Month-End Mistakes That Show Up in Your Audit

Some issues look harmless in-month – but your auditor won’t see it that way.

Month-end isn’t just about internal reporting.

It’s your first line of defence against future audit issues.

But many accounts teams treat it like a checklist – close the books, submit the report, move on.

That’s how errors build quietly over the year… and explode during audit.

Here are the three most common issues that show up too late:

These are easy to miss when you’re in a rush. But if you’ve posted marketing spend to admin – or staff bonuses to overheads – your monthly trends start drifting. By year-end, your audit trail won’t match your narrative.

Fix: Build site- or department-level review into every month-end.

If you’re still manually posting accruals (or relying on “last month’s journal”), it’s easy to forget to reverse them. That means you’re double-counting costs, skewing your P&L, and creating confusion your auditor will flag fast.

Fix: Automate recurring journals and use checklists to confirm reversals.

Payroll clearing, VAT liability, prepayments, deposits – when these don’t reconcile monthly, your year-end becomes a firefight. And it’s not just a numbers issue – it erodes auditor trust.

Fix: Reconcile every balance sheet account monthly – even if there’s no movement.

Audits go faster – and smoother – when month-end is tight.

Because clean month-ends lead to clean years.

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