Who it is for
US bookkeeping firms with 1 to 15 people that do monthly close, cleanup or client accounting services for small businesses.
What gets in the way
- The same statements and payroll reports are requested every month, and the client sends them late.
- The follow-up lives in one person's inbox, so nobody else knows which clients are still open.
- Receipts and bills arrive in pieces, after the close has already started.
- Cleanup clients need a different list, and the old email thread is not a usable record.
The monthly close is the product
A bookkeeping client does not buy a reconciliation. They buy a close that finishes on a predictable date. The collection process is the first half of that promise, and a late statement is a late close.
The firm that sends the same list on the same day every month teaches the client the rhythm. The client learns what to send and when, and the firm spends less time explaining and more time closing.
What to collect every month
Start with the bank and card statements, the payroll register, the sales reports behind the deposits and the receipts above the firm's threshold. Add the loan statements and the changes the client mentioned, such as a new account or a new hire.
Mark the optional items. A client with no payroll should not have to read a payroll item, and a client with no inventory should not see an inventory section. The shorter list is easier to finish.
Use the monthly bookkeeping checklist as the default. It is written for a small business client and covers the records that most often delay a close.
Cleanup clients need a different list
A cleanup is a project with a period, not a monthly close. Ask for the statements for every month in scope, the prior trial balance, the prior bookkeeper's close package and the fixed asset and loan records.
The cleanup checklist should make the finish line explicit: the ending balance and the tax return or loan application that depends on it. A cleanup without an ending balance becomes an open-ended engagement.
Once the cleanup is done, move the client to the monthly checklist. The first clean month is the easiest month to keep clean.
Onboard without an email chain
A new client arrives with a business, a bank account and a folder of records in whatever order they were kept. Send one onboarding checklist: entity details, software access, bank and card list, current-year statements and the prior return.
Agree the first close date before the onboarding list goes out. The client should know when the first close is planned and what the firm needs to hit it.
The onboarding checklist and the monthly checklist are different pages. Do not send the monthly list before the onboarding items are complete.
Where Usual fits
Usual sends the checklist from a link in the firm's email. The client finishes it on a phone without a password or an app, and the answers save as they go.
The firm sets the reminder schedule once. Reminders go out by email on that schedule and stop when everything is in. Accepted files are filed into each client's folders by year.
The firm keeps its ledger and its tax software. Usual does the asking, the follow-up and the filing, and the monthly close starts from a list instead of an inbox.