Six days or more
50%
of finance teams take six or more business days to close.
Automation · Closing the month
Why run month-end close software yourself when the close can arrive finished?
Excello delivers month-end close software as a managed service for startups and small businesses: cut-offs, reconciliations, accruals, prepayments and financial statements, reviewed by accountants and signed off by a qualified accountant.
It all happens inside your QuickBooks, Xero or Odoo, and your books are closed within five business days of month-end as standard.
- The close
- Transactions matched daily
- Accountant review weekly or daily
- Accruals and sign-off at month-end
- Books closed within five business days
A slow close leaves founders steering in the dark
Industry benchmarks
Over a week
27%
of finance teams take more than seven business days.
Waiting on others
56%
of finance teams say depending on other departments slows the close.
Three days or less
18%
of finance teams close within three business days.
Source: Ledge, Month-End Close Benchmarks 2025, a survey of 100 finance professionals
How Excello runs your month-end close, step by step
Within five business days
Month-end close automation, delivered as a service, so there is no close management software for your team to run.
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Step 01
Cut-off
The month's bank, card and payment activity is pulled in and matched, and the period stops taking new entries.
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Step 02
Reconciliation
Software matches routine cash movements, and accountants confirm every bank, loan and card account against its statement.
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Step 03
Accruals and prepayments
Prepaid expenses amortized, depreciation recorded and adjusting journal entries posted.
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Step 04
Variance review
A line-by-line review of the ledger, checking budget variances and unusual movements before anything is final.
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Step 05
Sign-off
The close checklist is completed, the period locked and your balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement delivered.
Month-end close software comparison: a managed service or a self-serve tool
How it compares
| What to compare | Self-serve close software | Excello |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the accounting work | Your team, following the tool's checklist | Accounting experts |
| Where it runs | A separate platform connected to your ledger, usually after an implementation project | Inside your own QuickBooks, Xero or Odoo |
| Accruals and adjusting entries | Calculated and posted by your team | Calculated and posted by Excello |
| Who signs off the close | Your finance lead | A qualified accountant, then you |
| What you pay for | A software subscription plus the staff time to run it | One fixed monthly bookkeeping fee |
Month-end close software demo: see how it would run on your books
A walkthrough
Month-end close software requirements and implementation
Live within one week
Month-end close software implementation often stalls because the finance team has no time to build workflows and map balances. With Excello there is no project to run: the setup is done for you, and your first close follows on the normal schedule.
What you need to start
Three things, no engineering
- Accountant access to your existing QuickBooks, Xero or Odoo account
- Read-only connections to your bank, card and payment processor accounts
- Access to vendor bills and payroll reports
Your history, vendor settings and chart of accounts stay exactly where they are.
How implementation works
Handled for you, within one week
Connect
Read-only feeds linked to your ledger, bank accounts and payroll provider.
Review
Your balance sheet, chart of accounts and any prepaid or depreciation schedules checked for a clean baseline.
Configure
Recurring closing entries, accrual schedules and review thresholds set up for your business.
Financial close management software pricing
What it costs
Month-end close software best practices: a monthly checklist
In order, every month
Whatever software you use, a reliable close follows the same order. Work through these six steps every month.
Set a transaction cut-off
Stop posting to the period once the last calendar day has passed, so the numbers stop moving.
Reconcile cash and cards first
Match bank and card balances to their statements before calculating anything that depends on them.
Post recurring adjustments
Record depreciation, amortize prepaid expenses and accrue expenses that have been incurred but not yet billed.
Review payables and receivables
Confirm open vendor balances and customer invoices, and chase anything that looks stale.
Run a variance review
Compare budget against actual and last month against this month, and explain anything that moved unexpectedly.
Sign off and lock the period
Complete the close checklist, lock the period against changes and send out the statements.
Want a copy to work from? The month-end close checklist template covers the same steps, and what is a month-end close explains each one in more depth.
Your close runs inside your current general ledger
Nothing to migrate
Frequently asked questions
What is month-end close software?
Month-end close software organizes the tasks of closing the books each month: reconciliations, accruals, adjusting entries, reviews and sign-off. At Excello it comes as a managed service, so accountants do the closing work inside your existing ledger.
How many days does a close take with Excello?
Excello closes your books within five business days of month-end as standard. Your balance sheet, profit and loss and cash flow statement are delivered at the close. For comparison, half of finance teams take six or more business days, according to Ledge's 2025 benchmarks.
What do you need from us each month?
Outstanding vendor receipts and answers to any flagged transactions. Bank feeds and billing tools are connected during onboarding, so routine data arrives on its own, and you hear about missing documents before the close so nothing holds it up.
Who signs off on the close?
A qualified accountant at Excello signs off the close. They review the balance sheet reconciliations and check the accrual calculations before the period is locked and your statements are delivered.
What happens if something does not reconcile?
An accountant investigates it before the period is locked. They trace the payment against bank statements and records, and contact your team with the specific detail when a charge can only be explained by you.
Do you produce the financial statements too?
Yes. Every completed close includes a balance sheet, a profit and loss statement and a cash flow statement, prepared from your reconciled general ledger and reviewed by an accountant before they are sent.
What does the month-end close cost?
The close is included in Excello's monthly bookkeeping fee, so there is no separate close software subscription. The fee is fixed and quoted up front, based on your monthly transactions, how often you want the books reviewed and whether you need multi-currency or multi-entity accounting.