Review is where the close earns trust, and sign-off is where it becomes defensible to anyone who asks later. A reviewer working a blank page catches less than a reviewer working a checklist. Here’s how to make review repeatable.
The free month-end close checklist ends each close with a sign-off step.
Review with a pack, not a blank page
Give the reviewer a defined set of questions — a sign-off pack — each mapped to a phase, so a fail points straight back to where the work is:
- Preparation — scope confirmed, opening balances agreed?
- Reconciliations — every control account reconciles; unmatched items within threshold or documented?
- Suspense — zero, or every item owned and dated?
- Accruals — prior accruals reversed; current entries supported; estimates documented?
- Variance — every material movement explained, corrected, or escalated?
- Balance sheet — every balance backed by a reconciliation or schedule?
- Reporting — accounts match the client’s agreed format?
- Audit trail — sign-off records who reviewed, what, and when?
Sign-off as a gate
Make sign-off a gate, not an afterthought: if any pack item fails, the accounts go back to the preparer with notes before they’re issued. As a decision: all sign-off items pass? → no → return to preparer; yes → record and issue.
Recording the trail
The record of who reviewed, what they checked, and when is the audit trail. Done by hand it’s often skipped under deadline. Recorded automatically as the close runs in PathPilot, it builds itself. The full sign-off pack ships with the Month-End Close System.
See the wider sequence in the month-end close process guide.