Closing a month turns a company's files or synced months into statements, checks and reports, and locks the month so its figures cannot change by accident.
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Windows appAvailable
Closing a month is the step that makes figures. Haruno reads the company's files or its synced QuickBooks months, posts them to the company's ledger, runs the checks, writes the statements, the reconciliation and the investor report, and locks the month.
A ledger is the company's complete record of every account. A locked month is one whose figures are fixed. Nobody can change them without saying why.
Where to start a close
Close month… on a company page closes that company.
Close month… in the Portfolio toolbar closes every company that is ready.
Books ▸ Close Month… does the same from the menu.
The check that comes before a close, over the demo portfolio.
Look before you close
The sheet opens on a check. Nothing is written yet. For each company it says whether the close will go ahead:
Will close or Will not close;
how many new files have arrived since the last close, and their names;
which locked months stand in the way.
A company with no approved mapping is listed with a note that no mapping has been approved yet. See Mappings.
If a close is blocked, the row says why and offers Reopen…, or Open company to go and look.
Run the close
Press Close month. The sheet shows the steps one after another:
Reading the exports
Posting to the ledger
Running the checks
Statements
Reconciliation
Investor report
Adjustments log
Locking the month
Portfolio figures
Each company has its own row, so you can follow a portfolio close. Cancel stops the run. Haruno stops between steps. If nothing was locked yet, the sheet says so: the months are as they were, and you can close again whenever the files are ready.
If a run had already locked some months before it stopped, the sheet tells you to check the close lock before closing again.
Only one close or draft runs at a time. Exports wait for it.
After the close
The company's page shows the new figures, statements and checks.
Haruno drafts questions for management from this month's figures. This runs quietly, takes a minute or two, and sends nothing. See Findings and questions.
The investor report is a draft until someone reviews it. See Investor report.
Locked months and corrections
A month that is closed is locked. If a new export would change a figure in a locked month, the close is refused. The message names the months, and the sheet offers Reopen… with those months already ticked.
Reopening a month
Reopen… opens Reopen a reported month. Pick the months and write a Reason. A reason is required. It is kept with the month and printed in the statement package. Press Reopen. The sheet then says the months are open again and offers Close month….
Each reopening is recorded in the month's history, with who did it and when.
A small correction to an old month
Sometimes a late change to a locked month is small. Haruno then offers a choice before it reopens anything. It shows the month's net income as reported and as restated, how big the change is against revenue, and whether it is within the company's materiality. Materiality is the size below which a difference is not worth a finding.
You choose between:
Keep … as reported and record the difference in …. This is the recommended choice. The later month carries the difference, with your note. Nothing reported changes.
Reopen … and restate it.
Write a short note, such as why it changed. It is printed in the statement package beside the figures. A change to the mapping can only be handled by reopening.
The months list
The line under a company's name, for example 41 months locked, opens the list of its months. It shows which are closed and which are open, the state of each, and its history. From there you can Reopen… a month or open Restatements…, which lists the months that moved, from what to what, and why.
A month's state is one of fully reconciled, reported with exception, not reconciled, not recorded or open. Not reconciled means the close found nothing wrong but had no reconciliation to look at.
What to tell a customer
A close is safe to try. Haruno shows what it would do before it does it. Once a month is locked, its figures change only on purpose, with a reason written down. That reason follows the month into every report.