For owners in Corpus Christi
Business CPA Corpus Christi AlternativeClose the month before the date
We call a coastal month closed only after the bank export and the books tell one story about those dates.
Ask what closed means
The test is the bank.
The bank and the books name the same stretch of days, and the items that don't match have names. That's the whole test. A pretty statement that the bank won't support is not a closed month, however calm it looks. A quiet January still has to pass that test before the next twentieth.
Uncleared items get a name before anyone calls the month done. A deposit that is you moving your own money is not left inside sales. A charge you don't recognize stays open until it has a story or a correction. We don't bury those in a plug figure so the page totals. A total that needed a plug is a month that is still open.
The next twentieth is the reason the timing matters. A hotel report, a sales report, or a mixed beverage report built on an open month is a confident page about deposits you can't trace. We would rather move one cycle than sign our attention to a figure the bank doesn't share. The room tax page says how those reports differ. This page says what has to be true underneath them.
A lender package can wait. People want to bring it to the first call, and the impulse makes sense. The package gets useful after your books and the statement show the same days. Preparing statements that carry no signed opinion is work this practice does. The opinions themselves are not. If the letter asks for an opinion, the disclosures page is the limit, and the first call will say so.
Where you start is the newest month you already trust, not a menu of services. From there the work moves to the following month. If nothing has been trusted in a long time, we say that before a price. The price waits on how many months are still open. No average is printed here, because an average would describe a month that isn't yours.
You can tell a month is closed when you can explain a strange deposit without opening a new tab. That's a human test, and it's the one we use on the call. If you can't explain it, the month isn't done, and that's a fine place to start. Bring the month. We'll say whether it's a close or a rebuild.
What has to be true before we call a month closed.
We call a coastal month closed only after the bank export and the books tell one story about those dates. That sentence is the whole test, and it is harder than it sounds. Uncleared items need names. Money that only moved between two accounts this company already owns stays off the sales line. A deposit that arrived as one lump from a platform is not one sale. Until those names exist, the month is still open even if a statement looks calm.
A total that needed a plug is a month that is still open. We would rather leave the plug out and say the month is unfinished than dress it up for a meeting. A lender can wait one cycle. A report built on an open month is a confident page about deposits you cannot trace.
The next filing is why the timing matters. A hotel report, a sales report, or a mixed beverage report built on an open month borrows confidence it has not earned. We would rather move one cycle than sign our attention to a figure the bank does not share. The room tax page says how those reports differ. This page says what has to be true underneath them.
We start at the newest month you trust, not at the oldest mess, unless you ask us to. Moving forward from a match is faster than rebuilding a year in one week. If no month in the coastal file matches the bank yet, say that on the call. The first job is then to find one, or to decline. You will hear which before any commitment.
Bring the bank export and the report you are about to send. If they already tell the same story, the call is short and the next month can be set up the same way. If they do not, the call is about the difference, line by line, until the difference has a name. That is the close. The filing comes after it.
A plug that makes a total look finished is the opposite of a close. An unfinished hotel deposit stays on the page. We do not hide it so a meeting looks tidy. A lender can wait one cycle. A hotel report, a sales report, or a mixed beverage report built on that plug borrows confidence the deposits have not earned. We start from the newest month you trust unless you ask to go further back. Finding one match and moving forward is faster than rebuilding a year inside a single week.
If no month matches, the first answer may be to decline, and you will hear that before a scope gets longer. Bring the bank export beside the report you are about to send. When they already tell the same story, the call is short and the next month can be set up the same way. When they do not, we stay on the difference until the difference has a name. That name is the close. The filing comes after it. A statement can look calm and still be open. Calm is not the test. The shared days are the test.
Name the last good month.
Tell us which month you last trusted, and which one still doesn't match.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.