Lab 06 · Month-end close and group reporting

Scenario: It is the final day of March. Four branches have closed their shifts, two warehouses have goods in transit, Saudi has an open USD payable, and the group CFO needs a comparable report by country.

Close checklist

1. Confirm all branches submitted POS and document batches.
2. Review unposted, failed, cancelled, and draft transactions.
3. Reconcile cash, cards, wallets, payment gateways, and bank statements.
4. Reconcile receivables, payables, advances, and customer/supplier credits.
5. Count or validate inventory, goods in transit, damaged stock, expiry, and valuation.
6. Review purchase and sales tax reports with the responsible local reviewer.
7. Run payroll only after attendance, leave, revisions, approvals, and posting responsibilities are complete.
8. Record approved accruals, prepayments, depreciation, provisions, and FX revaluation.
9. Match inter-company balances and prepare elimination evidence.
10. Run trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet, stock valuation, ageing, and branch profitability reports.
11. Investigate variances; do not force totals to agree by deleting source transactions.
12. Obtain review approval and lock the period.
13. Export the close pack with report filters, timestamp, approver, and supporting references.

Group dashboard questions

• Which country grew sales but lost margin?
• Is the variance operational, currency-driven, or a consolidation effect?
• Which branch has stock-outs while another has excess?
• Are card settlements still in clearing?
• Are inter-company balances symmetrical?
• Which tax or payroll items require specialist review?

Assessment evidence

The learner submits a close checklist, reconciliations, variance explanations, report filters, approval record, and period-lock evidence. A future assessor should be able to reproduce the result without receiving private customer, employee, or bank data.

Important: This is an educational close model. Country-specific statutory filing, tax rates, payroll rules, and audit opinions require qualified local review and must not be inferred from this Academy page.