The short answer
Expect a reconciliation for every bank, card and loan account, a profit and loss statement, a balance sheet, and a short note listing open questions. Add receivables and payables aging if you invoice or enter bills, budget against actual if you keep a budget, and fund balances if you are a church. The package should arrive on the same agreed date each month, and every account should tie to its statement.
A monthly package should answer a few plain questions
Some owners get a tidy PDF every month. Others get an email that says "books are done" and nothing else. Treasurers sometimes get a profit and loss statement with no balance sheet behind it. If you are not sure what you should be receiving, you are not alone, and it is a fair thing to raise with any bookkeeper.
A good package lets you answer a few questions without calling anyone. Is every account reconciled? Did we make or lose money this month, and why? What do we owe, and what are we owed? Are we on budget? For a church, add one more: are designated and restricted gifts still intact?
IRS Publication 583 notes that good records are what you need to prepare accurate financial statements, including the profit and loss statement and balance sheet, and that those statements can help you deal with your bank or creditors and manage the business. The monthly package is where those statements arrive.
The reports to expect
Not every business needs every report. The first four belong in almost any package:
- A reconciliation for every account. Each bank account, credit card, loan and payment processor, matched to its statement through the last day of the month. In QuickBooks Online, a reconciliation report is created each time an account is reconciled and shows the beginning and ending balances and which items cleared.
- Profit and loss statement. Income and expenses for the month and the year to date, ideally next to the prior month or the same month last year.
- Balance sheet. What the business or church owns and owes at month end. The SBA describes the balance sheet as a snapshot of your business finances.
- A short note. A few lines on what changed, anything unusual, and the open questions the bookkeeper needs you to answer.
- Receivables and payables aging, if you send invoices or enter bills. These show who owes you, who you owe, and how long each item has been open.
- Budget against actual, if you keep a budget, so overspending shows up while it can still be fixed.
- Fund balances, for churches: each designated or restricted fund with its opening balance, gifts, spending and closing balance.
| Report | What it answers | Check this first |
|---|---|---|
| Account reconciliations | Do the books agree with every bank, card and loan statement? | Ending balance matches the statement for the same date |
| Profit and loss | Did we make or lose money, and where? | The two or three lines that changed most from last month |
| Balance sheet | What do we own and owe at month end? | Cash matches the bank; no unexplained negative balances |
| Receivables and payables aging | Who owes us, who do we owe, and for how long? | Old items that should have been collected or paid |
| Budget against actual | Are we spending and earning as planned? | Lines far from budget, with a short explanation |
| Fund balances (churches) | Are designated and restricted gifts still intact? | Total of fund balances agrees with the books |
How to tell the books are finished
Reports can look complete while the books underneath are not. A few checks tell you whether the month is truly closed. You do not need to be an accountant to do them, and a good bookkeeper will be glad you asked.
- Every account on the balance sheet that has a statement has a reconciliation for the same month, and the ending balance matches the statement.
- Nothing is left in uncategorized or "ask my accountant" accounts, or the note lists those items as open questions.
- Loan balances match what the lender shows, and no account has an unexplained negative balance.
- Sales tax payable makes sense against your return. The Idaho State Tax Commission says sales tax is due on the accrual method, for the period of the sale, even if the customer has not paid yet.
- Payroll liabilities clear each period. If you use a payroll provider, the IRS suggests checking your own EFTPS account to confirm federal deposits were made.
Reading the package without an accounting degree
Start with the note, because it tells you what to look for. Then check cash on the balance sheet against what you see in the bank. Next, compare this month's profit and loss with last month's and pick the two or three lines that moved most. If nobody can explain a line, that is the question to send back.
Owner draws and loan principal payments do not appear as expenses on the profit and loss, so cash can fall in a month that shows a profit. That is one reason to read the balance sheet and the profit and loss together.
For the steps a bookkeeper works through before sending the package, see the monthly close, small-business sized. It covers the gathering, coding and balance sheet review in detail.
Churches: what the board needs as well
A church package adds fund balances and a budget comparison grouped the way the budget was approved. Board members and finance committees are usually volunteers, so a one-page summary in front of the reports helps more than extra detail. The site's guide to a monthly financial report for church leadership lays out the full package, section by section.
Two cautions apply. Individual giving detail does not belong in board reports, so the package shows totals by fund rather than by person. And a fund balance report only means something if each gift was coded to its fund when it was deposited, which is part of the monthly routine rather than a year-end repair.
Agree the list and the date in advance
The surest way to get the right package is to write it into the scope: which reports, in what format, to whom, and on what date. The same reports in the same order each month are easier to compare than a new layout every time. What a bookkeeping scope of work should spell out covers that, along with the date you send your own documents. If you are still choosing who will do the work, how to choose a small business bookkeeper lists what to check.
At Danielson Bookkeeping & Consulting, the work runs on that kind of rhythm: after the consultation, records review, written scope and onboarding, you receive reconciled books and reports on an agreed monthly date. The steps are on how we work, and the reporting services are on small business bookkeeping.
