MYOB bookkeeping checklist: a practical month-end routine

A useful MYOB month-end routine checks three things: the transactions are complete, the balances agree with independent records, and someone has dealt with the exceptions. A bank feed full of green matches doesn't answer all three.

Use the checklist below to prepare your own records or agree on what your bookkeeper will deliver. It is organised around the work rather than one set of menu labels, because MYOB Business and AccountRight don't use identical screens.

Before you start

Choose the month you're closing and gather the bank and credit card statements for that period. Also collect sales invoices, supplier bills, payment-platform statements, loan statements and payroll records relevant to your business.

Write down who's allowed to change earlier periods. If your accountant has posted year-end adjustments, ask which balances changed before trying to correct them yourself.

Keep an open-questions list with four columns: date, transaction, missing information and person responsible. This gives the review a stopping point. An unexplained item can be escalated without pretending the whole file is complete.

1. Finish matching and allocating transactions

Work through unprocessed bank feed items. Check whether each payment belongs to a sale or bill already recorded before creating a new entry. Review automated rules when the transaction doesn't look like the usual supplier or amount.

Pay particular attention to money moving between your own accounts. In an illustrative example, a $2,000 transfer from the transaction account to the business savings account is one movement of existing money. Treating the incoming side as new sales would distort the accounts.

Payment platforms deserve their own check. A settlement paid into the bank can represent several sales less fees and refunds. Keep the platform statement so whoever prepares the accounts can explain the settlement rather than assuming the deposit equals gross revenue.

For software practice before working in your live file, see our MYOB training guide.

2. Reconcile each bank and credit card account

MYOB states that bank feeds don't replace reconciliation. Reconciliation compares the software records with your bank statement.

Use the statement's closing date and balance. Investigate missing transactions, duplicates and outstanding items. If a discrepancy remains, record its amount and what you've checked. Don't enter a balancing adjustment simply to make the difference disappear.

Save the completed reconciliation report with the statement. Include inactive accounts if they still have balances or transactions. An old credit card is easy to overlook when everyone concentrates on the current trading account.

3. Review unpaid sales and supplier bills

Look through aged receivables and payables. Pick out invoices that are overdue, unusually old or showing an unexpected credit balance.

For each exception, decide what needs investigation:

What you see	What to check next
Customer says they paid, invoice remains open	Whether the receipt was matched to the correct invoice
Supplier bill appears twice	Whether an imported document duplicates an earlier entry
Old customer credit	Whether it belongs against an invoice or needs a refund decision
Payment shown with no supporting bill	Whether the bill is missing, or the entry is something else

Avoid deleting an old invoice just because collection looks unlikely. Ask your adviser about the correct accounting and tax treatment. For the customer conversation, use our unpaid invoice guide.

4. Review GST coding before using the report

Confirm which period and accounting basis your BAS uses. Then review unusual sales, purchases, refunds and asset transactions with their supporting documents.

A report accurately totals whatever was entered. It can't establish that a transaction's tax treatment was right in the first place. Flag uncertainty for your registered agent rather than guessing a code to finish the month.

MYOB's monthly reporting guidance identifies reports available for review. Our GST free vs BAS excluded guide explains why similar-looking codes can have different reporting consequences.

5. Check payroll and other balance-sheet accounts

If you employ staff, compare payroll records with payments and investigate unmatched amounts. Note whether an apparent difference is timing, an unpaid liability or an error that needs correction. Treat rejected reporting submissions as unresolved work, not a completed task.

Also ask about balances in loans, suspense accounts and owner or director accounts. Repayments and owner transfers often need more explanation than the text on a bank statement provides.

This is a review prompt, not an instruction to change payroll tax treatment or journals without advice. Keep the original records available for the person making that decision.

6. Prepare a handover someone else can use

Your monthly folder can be simple:

• Statements and reconciliation reports for every relevant account.
• A list of overdue invoices and bills needing a decision.
• The agreed financial and GST reports, labelled with their period and basis.
• Supporting documents for unusual transactions.
• Unresolved questions, with a named person and next action.

End with a short status note: what is complete, what remains open and whether the reviewer should wait before preparing the BAS. “Accounts ready except for the equipment finance contract” is more useful than “MYOB done”.

If nobody currently owns that review, our BAS agent hiring guide explains how to agree on a service scope.

Key takeaways

• Match feed transactions carefully and reconcile against statements.
• Investigate exceptions instead of forcing balances to agree.
• Check the evidence behind GST coding before relying on totals.
• Send your reviewer the outstanding questions as well as the reports.

Where to get help

Use MYOB support for instructions specific to your product. For the wider record-to-lodgement sequence, use our bookkeeping and BAS reading guide.