The month-end close, step by step.
How a Philippine company on Juan is closed in Mendiola: 28 steps in 11 phases, each saying who does it today. Mendiola checks and proposes; your people decide, sign off and lock.
Procedure 2.1.0, as of 6 November 2026, word for word as the product holds it. The steps Mendiola does run in the automated close, which is switched on with each alpha firm. Print it as a checklist for your own next close, or read the BIR invoice rules its completeness steps rely on.
Scope
The right company's books, the period's dates, the books read in full, and nothing already locked inside the period.
- S0.1The right organizationMendiola checks
Compare the organization the company's Juan key opens with the one the company is set up for. On a mismatch nothing else runs: a close in the wrong books is worse than no close.
- S0.2The period, read in full, with nothing locked inside itMendiola checks
The period's dates come from the company's own cadence and financial year. The books are read in full for those dates, and whatever could not be read is said. An account already locked in Juan on a date inside the period holds the close, because nothing dated there can be corrected.
Completeness
Everything that happened in the period is in Juan before anything is tied out. This is where closes go wrong.
- S1.1Every document received is in JuanMendiola checks
Each document that reached Mendiola for the period has been sent to Juan, and nothing is held, failed or still sending. A missing bill is entered by the sweep from Documents, never by the close.
- S1.2No drafts in the periodMendiola checks
A draft in Juan dated in the period is not in the books. The preparer approves or deletes each one before the close.
- S1.3Cut-offMendiola checks
Documents that arrived after the last check but are dated in this period, and documents dated either side of the period end, are looked at so each one lands in the right month.
- S1.4The client's own listing, compared by referenceA person, for now
Where the client keeps its own list of sales or purchases, compare it with Juan document by document, by reference, never by totals: totals that agree can hide a missing document and a duplicate. Mendiola does not read a client's listing yet, so a person does this.
- S1.5Sales numbering and duplicate referencesMendiola checks
Sales invoice numbers run on without a gap, and no document reference is entered twice in Juan.
- S1.6POS sales sentMendiola checks
Where the company sells through a POS, the month's sales period has been released to Juan from its period page.
Book what happened
The books say what happened, and a judgment that changes them is a person's.
- S2.1When documents and payments disagree with policyA person
When what the documents say and what was paid disagree with the company's policy (tax that should have been withheld and was not, for one), the payments are the evidence. The gap is an exposure to disclose, read on the company's Exposure page, not a liability to book.
- S2.2A judgment that changes the numbersA person
An accrual, a reclassification, a write-off: any judgment that changes the numbers is put to a person with its evidence, and booked only on their word.
Withholding regime
Which withholding rules apply follows from what the company does.
- S3.1Top Withholding Agent statusA person
Whether the company withholds as a Top Withholding Agent follows from what it does and what the BIR has told it, not from a setting or a file. Confirm it before the withholding is looked at; the company's Exposure page prices the withholding.
Bank
Every bank account reconciled to its statement through the period end.
- S4.1Statements cover the periodMendiola checks
Each bank account in Juan has statement lines through the period end.
- S4.2Every line reconciledMendiola proposes, a person approves
Every statement line to the period end is reconciled in Juan. Match a line by the reference printed in its description, not by the order Juan's matcher suggests. Mendiola proposes how to reconcile each line (by the reference printed on it, Juan's own suggestion when it agrees, or Claude for the rest); a person approves each, and Mendiola makes that one write in Juan.
- Watch for: Reconciling in Juan is not safe to repeat: a second call makes a second payment.
- Watch for: A receivable or payable control account takes journals only, never a cash entry.
- S4.3Ledger cash ties to the statementMendiola checks
After every bank write, the ledger's cash for each account equals the statement's closing balance at the period end.
- S4.4Possible duplicates, and foreign currency revaluedMendiola checks
Bank records that look entered twice are looked at, and a foreign-currency account is revalued at the period end.
Ledger controls and adjustments
The ledger's control accounts agree with what sits under them, and the period's adjustments are in.
- S5.1Receivables and payables tie to controlMendiola checks
The receivable and payable agings at the period end equal their control accounts.
- S5.2Unapplied paymentsMendiola checks
Payments received or made but not applied to an invoice or a bill are applied or explained.
- S5.3Fixed assets and depreciationMendiola checks
The fixed-asset register ties to the ledger, and the period's depreciation is posted. The automated close does not read fixed assets yet, so there these come back not applicable and the closing review covers them.
- S5.4Recurring and scheduled entries ranMendiola checks
The recurring entries are present for the period, and every scheduled transaction due in it ran.
- S5.5Suspense nil, and no balance with the wrong signMendiola checks
Suspense and clearing accounts are nil at the period end, and no account carries a balance on the wrong side.
- S5.6Accruals of recurring billsMendiola proposes, a person approves
Mendiola drafts an accrual, with Juan's own reversal date, for a supplier billed every month that has no bill this month; a person posts it by approving, or deletes it by rejecting.
- S5.7Other accruals, prepayments and adjustmentsA person
Other accruals, prepayments and the period's other adjusting entries are drafted first in Juan, and posted once a person has read them.
Tax and statutory roll-forward
The period's tax and contribution positions, read where Mendiola already keeps them, never worked out again by the close.
- S6.1Tax and contributions, read from Compliance and ExposureA person
Output and input VAT, expanded and compensation withholding, SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG, and creditable withholding are read from Compliance and from the company's Exposure page. The close computes none of them.
Tie-out
The books balance, and what moved is explained.
- S7.1The trial balance balances, and the result reaches equityMendiola checks
Debits equal credits, assets equal liabilities plus equity, and the period's result is the movement in equity.
- S7.2Variances explainedMendiola checks
Each line that moved against the month before by more than the company's review materiality is listed for a person to explain.
Review
A reviewer reads the closed period before anyone signs it off.
- S8.1The closing reviewMendiola reviews, a reviewer answers
The closing review reads the period's books in Juan, explains what moved, checks what code can check and asks what only a person can answer. It has its own skill.
Sign-off
A manager or partner says the period is closed.
- S9.1A manager or partner signs the period offA person
An admin signs the period off on the company's Closing page. Mendiola warns about what is still open and never blocks the sign-off.
Lock
The books are locked in Juan once the period is signed off.
- S10.1Lock the books in JuanA person
After the period is signed off, an admin locks the books in Juan through its last month end, on the company's Closing page. A month end whose period is not signed off is refused.
Run this close on one of your companies.
We'll walk through a month for one of your companies, with the people who built it and use it every day.
- Prepared
- Mendiola
- Reviewed
- Your reviewer
- Signed off
- Your partner