The monthly 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 done yet. The bank is updated through Wednesday, the depreciations still need to go into the journal, and the suspense account shows an amount that nobody can place anymore. August starts on Monday, and by then you want to see figures instead of backlogs.

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

From a stack of reports to a conversation

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

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 where 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, journal and sub-ledgers

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 on it straight away: match open invoices to payments, including partial payments, and write off a remaining difference to payment differences. Every connection comes back as a proposal first, and you confirm it.

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

Sub-ledgers reconciled. Ask for the outstanding balance of your accounts receivable and payable and compare it with the general ledger balances on the balance sheet. If it matches, you tick it off. If there is a difference, you know right away 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 it search for entries without a VAT code or with a code that does not match the turnover. The AI 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 have a balance and follow up on each one: which entries are in there, 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 them yourself afterwards, because the AI does not send e-mails on its own.

The time saved, and the checklist to keep

That depends on how you close the books now. The gain lies in the intermediate steps that disappear. No exporting reports, no comparisons in Excel, no hunting 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 no longer skip any. Our experience is that exactly that consistency improves the quality of the figures the most.

Close the month with a look at the result. Place last month's profit and loss account next to the one before it and explain the outliers. Only then is the month truly closed.

The checklist in a row, 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 connected to the general ledger
4. VAT totals checked per code, entries without a code traced
5. Suspense accounts empty or explained
6. Ageing of accounts receivable and payable reviewed, reminders prepared

Example prompts for your own closing

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 debtors 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 free with Exact AI Connect →