Birchstone AdvisoryMar 23, 2026
Streamlining Monthly Closeouts with AI - FountIQ 📊
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Streamlining Monthly Closeouts with AI - FountIQ 📊
Birchstone Advisory·Mar 20, 2026
Watch a walkthrough of using a monthly closeout tool to streamline accounting processes. This video demonstrates how to identify and resolve duplicate transactions for a construction client to ensure accurate financial reporting.
Chapters
00:00
Introduction to Monthly Closeout
Starting the monthly closing process for a construction client using the closeout tool.
00:55
Phase One Checklist
01:34
Identifying Duplicate Transactions
03:08
Resolving Financial Discrepancies
04:25
Ensuring Financial Accuracy
Transcript
00:00
All right, so we're going to work on some monthly closeouts.
00:05
So, in our product section, the monthly closeout tool.
00:09
Let's go ahead and launch it, see what we got.
00:14
And let's just go ahead and chat with it real quick because it's the end of the month.
00:23
All right, so, I'm starting the February closeout for my client, Ridgeline Construction.
00:29
qbo, accrual basis construction industry.
00:32
Two checking accounts, one credit card.
00:34
What do you think?
00:49
So it's starting to put together their, the closing checklist.
00:52
All right, so let's just see.
00:55
All right, Clear bank feeds.
00:57
Let's make sure with duplicate detection, zero balance, all of this stuff we can check against what we have.
01:05
And let's just go walk through it one by one.
01:09
So the bank feed is clean.
01:10
There's nothing in that for review.
01:12
But uncategorized accounts are all at zero.
01:15
So I think phase one is done.
01:17
do you think we can, maybe skip ahead to reconciliation?
01:34
it's stopping me from skipping ahead.
01:37
So, yeah, phase one isn't quite finished.
01:41
We gotta reconcile.
01:42
So duplicate detection, that's good.
01:45
And construction spot check.
01:47
So construction files are notorious for double entries.
01:50
Yeah, that's true because many people are on those files.
01:52
So let's, let's see.
01:57
Okay, fine.
01:57
So I'll run the transaction detail by account, sorted by the amount you, you set.
02:02
So.
02:03
hold on.
02:04
I see two entries for four, $800 for Pacific Lumber Supply like you said.
02:09
One on February 9th and the other on February 10th.
02:12
Same amount, one day apart.
02:15
So that looks kind of weird, obviously.
02:24
And and so, you know, this one's a little bit more chatty because you're really going through the checklist to make sure that you cover all your bases before you close it out.
02:35
And there you go.
02:38
So the the, the tool is, is, I don't know, kind of point its finger and wagging its, its finger at us.
02:44
But it's really important to just make sure that we, check off all of the boxes before we move on and not get too excited.
02:55
All right.
02:56
And so, shows us how to fix it and especially talks about the capitalization rule, the 2500.
03:04
And and then how are we costing it?
03:07
So that's good.
03:08
So let's just do a little follow up here.
03:12
All right, so one says, let's see, check, 22, 41.
03:18
And the other just says Pacific Lumber Supply with a bank transaction type.
03:23
So the check was manual and the bank feed, pulled it in as a separate entry.
03:27
I don't know.
03:37
Now, obviously, what I could do is, is if I had the transactions in front of me or able to.
03:43
I have, I'm looking at papers right now.
03:45
So if I was able to copy and paste them, I could paste them in right there.
03:48
And that way we would have a, it would be able to kind of train itself on that as well.
03:58
All right, and so let's see here as a new expense and match the existing tray.
04:02
So, keep the manual entry, delete the bank entry, which seems to be the, what we need to do.
04:10
And okay, so I'm going to check the capitalization rule and some other stuff.
04:19
So let's see here.
04:21
All right, so, I deleted the bank fee duplicate.
04:25
And that would have inflated my Cogs by about 4800.
04:29
So if I, if I just reconcile with that check in, that's almost 8% of the total monthly expenses.
04:34
So I'm a believer phase one matters.
04:37
What's next?
04:46
So that could have been a really big, error if I didn't go through step by step and really kind of, matched to the phases.
05:01
Right.
05:02
And exactly.
05:03
So, let's see here.
05:05
Reconciliation, verification, and then we'll go ahead and check on that.
05:10
And what we want to look for is zero difference.
05:14
So let's see.
05:16
Well, what, let's see.
05:18
While I was in there, I also noticed a $6,200 payment to tighten equipment rentals.
05:24
So, do you think that should be in cogs or expenses?
05:31
And so, you know, the monthly closeout is, is really a broad, a broader tool and allows you to, It helps you with reconciliation, helps you with categorization.
05:43
Anything that you need to clean up this monthly closeout tool will help you.
05:47
And it's so critical, especially when you're just in a time crunch and you, you can't find something.
05:54
Using this tool is going to be very, very important.
05:56
All right, and so, just talk a little bit about, you know, if it's in construction, was it, was it directly tied to producing revenue or something else?
06:08
Right.
06:09
And if it was general company, just categorize it as expense.
06:13
Otherwise it's going to be in cogs.
06:15
Okay.
06:16
And so 6200, very important.
06:20
was it a, you know, a pure rental or was it a rent to own?
06:26
So a capital lease.
06:27
Those things you have to kind of look, at.
06:30
So either it's a pure rental, you give it back to them at the end, or if it's a lease to own, well, that's going to end up being a fixed asset.
06:38
So something to consider.
06:39
So this categorization really is flowing into this.
06:42
It's not as robust as the actual categorization tool, however.
06:47
you're always going to get ideas, to help you move on through the phases and close out the month.
07:00
Okay, so we've been moving through and, let's just, carry on.
07:05
We're in phase four at this point.
07:07
All right, so phase four, P and L review for my client at Apex Property Maintenance.
07:11
Qbo, cash basis service base.
07:14
So I'm comparing February to January, and revenue jumped from 28,000 to 61,000.
07:21
It seems like a lot foreign.
07:31
A lot of this stuff, especially with the monthly closeout.
07:34
It.
07:35
It seems like it's a no brainer.
07:36
but many times as we're closing out the month, you know, because we're trying to get it done, and many times we're doing it at the, you know, 11th hour, the.
07:47
the midnight hour, we're way behind and we're burning the.
07:51
The, you know, the after hours candle, and we can just end up mix, you know, missing things.
07:57
So, there's a diagnostic that happens asking.
08:01
Let's look for a big deposit.
08:02
Is there anything big?
08:04
I think there might be.
08:06
So, yeah, actually there was a $30,000 wire that came in on the 12th of February.
08:12
I thought it was a big commercial contract payment, but let me just check the memo on the bank statement.
08:24
Yep.
08:24
It says sba eidl disbursement.
08:27
So I don't even.
08:28
Is that a loan?
08:30
It's not revenue, is it?
08:43
See what it says.
08:44
I think, you know, my intuition says that it's.
08:49
It's not revenue.
08:50
Yeah, it's a liability.
08:52
It's a loan.
08:54
Right.
08:54
And I messed up.
08:56
It needs to be recalclassified.
08:58
Obviously.
09:00
EIDLs, were loans that were, they were used by the SBA during the COVID crisis to help businesses out.
09:12
And my.
09:12
Actually, my, private equity real estate company, we actually had one of those on some properties, that we paid off just recently.
09:19
We just sold the properties and we paid off the Eidl alone, which is great.
09:23
It helped us out a lot.
09:26
So got to adjust the P.
09:27
L, and February revenue is down $30,000.
09:33
So something to consider.
09:35
All right, and then if we're looking at phase four, let me just look here.
09:41
God.
09:41
I was about to send the client financials and it showed.
09:44
Yeah, yeah, 61k in revenue.
09:47
They would have.
09:48
They would have gone bonkers if I had to make that change.
09:51
So, how do I fix it again?
10:17
All right, so step by step, got to make the liability account this for the loan, reclassify that 30,000 from revenue, over to a liability, and then we got to verify what the P and L looks like afterwards.
10:30
All Right.
10:31
Okay, so that's done.
10:32
I moved it to long term liability.
10:34
It's called the SBA.
10:36
EIDL loan revenues back to 31k, which makes much, much more sense.
10:41
And, I think I need to set up the monthly repayment splits too.
10:45
Right.
10:45
Interest versus principal.
10:51
On Reid Al loan, it was actually, interest only.
10:55
so, even though we were prepared to set up the splits, we weren't paying any principal.
11:02
We were only paying interest.
11:03
Even when we were paying ahead, they weren't accepting principal payments to pay down the, balance, which was very interesting about that loan.
11:12
So, how to handle monthly.
11:14
You've got to get an amortization table.
11:17
for typical loans.
11:18
Eidl might be different, but.
11:20
But yeah, that's, that's true.
11:23
And then, Yeah.
11:26
So overall, I'm going to say, you know, it's good.
11:29
I'll get the amortization schedule from the client.
11:32
And then, I'm really thinking about this.
11:34
It would have been a disaster on the tax return if nobody caught it.
11:37
All that revenue.
11:52
Yeah.
11:53
And then there's a sniff test.
11:55
So all of these.
11:56
You know, this monthly closeout tool is really, really important.
11:59
And, there's just so much great stuff here that if you're stuck on anything, just step by step, it's going to help you get, through all the phases and close out month end.
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