Excite Tax's checklist for Utah owners: a monthly TC-62S or TC-62M sales-tax return is due the last day of the next month, so reconcile every account and review payables and receivables first.
Excite Tax's close runs in four moves: record every transaction, reconcile every bank, card and loan account to its statement, review what customers owe and what the business owes, then read the profit and loss and balance sheet before locking the month. The full checklist is below, free and ungated.
Record transactions weekly and close the books monthly. The IRS says to reconcile the business checking account each month, and a monthly depositor owes federal payroll tax by the 15th day of the following month, so a month left open is a deposit made from guesses. The routine is laid out below.
It scales with transactions, not revenue: count bank and card lines, invoices and payrolls. Payroll alone is a measurable load; the IRS estimates a Form 941 filer spends 62 hours a year on average, 18 of them on recordkeeping. Excite Tax's breakdown of where the hours go is below.
Read the balance sheet before the profit and loss. Every bank balance should equal its reconciled statement, sales tax payable should equal the return, and payroll liabilities should be back near zero once deposits clear. Then compare the month's profit and loss with the month before and the same month last year, and ask about anything that moved. The questions to ask are below.
Matching each invoice to the payment that settled it. On the customer side, every deposit is applied to the invoice it paid, so the open-invoice list shows only what is really unpaid. On the vendor side, every payment is matched to a bill, so nothing is paid twice or left hanging.
Yes. The whole checklist is on this page as a plain table: no email, no signup. Excite Tax publishes it so an owner can close a month alone, or check that whoever keeps the books is doing each step.
Work down the table in order. A later step depends on the one above it: a profit and loss run before the bank is reconciled is a report on guesses.
Month-end close checklist for a small business
| Task | Done when |
|---|---|
| Gather every bank, card and loan statement for the month, plus receipts, vendor bills and payroll reports. | Each account has a statement dated the last day of the month, or its cycle date. |
| Record every sale, deposit, bill and payment, and categorize each bank and card line. | No uncategorized or unexplained transaction is left for the month. |
| Reconcile each bank account to its statement; the IRS says to do this each month. | The reconciled balance equals the statement, and every difference is a listed uncleared item. |
| Reconcile each credit card and loan account to its statement. | Card balances match; loan payments are split between principal and interest. |
| Apply customer payments to invoices, then read the unpaid-invoice (receivables) list. | Every open invoice is truly unpaid, and anything very late has a follow-up or a write-off decision. |
| Match vendor payments to bills, then read the unpaid-bills (payables) list. | Nothing is paid twice, and every open bill has a due date. |
| Book payroll from the payroll provider's reports. | Wages, employer taxes and withholding in the books agree with the provider's register, and the tax deposits have cleared. |
| Tie sales tax collected to the sales-tax liability account. | The liability equals what the next return will report. |
| Record owner draws, contributions and any money moved between business and personal accounts. | Owner activity sits in equity, not in income or expenses. |
| On the accrual method, book adjusting entries: unpaid expenses, prepaid costs, depreciation. | The month carries its own costs, not the next month's. |
| Review the balance sheet, then the profit and loss. | Every question has an answer, or a note to find one. |
| Lock the month in the ledger software. | Nothing can post into a closed month without someone reopening it on purpose. |
For how the accrual method changes the adjusting-entries step, see cash vs accrual accounting. For the December version of this list, see the year-end bookkeeping checklist.
Take a Utah shop with one checking account, closing April 2026, and follow the IRS method: start from last month's ending balance, add the month's deposits and subtract the month's payments. The figures below are an illustration, not IRS numbers.
Checking account, April 2026, by the IRS Publication 583 method (illustrative figures)
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Books balance at March 31 (last month's ending balance) | $12,400 |
| Plus April deposits recorded in the books (the month's deposits) | $18,250 |
| Less April payments recorded in the books (the month's payments) | $15,900 |
| Books balance at April 30 (should agree with the month-end balance) | $14,750 |
The April statement shows $15,585, not $14,750, and Publication 583 names the usual reasons: bank charges not yet in the books, deposits made after the statement date, and checks that had not cleared.
Reconciling the difference
| Side | Adjustment | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Bank | Statement $15,585, less two checks written April 28 that had not cleared, $860 | $14,725 |
| Books | Books $14,750, less a monthly service charge not yet entered in the books, $25 | $14,725 |
Both sides now agree at $14,725, which is what reconciling is for: it verifies the balance, puts every bank charge in the books and catches errors. Record the fee, list the uncleared checks, and the account is done. If the two sides still disagree, the difference is an error to find now, while April is fresh, not in March of next year.
The same April then feeds the filings. If the shop is a monthly federal depositor, April's payroll taxes are due by May 15, 2026. As a monthly Utah sales-tax filer, its April return is due June 1, 2026: the last day of the following month, or the next business day, and May 31 is a Sunday. April also sits in the second quarter, so it rolls into the Form 941 due July 31, 2026 and the Utah withholding return due the same day.
Federal payroll and Utah deadlines that depend on a closed month
| Obligation | Due |
|---|---|
| Federal payroll-tax deposit, monthly depositor | By the 15th day of the following month |
| Federal payroll-tax deposit, semiweekly depositor | Wednesday to Friday paydays by the following Wednesday; Saturday to Tuesday paydays by the following Friday |
| A day on which accumulated payroll tax reaches the next-day threshold | $100,000 or more is due by the next business day |
| Quarterly federal payroll return | Form 941: April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31 |
| Utah sales and use tax return | The last day of the month after the filing period, on TC-62S or TC-62M, filed electronically |
| Utah withholding return | April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31 |
Which deposit schedule applies is set once a year. The IRS makes an employer a monthly depositor at $50,000 or less of taxes in the lookback period, and a semiweekly depositor above that; for 2026, the lookback period runs from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. A business new to payroll is a monthly depositor for its first calendar year.
A semiweekly depositor cannot wait for month-end to see payroll; that account is reviewed every payday. A monthly depositor can fold payroll into the close, but only if the close finishes before the deposit is due.
Excite Tax's answer is a routine with three speeds. Each one catches a different kind of error while it is still cheap to fix.
The checklist above, started as soon as the statements arrive. The IRS guidance is to reconcile each month, and a Utah business on monthly sales-tax returns files by the last day of the next month whether the books are closed or not.
Quarter-ends add the payroll returns: Form 941 by the last day of the month after the quarter. Year-end adds contractor and wage forms; the year-end checklist has those dates. A business that only does books once a year does all twelve closes in January.
Real-time bookkeeping usually means bank feeds: transactions flow into the ledger daily, and rules categorize most of them. That keeps the data current. It is not a close. A bank feed does not know that a deposit paid two invoices, that a transfer went to the owner, or that a card charge was personal. Those still need a person, and the month still needs reconciling to the statement, because a feed can drop or double a line. Automation shortens the weekly routine; it does not remove the monthly one.
The honest answer depends on volume. What drives the hours is the number of accounts to reconcile, the number of transactions in each, whether receipts and bills arrive on time, and whether there is payroll or inventory. A consultant with one checking account and a handful of invoices has a short close; a shop with two card accounts, inventory and weekly payroll has a long one.
Payroll is the one piece the IRS has measured. Its estimate for a Form 941 filer is 62 hours a year, 18 of them recordkeeping, and it notes that these are national averages and most employers spend less. Small employers carry more per person: an employer issuing four Forms W-2 averages 63.6 hours a year.
The close runs slowest the first time, and whenever it slips. A month closed on schedule is mostly checking; a month closed six months late is mostly research. Books already behind are a different job: see how to fix messy books.
The review is why the close exists. The IRS puts it plainly: records show whether the business is improving, which items are selling and what needs to change. Excite Tax reads the two reports in this order, because the balance sheet shows one date and the income statement covers a period, and the period is only right if the date is.
Write down each answer. A note that says why rent doubled this month saves an hour at tax time.
The checklist does not change with the software. In QuickBooks Online, or any other ledger, the same steps map to the same screens:
The software records whatever it is told. A deposit added as new income when it paid an existing invoice counts the sale twice, and only the receivables review catches it.
The Tax Commission sets the sales-tax calendar by size: quarterly at $50,000 or less of annual sales-tax liability, monthly from $50,001. Returns are TC-62S and TC-62M, filed electronically through Taxpayer Access Point, due the last day of the month after the filing period, moving to the next business day when that falls on a weekend or holiday. Withholding runs on its own quarterly clock: TC-941E returns due April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31. A monthly sales-tax filer is the business that most needs a monthly close, because the return is due whether the month is reconciled or not.
Hand the books over when keeping them costs more hours than the business can spare, or when they stop agreeing with the bank.
Filing the Utah sales-tax return itself is not a service Excite Tax lists yet; you, or whoever you authorise, file it with the Utah State Tax Commission.
Excite Tax keeps these books; the return they feed is reviewed and signed by a licensed CPA at TBD CPA LLC.
Ranked and explained on the sources page.