Month-end close checklist for multi-entity contractors

Close at a job-costed, multi-entity firm isn't hard because the accounting is exotic. It's hard because the same handful of steps repeat across every entity, and AP volume turns each step into hours. Here's the working checklist, roughly in dependency order, with a note on which items are pure grind versus actual judgment.

1. AP cutoff (the grind)

• Chase down invoices still sitting in project managers' inboxes.
• Enter every invoice received through month-end: vendor, job, cost code, entity.
• Scan for duplicates: same vendor, same amount, slightly different invoice number.
• Accrue received-not-invoiced for big subs and suppliers.

This is where the week goes. Coding one invoice takes two minutes; coding three hundred across four entities takes days, and every mis-keyed entity costs you twice: once now, once when you find it.

2. Job cost reconciliation (the judgment)

• Tie job cost ledger to the GL, per entity.
• Review cost-to-complete on active jobs; update projections where costs moved.
• Check committed vs. invoiced on major subcontracts; anything over commitment needs a story.

3. Intercompany (the multi-entity tax)

• Settle intercompany balances: management fees, shared payroll, allocated overhead.
• Confirm every intercompany pair nets to zero before consolidating.
• Find the invoice that posted to the wrong LLC and move it. There's always one.

4. Banking, WIP, and the rest

• Bank recs per entity, including job-specific accounts lenders require.
• WIP schedule: over/under billings by job.
• Draw reconciliation on funded projects.
• Close the period, run consolidated statements, write down what broke for next month.

The pattern

Sections 2 and 4 need a controller's judgment. Section 1, plus the wrong-LLC hunt in section 3, is mechanical work that scales linearly with invoice volume. That's the part worth automating: invoices read, coded to job and entity, checked, and returned as balanced journal entries your team approves. The judgment stays human; the typing doesn't.