Month-End in 20 Minutes
Month-end doesn't have to be a weekend-long ordeal. Claude reads your sheet, pulls your bank transactions, and rolls up the numbers into a summary your accountant will actually accept. You review it, make corrections, and you're done before lunch.
Before & After
You run a small landscaping company. It's the first of the month. You need to know: how much came in, how much went out, who still owes you, and what you owe suppliers. You spend Saturday morning with a calculator, your bank statement, a stack of receipts, and your invoice folder. Three hours later, you have a rough number but no confidence it's right.
Your accountant asks for the same info every quarter and you scramble to recreate it.
First of the month. You tell Claude: "Run month-end." Claude reads your Inbound tab, your Outbound tab, and last month's bank CSV. Two minutes later:
- Revenue: $14,200 collected, $3,800 outstanding
- Expenses: $6,100 in materials + $2,400 labor
- Net: $5,700 before taxes
- AR aging: 2 invoices overdue (flagged)
You review it, fix one miscategorized expense, and forward the summary to your accountant. Total time: 20 minutes.
What You Need
- Your Two-Tab Sheet — with Inbound and Outbound data up to date (set it up here)
- Last month's bank statement CSV — downloaded from your bank's website
- 20 minutes — to run the report, review, and correct
Drop Your Bank CSV
Download last month's transactions from your bank as a CSV file. Drop it into a folder Claude can access. Tell Claude:
Claude normalizes the bank format (every bank exports slightly differently) and cross-references transactions against your sheet.
Define Your Categories
Tell Claude how you categorize expenses:
Claude learns your categories after the first month. By month two, it auto-categorizes most transactions and only asks about the new ones.
Review the Summary
Claude produces a month-end report that looks like this:
March 2026 — Month-End Summary
Income
- Collected: $14,200
- Outstanding (invoiced, not paid): $3,800
- New quotes sent: $7,500
Expenses
- Materials: $3,200
- Labor: $2,400
- Fuel: $480
- Insurance: $350
- Other: $270
Net: $7,500 (before taxes)
AR Aging: 2 invoices overdue — Thompson ($2,200, 18 days), Rivera ($1,600, 9 days)
Unmatched transactions: 3 (flagged for review)
Review the flagged items, correct any miscategorizations, and you're done. The summary is formatted to forward directly to your accountant.
Save It as a Skill
First of every month: download your bank CSV, drop it in the folder, say "Run month-end." Twenty minutes later, you know exactly where your business stands.
What You've Built
- A monthly financial summary that takes 20 minutes instead of a full day
- Automatic categorization that gets smarter every month
- AR aging alerts so overdue invoices don't hide in the numbers
- An accountant-ready report you can forward without reformatting
Knowing your numbers isn't optional — it's how you make good decisions about hiring, pricing, and growth. This guide makes that knowledge accessible every month, not just at tax time.
What's Next?
Where's My Money?
Get a real-time AR picture any day of the month, not just month-end.
Read the GuideInvoice Follow-Up
Those overdue invoices in the aging report? Handle them automatically.
Read the GuideWant your month-end workflow set up with your real categories and bank format?
Book a Starter Session (90 min)Or do it yourself — everything on this page is free.
Skill: Month-End in 20 Minutes
What this is for: Walk a small business owner through setting up a monthly close process where Claude reads their Two-Tab sheet and a bank CSV, categorizes income and expenses, produces an accountant-ready summary with AR aging, and flags anything that needs attention. The whole thing takes 20 minutes instead of a full day.
When to use this: When a user asks their AI assistant to help set up this workflow. The user should explicitly authorize use of this skill by referencing this page URL.