The difference between a school that reports monthly and one that does not is rarely skill. It is routine. Fix the date, fix the order, and the pack writes itself from numbers the office already has. This list is that routine, written down.
Before the close
- Fix the closing date. The office closes month end on the same day every month (usually day 2 or 3), and everyone knows it. The month-end finance checklist runs in parallel with this pack.
- Reconcile the bank. Every statement matched to the books, and the closing balance confirmed. Nothing else in the pack is trustworthy until this is done.
- Reconcile fee collection. Billed, collected and outstanding for the month, matched to the bank deposits. This is the number the board will read first.
- Post month-end entries. Depreciation, accruals, and any prepayments that belong to the month. The chart of accounts stays clean so the income statement reports itself.
Building the pack
- Income statement vs budget. Year to date, compared with budget to date, with the variance and the reason for it in a line. The budget is the target the pack is judged against.
- Cash page. Opening balance, receipts, payments, closing balance, and a two-month look ahead. Cash gets its own page because profit and cash are different truths.
- Fees and arrears page. Fees billed, collected, the collection rate, and the age of outstanding balances. Compare with last month and the same month last year.
- Key ratios. Collection rate, arrears as a percentage of billed fees, and cash runway. Three numbers, every month, on the same page, so the trend shows itself.
- The narrative. Half a page: what moved, why, and what needs a decision. End with a short list: for decision, for information, for noting.
Review before sending
- Read it like a director. Would a person who is not in the office daily understand every page in two minutes? If a line needs inside knowledge to make sense, rewrite the line.
- Check the numbers hang together. The bank balance on the cash page matches the reconciled statement. The fee collection total matches the billing system. Variances match the narrative.
- Date and version it. Every pack carries the month it reports and a version, so the board never reads February's pack in March's meeting.
Deliver and file
- Send before the board meeting, not during it. Directors read the pack before they sit down. A pack that arrives in the meeting is a pack that was never read.
- File the pack and the meeting's decisions. One folder per month with the pack and the minutes, for the auditor and for next year's budget process.
- Note what needs follow-up. Any item that did not resolve this month rolls onto next month's pack as an open item, so nothing is lost between meetings.
- Roll it forward. Update the budget and the cash forecast with the actuals, and push the forecast out by one more month. A cash flow forecast that absorbs the actuals every month stays sharp.
That is the monthly routine. It is deliberately the same every month: the same order, the same pages, the same deadline. Do it eleven months a year and the twelfth (year end) becomes a tidy-up, not an event. The quarterly financial controls checklist and the year-end and audit readiness checklist pick up where this one leaves off.
Sources & further reading
- The Bursar's Month-End Finance Checklist - the financial close that feeds this pack.
- Management Accounts for Independent Schools - what each page is for and what the board wants to see.
- Quarterly Financial Controls Checklist - the deeper money-safety checks on a longer cycle.
This checklist is general information, not accounting or financial advice. Reporting formats and deadlines are set by each school with its board. Confirm the routine that applies to your school with the bursar's office and your auditor.
