A month-end close checklist for UAE SMEs
The eight steps of a defensible month-end close — bank to lock — in the order that avoids rework, and where the time actually goes.
The order matters
Most close pain is sequencing pain: accruals proposed before the AP cutoff, VAT drafted before the bank is matched, a lock that has to be reopened. The list below is ordered so each step's inputs are already settled when you reach it.
The eight steps
- 1 · Documents in — chase the stragglers: every invoice, receipt and statement for the month filed and readable, duplicates eliminated
- 2 · AP cutoff — post everything received; list what's expected but missing (that list feeds the accruals)
- 3 · Bank reconciliation — every bank line matched to a document or explicitly explained; unmatched lines are findings, not filler
- 4 · Accruals & prepayments — accrue the missing regulars (rent, utilities, subscriptions), release the prepayment schedules due this month
- 5 · Depreciation & payroll — post depreciation across classes; post the payroll run with EOSB gratuity provision movements
- 6 · VAT draft — build the return from the posted ledger, with input VAT held on any invoice that fails the tax-invoice test
- 7 · Variance review — explain the month's significant movements line-by-line; what can't be explained gets flagged, not smoothed
- 8 · Lock — when every gate is green, close and lock the period, in Orbit and in the connected ledger, so it cannot quietly change
What a good close looks like
Two to three days, not two to three weeks. The measure isn't speed for its own sake — it's that steps 1–6 are mechanical and should run themselves, leaving human time for step 7, the only step that actually requires judgement.
A defensible close also leaves a trail: every posting carries its evidence, every adjustment its reason, every lock its timestamp. If handing the month to an auditor makes you nervous, the close isn't done — it's just stopped.
How Orbit applies this
Orbit runs steps 1–6 as agents with confidence gates, presents step 7 as plain-language decisions with the evidence attached, and enforces step 8 as a hard lock that agents cannot cross. The close cockpit shows the whole checklist live — what's done, what's posting, what needs you.