Solution
A financial pack finance can defend: close, variance, and the forecast on one set of figures, not another weekend in spreadsheets.
Contact UsContact us for a Free Assessment. We'll follow up within 2 business days.
The pack is the view your controller already has to stand behind. We connect the accounting system that holds the books, build the pages the close meeting opens, and show the difference when a report total does not match the general ledger.
Power BI is where that view usually lives. The result that matters is a total finance can check, not a new chart.
The close meeting should be about the business. These are the situations where it turns into a hunt for which file is right.
The accounting system has a close, or a nearly finished one, and a spreadsheet still holds the numbers people will discuss. A late bill, a reclass, or a formula carried forward from last month is enough to make the two versions disagree. The hour goes to finding the gap.
Receivables, payables, and cash often live in a subledger or a bank feed, while the general ledger keeps a control account for each. The control account is the general ledger account that subledger is supposed to match. When an aging report and that account disagree, finance cannot say which customer balance to collect, or which cash number leadership can use.
Someone writes why revenue or an expense moved. If that note is attached to a workbook tab rather than to ledger accounts, the next question is whether the story matches the books. A note that cannot point at the accounts is not ready for the pack.
Plan versus actual, and any forecast built on those actuals, repeats the close argument when the actual is not the same figure as the month-end pack. The forecast review debates the file, and the close debates it again.
If the pack depends on someone who knows which export, which tab, and which adjustment to use, it stops when that person is out. The definitions need to sit with the report, in the words finance already uses.
A report ties to the ledger when its totals reconcile to the general ledger for the same entity, the same books, and the same period. The practical check is the trial balance. Profit and loss lines should equal the income statement accounts. Balance sheet lines should equal the balance sheet accounts. Net income on the profit and loss should be the same net income that rolls into equity.
Subledgers have the same duty. The receivables aging total should equal the receivables control account. The payables aging total should equal the payables control account. Cash on the pack should equal the cash accounts finance treats as cash, including bank and undeposited funds. A grouping finance did not approve does not tie, even when the math inside the report is neat.
Differences are surfaced. They are not plugged. Each pack total carries the report total, the ledger total, and the difference. Zero is a tie. Anything else stays visible. The pack lists the accounts, dates, or documents in the gap, such as an invoice that appears on an aging export and was never posted. That amount is not folded into the meeting total to force a match.
Finance decides whether to post it, drop it from the export, or leave the difference open. The pack does not add a line called other to hide it.
This is a check, not an audit opinion, and not a claim that the books are correct. It tells you whether the report you are reading is the same set of books finance is closing. If the source itself is wrong, the tie-out can still match, and the correction belongs in the close.
The ledger is whichever system holds your books. We connect that system. We do not replace it. The names below are the systems this work often starts from. They are not logos, badges, or a ranking. If you close somewhere else, bring that name to the Free Assessment.
When QuickBooks Online is the ledger, the pack ties to that company file's trial balance. A spreadsheet someone refreshes by hand is not the source of the total.
Related note: QuickBooks Online to Power BI connector retirement
When Xero is the ledger, the pack uses the organization and the reporting basis finance closes on. Profit and loss and the balance sheet should match Xero's trial balance for that period.
When NetSuite is the ledger, the pack follows the subsidiary, the accounting book, and the period finance names. A consolidated total is included only when finance already consolidates that way.
When Sage Intacct is the ledger, the pack follows the entity and the books finance closes. Statistical accounts stay out of the financial totals unless finance has defined them as part of the pack.
When Business Central is the ledger, the pack ties to that company and its posting accounts for the period. Customer and vendor ledgers are the subledgers the aging has to match.
Connecting one of these systems is how the pack gets its totals. It does not replace your accounting product, and it does not redo your chart of accounts.
Synthetic example
A month-end pack is the set of pages finance opens for the close meeting. The first version covers the conversation you already have. Further pages wait until these tie.
These figures are synthetic. They show a fictional close for one month. They are not a SnapBiz client, not a quote, and not a real company's results. A real pack uses your chart of accounts and your trial balance. Amounts are labeled synthetic on every line.
Revenue, expense, and net income for the month, on the accounts finance includes in the close.
Synthetic figure. Revenue $120,000, expenses $78,000, net income $42,000. In this sample those three lines are the whole statement.
Tie-out. They should equal the income statement accounts on the trial balance for the same period. Net income is $42,000 in both places, or the pack shows the difference instead of a second profit number.
Assets, liabilities, and equity at month end. This sample shows only the lines people usually ask about. It is not a complete balance sheet, so these lines are not meant to foot to a total.
Synthetic figure. Cash $180,000, accounts receivable $96,000, accounts payable $41,000. Net income on this statement is the same $42,000 as the profit and loss.
Tie-out. Each selected line ties to its own accounts on the trial balance. The sample does not invent the rest of the statement.
The cash number leadership can use, from the cash accounts finance names, such as bank and undeposited funds.
Synthetic figure. Cash on the pack is $180,000, the same cash line as the balance sheet. The sample movement for the month is an increase of $15,000.
Tie-out. The $180,000 has to equal the cash accounts on the trial balance. The movement explains the change between periods. It is not a second cash balance.
Open customer invoices grouped by age. The aging is a subledger. The control account is the general ledger account it has to match.
Synthetic figure. Aging export $96,400. Receivables control account $96,000. Difference $400.
Tie-out. The $400 is one sample invoice, INV-1044, present on the aging export and not posted to the ledger. It is listed as an exception. It is not added to the pack. The meeting total for receivables stays at the ledger figure, $96,000, until finance posts the invoice or removes it from the export.
Open vendor bills grouped by age. The aging is a subledger.
Synthetic figure. Payables aging $41,000. Payables control account $41,000. Difference $0.
Tie-out. A zero difference means this aging ties. The sample has no payables exception list.
Actuals for the month beside the budget finance already approved, on the same accounts as the profit and loss.
Synthetic figure. Revenue actual $120,000 versus a budget of $128,000, which is $8,000 under budget. The actual is the same $120,000 as the profit and loss.
Tie-out. If the actual came from a different export, the variance would be about the file. The actual has to be the ledger total.
A short note on why a line moved, written against the accounts that moved. The wording below is sample narration, not a quote from a client or a colleague.
Synthetic figure. Contractor expense, which sits inside the $78,000 of expenses, is $6,000 over its own monthly budget because two bills posted in this month.
Tie-out. The note names the accounts and the bills. It does not introduce a new total. If that $6,000 is not in those expense accounts, the commentary is wrong and the pack should say so.
Read together, the sample is one close. Revenue is $120,000 on the profit and loss and $120,000 in budget versus actual. Cash is $180,000 on the balance sheet and $180,000 in the cash section. Receivables on the pack stay at the ledger's $96,000, with the unposted $400 shown beside it. Nothing is adjusted to make a page look finished.
The first build follows the pack you need for the meeting you already run. A typical set includes the following.
Profit and loss, balance sheet, cash, receivables aging, payables aging, budget versus actual, and a place for variance commentary.
Report total, ledger total, and difference, with the documents or accounts behind any difference. No plug line.
QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, or another system that holds the books. Refreshes land on a schedule finance can see.
A short note of what revenue, cash, and receivables include, and which entity and period the pack uses. The note stays with the pack.
The view the group can use without a private reconcile the night before.
How to refresh, who can see the pack, and what to do when a difference is not zero. Managed Data Services is available later if you want the pack kept current.
The assessment is a conversation, not a build. We use it to see whether a month-end pack is the right first project, and what that project should include.
Contact us for a Free Assessment. We'll follow up within 2 business days.
If the work is worth doing, the next step is a paid build. Keeping the pack current is a separate decision after that.
Contact UsIt means the report totals reconcile to the general ledger for the same entity, books, and period. The check is the trial balance. Profit and loss ties to the income statement accounts. The balance sheet ties to the balance sheet accounts. Receivables, payables, and cash tie to their control accounts. If the report and the ledger differ, the pack shows the difference and the records behind it. It does not hide the gap with a plug.
QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, when that product is the ledger. If you close in a different system, say so on the assessment. We connect the system that holds the books. We do not replace your accounting software. Naming these products is not a badge.
No. The close stays with finance. The pack is a view of that close, with totals that can be checked against the trial balance. We do not become your accounting department. Posting journal entries is not part of this work unless a later, separate scope says so.
Profit and loss, balance sheet, cash, receivables aging, payables aging, budget versus actual, and variance commentary. The first version covers the meeting you already have. More pages wait until those tie.
No. Every figure in the sample close is synthetic. The sample shows the shape of a pack and how a difference is shown. It is not a result, a testimonial, or a real company's books.
The close pack sits next to planning, revenue, and the services that connect and maintain it.
Contact us for a Free Assessment. We'll follow up within 2 business days.
Contact Us