Closing a month

What a close is

A close is one run of Haruno's month-end routine, for one company or for every company in your portfolio. In one run, a close:

1. Reads every Excel and CSV file in the company's files, and each QuickBooks reconciliation report saved as a PDF.
2. Records each account's month-end balances and monthly activity in the company's ledger in Haruno, through the company's mapping. Nothing is written back to QuickBooks.
3. Runs the integrity checks against the ledger.
4. Builds the statements, the reconciliation (when the company has reconciliation schedules) and the investor report, to be sure each can be made. A close keeps none of them: a report is made from the books when you open or export it.
5. Locks the months it reported that were not locked yet. A month with no Balance Sheet, or one whose figures were exported or synced before it ended, is reported and left open, and the result says which export locks it.
6. Updates the adjustments log and the portfolio figures.

There is no month to pick: a close locks every reported month that is not locked yet, so a first close from exports covering seven months locks all seven. Two kinds of month are the exception: one with a Profit and Loss and no Balance Sheet, and one whose figures were exported or synced before it ended. Each is reported and left open, the result names the export that locks it, and the next close after that export arrives does. The checks run first and the reports are built before the lock, so a month that cannot be reported is never locked. Each step is written whole or not at all, and once the run has started, a problem with one company stops only that company.

Findings never stop a close. Each month a close locks records the high and medium findings still open: with none it is fully reconciled, with some reported with exception. A month the books hold no reconciliation for has nothing to tie, so with no open findings it locks as not reconciled instead. A month whose statements do not tie is locked all the same. See close states and severities.

You close with the app's own controls. Haruno's chat assistant can explain a figure, a finding or any message on this page, but it cannot close or reopen a month. The close runs on your Mac, sends nothing (where your data goes) and uses none of your usage allowance. The questions for management that Haruno may draft when a close ends are different: the assistant writes them, so they need you to be signed in and count against your usage allowance. Haruno for Windows closes months the same way, with the same sheet and messages. It has no Books menu and no ⌘1 for the Portfolio: use the buttons in the company page's header (Close month…, Reopen Month…) and Upload files on its Files tab; see Differences from Haruno for Mac. The Portfolio's sheet says Every company in this books folder: the books folder is Haruno's own storage for your companies' files and ledger (where the books are stored).

What a company sends

A close needs two QuickBooks Online reports for each company: a Balance Sheet and a Profit and Loss. Everything else is optional: a reconciliation workbook (or QuickBooks reconciliation reports saved as PDF) adds the reconciliation binder, and each other report adds a check or a panel. A company that sends only the two statements still closes, with no binder, and the result says why. Haruno checks for both statements when you draft the mapping and again at the pre-flight.

The exports must be accrual basis, one month per column for the Profit and Loss, ending on the last day of a month, in the company's reporting currency, and Excel (.xlsx) for the statements. A cash-basis file, a Profit and Loss with quarter, multi-month or year-to-date-only columns, or a file in another currency stops the company's close. A Balance Sheet run part-way through a month is not imported: its file row says which month-end date to export it as. The full checklist is in What to export from QuickBooks Online; files Haruno refuses are in Files Haruno refuses. The close reads the exports you add. A company set up with Add company ▸ From QuickBooks closes from its synced months instead (QuickBooks and a company's books).

Before you close

Some problems show only once the files are read, so check these before you open the Close month sheet.

Before the first close

Setup, drafting and approval are covered in Companies, Importing files and Approve the mapping.

Before each later close

• The month's new exports are imported with Books ▸ Import Exports… while the company's page is open.
• Both the Balance Sheet and the Profit and Loss for the new month are in. A month with only its Profit and Loss is reported but left open, with a note that names the Balance Sheet to export; add it and close again, and the month locks with its balances. No reopening is needed.
• The exports end on the last day of the month you are closing, once its books are final in QuickBooks. A column covering part of a month is not imported, and a month whose figures were exported on or before its last day is reported but left open: export it again after the month ends and the next close locks it.
• If the company keeps reconciliation schedules (a workbook, or QuickBooks reconciliation reports), the month's schedules are in: the close state is not recalculated when one arrives later.
• If a file corrects a month already reported, you know which months it changes and why: correcting them needs a written note.

The approved mapping is applied as it is each month. What to export is in Each month.

These never stop a close: findings, statements that do not tie, questions, unanswered review rows (though what they describe is missing from the books), a file the mapping does not read, and having no reconciliation schedules. What does stop one is in When the close refuses.

Start a close

Click Close month…. Every Close month… control opens the same Close month sheet, which begins with a pre-flight that writes nothing. Where you click decides what is closed:

After Close again, the close shows in the bar above the company's page, with its own Cancel; click Close month… in the company's header to watch it. If the company does not close, the reason appears at the top of its Findings & questions tab.

The controls are absent, not grayed out, until they apply: on the setup page once the mapping is approved and the company's files can close, in the Portfolio toolbar once any company has a mapping, and in the Books menu once the company has a mapping, but not while Chat, Files or another page outside the books is showing.

Your first close

1. Click Portfolio in the sidebar (⌘1), then click the company's card to open its setup page.
2. Check that the step rail has reached Ready to close. If it has not, finish the step the rail shows.
3. Click Close month…. The Close month sheet opens and runs the pre-flight.
4. When the company's card says Will close, click Close month (or press Return).
5. Watch the steps. Cancel stops the close.
6. Read the result and click Done. The company's page is now its dashboard, with its reports and the findings from this close.

The pre-flight

When the Close month sheet opens, it first works out what the close would do and writes nothing: no figure, no report, no lock. It reads Checking what this close would do…, then shows one card per company, marked Will close or Will not close. Nothing runs until you click Close month; Return clicks it, and Esc or Cancel closes the sheet.

For each company it checks for a mapping it can read the company's name from, at least one Excel or CSV file, and a mapping that reads a Balance Sheet and a Profit and Loss. It then does the close's own first half on a copy, writing nothing: it opens every file in the company's files and stops at the first problem the close would stop at, such as a file it cannot read, a mapping that reads none of the files or a Balance Sheet run before its month ends. That company reads Will not close, with the sentence the close would give. It also notes the locked months, which never stop it, and lists the files new since the last close. It cannot see what the checks find or whether a locked figure would move, so a company can still read Will close and then stop in the result when a figure in a locked month would change. On a large portfolio, opening the files takes about as long as the close's own Reading the exports step.

Close month stays disabled while the pre-flight is working and when no card says Will close. A company that is not ready does not hold back the others: the run closes the companies marked Will close, by name, and leaves the rest out.

While it runs

The sheet shows Step N of M, a line for each company and Cancel, which stops the close: there is no button that only hides the sheet. Steps count per company, so M is the number of files plus seven; the Portfolio figures step is its own Step 1 of 1 at the end. A filled dot on a company line means the run has moved past that company, not that it closed: the result says how each ended. If the sheet goes away, the close carries on: a bar above the Portfolio or the company's page reads Closing <Company>… or Closing every company in this books folder…, with its own Cancel. Click Close month… again to bring the sheet back to the run. Haruno runs one close or mapping draft at a time; starting another is refused with another close is running and writes nothing.

The steps, in order

Canceling a close

Cancel stops the close when the step in progress finishes, so nothing is left half-written. The sheet then says The close was stopped. and one of these:

Click Done. To finish, close again: the next close reads every file from the beginning.

The result

When the run ends, the sheet shows a headline, one card per company, each with its Reports card unless the company did not close. Click Done, then open each company to work through its findings and send its reports.

Closed, Partly closed, Did not close

What a card shows

Click a row under Reports to export that report as a PDF and a web page together, in a folder you choose; the Adjustments log row opens the file. The steps are in Export a report as a PDF and a web page; the card in The Reports card.

What to do next

1. Check the close-state chip in the header, such as fully reconciled, reported with exception or not reconciled, and the unresolved checks named beside it.
2. Open Findings & questions and work through them; the Questions for management card at the top is where Haruno drafts questions about the month for you to edit and send. A question asks you to look at something and never marks a month as an exception.

   See Questions, not findings and Questions for management.

3. Read the statement package before it goes out.
4. Export each report from the Reports card as a PDF, check that every month you need is on it, and send it: the investor report to the company's investors, the statement package to management and your file.

   A report is made from the books each time you open or export it and keeps no earlier copy, so keep the PDFs you send. See Before you send a PDF and When reports change.

5. If a finding means a reported figure is wrong, correct it in QuickBooks Online and follow Correcting a month already reported, below.

Fixing a finding later does not change the state recorded on months already locked; that changes only if the month is reopened and closed again (Resolving a finding). Haruno has no undo for a close: the months it locked stay locked until you reopen them with a written reason (Reopening a month). A company with no reconciliation schedules has no Reconciliation row under Reports; see Companies without a workbook.

Closing several companies

To close every company in one run, show the Portfolio (⌘1) and click Close month… in its toolbar, or choose Books ▸ Close Month… while the Portfolio is showing. The sheet's subtitle reads Every company in this books folder. Close month is enabled as soon as one card says Will close.

• The sheet lists every company in the portfolio, and the run closes the ones marked Will close, by name. You cannot leave a ready company out; to close one company, use Close month… on its own page. A company that is not ready is left out and does not hold the others back.
• Companies close one after another, each on its own: a missing mapping, an unreadable file, a refused import or a failed report stops only that company. Its result card, not its pre-flight card, is the record of what happened.
• The portfolio figures are refreshed once, after the last company, over every company with figures, and only if at least one company closed. Closing a single company from its page refreshes them too.
• Nothing is converted between companies. Portfolio totals do not add up companies that report in different currencies.

How the Portfolio shows the result is in The Portfolio view; the report on every company in one, in The Portfolio report.

When a portfolio close cannot start

If a company has never closed and is not ready, its own card reads Will not close with Set the reporting currency and fiscal year-end in company details before creating the first report. or Approve the mapping before creating the first report., and an Open company link. The other companies still close: Close month runs the ones marked Will close. With no company ready, the button stays off and every card says why. Open the company, set the currency and year-end in Company details and approve the mapping, then run the portfolio close again.

Closing the next month

Each month, import the company's new exports and close again. The close reads every file, old and new, and posts and locks the months not locked yet. Locked months stay as they were; if a new file would change one of their figures, the company does not close and its card names the months. For a company that comes from QuickBooks, click Sync instead of exporting and importing, then close.

1. Export the Balance Sheet as of the last day of the month just ended and the Profit and Loss for that month, plus whatever else the company sends each month.

   See Each month.

2. In Haruno, click Portfolio (⌘1) and open the company.
3. Choose Books ▸ Import Exports…, select the files in the Upload company files window, click Add files, then Done.
4. Click Close month… in the company's header and check the pre-flight: the new files are listed as arrived since the last close.
5. When the card says Will close, click Close month. The result card lists the new months after Locked.
6. Work through the findings, then export and send the reports.

Import Exports… takes files, not a folder. A file with the same name as one already in the company is saved beside it as <name> 2.xlsx (or 2.csv); Haruno never replaces a file, and the close reads the copy after the original, so its figures count. The import result says so for a copy that was read. It says Copied · Not in the mapping when the mapping does not read the file, and the next close then leaves it out until you draft the mapping again. A copy that could not be read or recognized says only where it was saved, and its own label says the rest. See Adding files later.

If the pre-flight lists locked months

After a company's first close, its pre-flight card carries a note that names its locked months, and the company still reads Will close. The note stops nothing: the lock refuses a close only if a new file would change a figure in one of those months, and that is known only once the files are posted (Locked months in the pre-flight). What to do depends on what you see:

Each reopening stays in the month's History for good, with the user account that reopened it, when and why. A month closed again with the same figures is not a restatement, but its close state can change. See What a reopening keeps.

Correcting a month already reported

A figure in a reported month never changes silently. For a late bill, a reclassification or any other correction made after the month was reported: book it in QuickBooks Online and add the corrected exports with Books ▸ Import Exports…, or, for a QuickBooks company, sync again, then close. The close stops and offers Correct…: record the difference in the next open month, which leaves the reported month as it was, or reopen the month with a written reason and restate it. The full procedure is in Correct a reported month, start to finish.

A new account in QuickBooks

An account the mapping does not place on a statement line is reported as a finding, titled Active account is unmapped (unmapped_active_account, high) when it carries a balance or Empty account is unmapped (unmapped_empty_account, low) while it is zero, and is missing from every statement until it is mapped. To place a single new account that has a balance, open the Findings & questions tab and press Resolve… on its row (press Re-run checks first if it has none) and pick the statement line it belongs on; see Resolve from the Findings & questions tab. Everything else about the mapping is in Changing the mapping.

When the close refuses

Once a run has started, a refusal stops only that company. A few stop the whole close before any company starts: another close is running, The close did not run. with a sentence. A company closing for the first time that is not ready is left out of the run, and its card says why (see The pre-flight). Fix the cause and close again: the next close that finishes locks the months (see the result for what each outcome wrote). If a message names a command or a file path, you need neither; in these messages spec means the company's mapping and client means company.

Messages with a sentence

Short labels: what to check

A failed card gives the reason of the step that stopped, in that step's own words. Some of those sentences are the importer's and are technical, and a few name a file path. The causes behind each are listed most likely first.

File fixes. Take a bad file out with Remove from Company on its row in the company's files, or on the failed card for a file the close could not read, and add a good copy. Every file can be removed until a close has read it; afterwards only a file that arrived or was replaced since, one the mapping leaves out, one Haruno could not read or one Haruno refused. A file a close has read stays, even if that close locked no month, and a new copy under the same name is added beside it as <name> 2.xlsx and read after it. Workbook causes are listed in When a workbook stops the close, what counts as a change to a locked month in What trips the lock, and every closing message in Troubleshooting.