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One A4 page of the only inputs a bookkeeper needs from you to close the month by the 10th — bank feed, statements, one monthly sign-off. Drop your email below and the PDF downloads immediately, no marketing follow-up.
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What close-by-the-10th actually requires from the owner side
Most of the monthly close is the bookkeeper’s work. Your job is small, fixed, and never grows — it is the part only you can do.
Closing a month by the 10th means the prior month is finished, not a draft, not almost. By the morning of the 10th, every bank and credit-card account is reconciled to its statement, every transaction sits in the right line on the chart of accounts, and the four reports (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, plain-English notes) are ready in language an owner can read without a CPA in the room.
The deadline is more than a calendar note. A finished month on the 10th gives the second half of the month real numbers to act on: hiring, pricing, which slow-paying customer to nudge. Without it, calls slip to next month, and by the time the books are current again the year is half over.
It also closes the quarter cleanly. The year-over-year comparison finally means something in Q2, and the report your CPA wants is already together before April planning starts. Without a clean 10th-of-the-month close, the quarter that ends March 31st does not get its closing pass until mid-April, and the year-over-year drift compounds every quarter it slips.
The cost of being late does not usually arrive as a single fire. It is quieter: hiring and pricing decisions made on vibes, cash getting tight in ways the owner could have seen coming, and a year-end close that lands in February or March trying to reconstruct three quarters of history from memory.
A cleanup engagement also scales with how far behind the books are and how clean the source documents are. Three months of bank-and-card-only catch-up at the start of the year is meaningfully cheaper than a 24-month full re-reconcile at the end of a missed-tax-deadline scramble.
The good news is that the owner side is small. Most of the close is the bookkeeper's work - reconciliation, categorization, the reports, the read-out. Your side is fixed, never grows, and is the part only you can do. The checklist below is exactly that part.
The owner inputs (everything else, we handle)
Owner input 01
Forward the prior month's statements or grant portal access (most banks do this in two clicks). The bookkeeper reconciles every account to the penny.
Owner input 02
Reply to a single email when something needs your call - usually a single reply, never a thread. The bookkeeper flags the rest.
Owner input 03
After the plain-English read-out, sign off on the close. Five minutes of your time, on your schedule, never a meeting.
Preview - inside the PDF
The PDF is the same list, formatted for one printable A4 page so you can pin it next to your banking app and tick the items off each month.
Maulding Bookkeeping - Owner’s Monthly Checklist
| # | What you send your bookkeeper |
|---|---|
| 01 | Forward every bank and credit-card statement for the prior month (or grant portal access - most banks do this in two clicks). |
| 02 | Send in any receipt or invoice that lives outside the bank feed - reimbursables, cash sales, odd one-offs. |
| 03 | Reply to one clarifying email about anything the bookkeeper needs your call on (usually a single reply, never a thread). |
| 04 | Confirm any unusual or one-time transactions the bookkeeper flagged during the month - the deposit that does not repeat, the refund, the wire that is not a sale. |
| 05 | Sign off on the close after the plain-English read-out - usually five minutes, never a meeting. |
| 06 | Note any upcoming cash events for next month - large invoices, payroll changes, a planned equipment purchase. |
| 07 | Approve any chart-of-accounts mapping the bookkeeper proposes for a new transaction type that came up this month. |
Closing the month by the 10th happens when three things are true at once: the bank and credit-card statements are reconciled, every transaction is categorized to your chart of accounts, and the four reports (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, plain-English notes) are in your inbox by end of business. The checklist above lists the only owner inputs that move a close from late to finished. Book a free 30-minute consultation at mauldingbookkeeping.com to walk through how it would look for your business.
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