The Journals tab (top bar) opens the Month-End Close page: one place to review new invoices and bills for correct revenue and cost recognition, post journals to Xero or QuickBooks, and record your team's progress and notes as you close each month. This article shows you how to choose the month, work through the steps, track status and comments, and tailor the checklist to your close.

1. Open the Journals tab and choose your close month

1. Select the Journals tab from the top bar.
2. Choose the month you are closing in Closing the month of at the top right. Status, comments and journals are all saved against this month.

The steps are grouped into sections — Revenue and Costs, plus Pre-journal checks if you have a CRM connected. Journals with more than one page are grouped under a heading you can expand:

• New customer invoices and Usage revenue — review the month's invoices and usage-based revenue.
• Accrued revenue 1: Add accrued revenue (Add, Release, Post Journal) — add and release income earned before invoicing.
• Deferred revenue 2: Review and post the journal — release income invoiced in advance.
• New supplier bills and Usage costs — review the month's bills and usage-based costs.
• Prepayments Journal (Select, Post Journal) — spread costs paid in advance.
• Cost Accruals Journal (Add, Release, Post Journal) — recognize costs before the bill arrives.

Setting up a journal for the first time? See Deferred revenue 1: Map and filter your accounts for revenue, or Prepayments 1: Select your prepayments for expenses.

2. Work through the steps

The Next action card at the top tells you what needs your attention: the step to do next, what ScaleXP found there (for example how many invoices need review, or that no new bills were received), and which steps follow. Beside it, Journals posted tracks your progress for you — how many of the month's journals are posted and how many steps are clear — and updates as you work, with no need to tick anything off.

1. Click the blue Open button on the next action card, or on any step in the list, to go to its page. The sidebar on the left of every journal page lists all the steps so you can move between them, and Month-End Close takes you back.
2. Start with new invoices or bills, then move on to the related journals. Each journal page has a Continue button that takes you to its next step.
3. Journals are posted from each journal's Post Journal step, which shows the draft journal for the month with a Post draft journal button.

See Start here: Automate revenue journals and Start here: Automate expense journals for a walkthrough of each journal.

3. Track progress with status and comments

The checklist keeps your whole close visible to the team.

1. Use the Status dropdown on each step to mark it Not started, In progress or Complete.
2. Type in the Comment box to record notes and who has completed each step. Comments are saved against the month, so they are there whenever you come back to it.

To add a review and approval stage, click the gear icon at the top right (Journals settings) and tick Review & approval workflow. Untick it to turn the workflow off again.

When the workflow is on, Reviewer and Approver columns appear on every step so you can assign a team member to each, and the status list gains Needs review and Needs approval. The setting is saved once set and carries forward each month.

4. Tailor the checklist

1. To move a step you do not use to Tasks not used, either untick it in Show / hide steps at the top right, or click the three dots at the right of its row and choose Move to Tasks not used. Steps you move sit in the Tasks not used box at the bottom of the page, where Restore puts one back in its own section.
2. Click Add Task at the top right to add your own step — for example a bank reconciliation or a reporting pack — with a name and an optional link, then click Save. Your tasks get the same status and comment fields as ScaleXP's steps.
3. Drag the handle at the left of a step to reorder the list.

Next steps

With month end closed, your reporting is ready to share:

• Getting started with reports: how to create and edit a report
• Getting started with dashboards
• Getting started with presentations

Related articles

• Start here: Automate revenue journals
• Start here: Automate expense journals
• Deferred revenue 1: Map and filter your accounts
• Deferred revenue 2: Review and post the journal
• Accrued revenue 1: Add accrued revenue
• Setup 1: Prepare your accounts
• Prepayments 2: Review and post the journal
• Accruals: Add, release, and post accruals