ageing analysis of accounts receivable and payable. Ask who has been outstanding for more than 60 days and have a draft payment reminder written straight away for those items. You send it yourself afterwards, as the AI does not send e-mails on its own.

The time saved, and the checklist to keep

That depends on how you close now. The gain lies in the intermediate steps that disappear. No exporting reports, no comparisons in Excel, no searching for the right view, you ask the question and assess the answer. What remains is the work that really matters: explaining differences and deciding what to do about them. And because a single check takes hardly any effort, you never skip one again. Our experience is that this consistency improves the quality of the figures the most.

Close the month with a look at the result. Have last month's profit and loss statement placed next to that of the month before and explain the outliers. Only then is the month truly closed.

The checklist at a glance, to copy into your own closing file:

1. Bank updated and all bank rules reconciled
2. Fixed journal entries posted (depreciation, payroll journal entry)
3. Subledgers matched to the general ledger
4. VAT totals per code checked, entries without a code traced
5. Suspense accounts empty or explained
6. Ageing of accounts receivable and payable reviewed, reminders prepared

Frequently asked questions

Can AI fully automate my month-end close?

No, and that is just as well. The AI collects, compares and flags, while assessing and approving remain human work. Every entry the AI proposes, you confirm first. Think of it as an assistant that does the groundwork, not as a replacement for you or your accountant.

Do I need the analytics subscription for this?

For most checks, no. Reconciling, suspense accounts, VAT totals and the ageing analysis work with standard functions and therefore with any subscription. If you want to analyse monthly trends across large datasets, you use the trial period or the analytics variant.

Is it safe to let AI look into my administration?

Yes. If you wish, set the connector to read-only or limit write permissions per role. How to configure that is explained in our article on setting permissions. Exact AI Connect is also ISO 27001 certified and independently pentested. We only store financial data with the Analytics subscription, in a secure analysis environment within the EU that we delete as soon as you stop.

Does this also work if my accountant handles the close?

Yes. A firm connects multiple client administrations under one organisation and repeats the checks per administration. Authorisation still applies per user and per administration: the AI only sees what the logged-in user is allowed to see.

Example prompts for your own close

Copy these questions into your connected AI assistant and work through them in order:

Which bank rules from last month have not yet been reconciled?

Which suspense accounts still have a balance? Show the amount per account.

Give the total of last month's entries per VAT code.

Which accounts receivable have been outstanding for more than 60 days?

Show last month's profit and loss account and compare it with the month before.

Want to try it yourself? Start for free with Exact AI Connect →