Month-End Close Steps

Complete these steps each month to streamline your month-end close reporting process.

The Month-End Process includes these steps: 

1. Verify the Current Reporting Plan is a Plan of Record
2. Check System Health
3. Verify GL Actuals are Up to Date 
4. Review Imported Workforce Roster
5. Review Imported Custom Data
6. Verify the Close Month
7. Update Reports & Dashboards
8. Publish and Share Reports & Dashboards

 

☑️ Step 1: Verify the Current Reporting Plan is a Plan of Record

Plans in Jirav recalculate automatically when the underlying data changes. The use of a Plan of Record will prevent the current reporting plan from potentially changing based on updated Actuals. 

• If the current reporting plan is already a Plan of Record, move on to Step 2. 
• To designate the current reporting plan as a Plan of Record, go to Plans 📈 > Select the ∨ next to the current Active Plan to open the context menu > Select Manage Plans > Click on the hamburger menu to the left of the desired Plan to activate the context menu and select Make PoR.
  Additional Resource: Plan of Record

 

☑️ Step 2: Check System Health 

Verify that your accounting actuals have recently been imported to Jirav.

Check for any System Health notifications alerting you that accounting actuals have been disconnected from Jirav. A System Health notification appears as an orange triangle with an exclamation mark ( ) and will appear in the upper right-hand corner of Jirav.

• If there are no System Health notifications regarding failed data imports, move on to Step 3.  
• If the last data import failed, go to Setting ⚙️ > Actuals and reconnect your Accounting System.
  
  

Additional Resource:  Actuals and Jirav

 

☑️ Step 3: Verify GL Actuals are Up to Date 

The accounting integration will import data for the prior two months automatically*. If there was an accounting adjustment made to previous periods, Actuals in Jirav should be updated accordingly. 

A quick way to verify Actuals are up to date is to verify your Balance Sheet is in balance. To do this, go to Reports 📋> Default Reports > Balance Sheet and confirm Assets are equal to Total Liabilities & Equity.

• If Assets are equal to Total Liabilities & Equity, move on to Step 4.
• If Assets are NOT equal to Total Liabilities & Equity, go to Settings ⚙️ > Actuals and Import data for all historical accounting periods that have recently been adjusted in the accounting system. 
  

*with the exception of the QuickBooks Desktop integration which always runs on-demand

 

☑️ Step 4: Review Imported Workforce Roster

To ensure accurate actuals vs budget headcount reporting by department & role, the Actual roster of employees should be kept up to date in Jirav.

• If there have not been any staffing changes within the last month, move on to Step 5.
• If there have been staffing changes within the last month, an updated roster should be imported from the Workforce section of Settings ⚙️ > Actuals. 
  

Additional Resource:  Import your Workforce

 

☑️ Step 5: Review Imported Custom Data 

To ensure accurate actuals vs budget for Custom data, the Actual import template for Custom data should be kept up to date in Jirav.

• If you are not tracking any custom data actuals in Jirav, move on to Step 6.
• If you are tracking custom data actuals, the import template should be imported from the Custom section of Settings ⚙️ > Actuals. 
  

Additional Resource:  Import Custom Table Actuals from Google Sheet or Excel

 

☑️ Step 6: Verify the Close Month

Dashboards & Reports can be set up to automatically display Actuals through the Close Month. If you are taking advantage of this feature, you'll want to confirm that the close month is set properly in either your accounting system or Jirav, depending on your settings.

Depending on your settings, the “Close Month” is determined either by Jirav or by your accounting system. This setting can be reviewed from Settings ⚙️ > Company > Accounting > Close Month.

• If the Close Month is set to a Specific Date, that means the close date is managed within Jirav and you can update it accordingly from this page.
• If the Close Month is set to your Accounting System Close Date, e.g., QuickBooks Close Date, the close date will be read-only and can only be changed by adjusting the close date from within your Accounting System.  

Additional Resources:  Close Month and Close Month on Tiles

 

☑️ Step 7: Update Reports & Dashboards 

Prior to publishing and sharing results, verify the data sources and ranges referenced in tiles & reports and update any text elements.

1. On Dashboards, edit tiles to review the data source(s) displayed and update as needed. 
   
2. On Reports, edit columns to review the data source(s) displayed and update as needed.
   
3. Update text tiles as needed.
4. Update text pages in report templates as needed. 
5. Add new reports and tiles as needed.
6. Update formatting as needed.

Additional Resources: Variance Analysis in Reports, Dashboard & Tiles Overview, Report Templates

 

☑️ Step 8: Publish & Share Reports & Dashboards

Now that you have verified all of your Actuals data has been updated, publish and share the results with stakeholders. Publishing a report template creates a hard-coded version of the report that will not change. 

Reports

Select the Publish icon when viewing your month-end reporting template. Publishing your template will produce a hard-coded copy of the report that can then be shared out with users as needed.

Share the Published Report Package using the Share button.

Click the Comment icon to make comments for your users. All users with access to view the Published Report will see the comments when they log in.

Optionally export the Published Report Package to PDF, Excel of Google Sheets:

Dashboards

Select the Share icon to grant or remove view access to each Dashboard. 

Click the Comment icon to make comments for your users. All users with access to view the dashboard will see the comments when they log in.

Additional Resources: Reporting Templates & Published Packages, Published Reports