Close the month
The order to do things in so that payroll, revenue and your accounts all agree — and stay agreed.
Month-end goes wrong when things are done in the wrong order — a payroll locked before attendance was confirmed, an accounting sync run before the last payments were keyed. This is the order that works.
1. Finish the operational month
Confirm every day's attendance. Unconfirmed days are invisible to payroll and to your dashboards. Work backwards through the month and finalise anything outstanding.
Clear the approval backlog. Freezes, extensions and carry-forwards left pending distort both the month you are closing and the one you are starting.
Record any closures that were not entered at the time, so the month is not judged on days you were shut.
2. Finish the money
Key every payment received. Bank transfers that arrived late in the month belong in the month they arrived, dated accordingly.
Deal with the mistakes now. A mis-keyed sale should be voided, and a genuine early exit cancelled to credit, before anything is filed. Both get harder afterwards.
Check the outstanding list. Unpaid invoices are receivables; the month should close with a known figure, not a surprise.
3. Run payroll
Review the draft, then lock it. See Check the month's payroll and Lock a payroll month.
Lock only when attendance is confirmed and complete. A locked month keeps the figures it was approved with — that is the point of locking, and it is also why locking early is expensive.
4. Push to your accounts
If your academy syncs to an accounting system, run it after everything above. Preview first, then sync, then work through any failures.
See Send your invoices to your accounts.
5. Read the month
- Overview Dashboard — attendance, sign-ups, stops, progress.
- Marketing dashboard — what each customer cost.
- Credit consumption — what you have been paid for and not yet taught.
Related: Lock a payroll month · Send your invoices to your accounts · How revenue is counted.