On the 2nd of the month, Rita opens her laptop at nine. She runs a small rentals company in Lisbon: 12 apartments, 4 people, a dozen owners who expect a statement and a contabilista certificado who expects a clean month.
Last spring she skipped the close. In June her accountant found a payout of 1,800 euros booked twice. The VAT return had already gone in. Fixing it took two weeks of emails and a corrected return.
That is the stake. Not tidiness. A month that keeps moving after someone has relied on it.
Here is the checklist she uses now. Seven gates, in order. Each one is a yes or a no. It fits on one page and, for a company her size, in one morning.
Gate 1: every bank line matched
Take the statement for the month and give each line a home: an invoice, a receipt, a payout, a transfer between own accounts.
Rita has 86 lines. 83 match. Three do not: a card charge of 45 euros, a transfer in of 600 euros with no reference, a bank fee of 12 euros. The fee is easy. The card charge needs a receipt. The 600 euros turns out to be a guest paying a damage deposit directly. A line can have the home "asked, waiting". It cannot have no home.
Gate 2: every sales invoice issued, every purchase document in
Compare the invoices you issued with the bookings of the month. Then list the suppliers you expect every month and tick them off.
Rita's list: cleaning, laundry, electricity for 12 flats, software, the accountant. Laundry and one electricity bill are missing. She sends one message to each before ten. In Spain the same gate applies, and Verifactu is changing how invoicing software records sales, so ask your asesor what it means for you.
Gate 3: platform payouts reconciled
Platforms pay net. Say bookings were 18,000 euros gross, commission 2,700, and the payout 15,300 arrived in two transfers.
Book sales at 18,000, commission as a cost of 2,700, and the bank at 15,300. If you book only 15,300, both sales and costs are understated, and the commission invoice may need its own tax treatment. How to treat it is your accountant's call. Then check that the payouts add up to the bank lines from Gate 1.
Gate 4: accruals for what was used but not yet invoiced
The cleaning done in March arrives as an invoice in April: 1,200 euros. Electricity is billed late: estimate 400.
Record both in March and reverse them when the invoices arrive. Without this, March looks 1,600 euros better than it was and April 1,600 worse. The SNC works on accrual. Your accountant decides the method and what is too small to bother with.
Gate 5: owner statements sent
For each owner: gross bookings, platform commission, management fee, costs charged, net to pay.
One flat: 1,800 gross, 270 commission, leaving 1,530. The contract fee is 20 percent of that, 306. Cleaning charged 150. Net to the owner: 1,074.
Send the statements before paying. Then add them up. The total of all twelve should tie to the platform totals from Gate 3. If it does not, one statement is wrong, and it is better to find it now than after the owner does.
Gate 6: read the VAT figure
Do not file it. Read it. VAT on sales, VAT on purchases, the difference. Compare it with last month and with the same month last year.
Rita's usually sits around 1,500 euros. This month it shows 2,900. A jump like that is a question to send to the accountant, not something to fix alone. In her case the laundry invoice was missing and the commission carried the wrong tax code. Whether you file monthly or quarterly depends on your regime in Portugal, and in Spain on your situation with the modelo 303. Check the current dates with your accountant.
Gate 7: lock the month
When gates 1 to 6 are all yes, set the closing date in your software. After that nothing posts to March. A late invoice goes into April, or the month is reopened on purpose, with a note of who did it and why.
This is the gate people skip, and the one that matters most. The accountant builds the VAT return, reviews the payroll figures behind the DMR and Segurança Social, and prepares what later feeds IRC. All of that assumes a month that no longer moves. If you keep editing it, every number they sent you is quietly wrong.
The morning, in practice
Nine o'clock: bank. Quarter to ten: documents and chasers. Quarter past ten: payouts. Quarter to eleven: accruals. Eleven: owner statements. Quarter to twelve: VAT. Noon: lock, or write down exactly what is still pending and who owns it.
What this checklist does not know: your VAT regime, how your accountant wants accruals booked, whether your platforms invoice from Portugal or elsewhere, and what your owner contracts say. Agree those once, and the morning stays a morning.
If you would rather have the matching and the chasing happen every day, with a person saying yes before anything posts, that is what Cifrova Business does. Accountants can see how the handover works on the page for accountants.
FAQ
How long should a month end close take for a small company? For 1 to 30 people with a steady volume, a morning is realistic once the routine exists. The first two or three months take longer because the missing documents pile up.
What does it mean to lock the accounting month? You set a closing date after which nothing can be posted to that month. Late documents go into the next month, or the month is reopened deliberately with a note.
Should platform payouts be booked net or gross? Usually sales are booked gross and the commission as a separate cost, with the payout matching the bank. Confirm the treatment with your accountant, as the commission invoice can have its own tax rules.