How do you know when the monthly books are closed?
Days past books-close deadline counts how many days after the 15th of the following month last month's books still look open. Books count as closed when cash ties to the bank, nothing is uncategorized, revenue and COGS are booked, and numbers have stopped changing. Late books delay every margin and profitability decision.
Formula
Days elapsed after the 15th of the following month while last month's books are not yet closed (zero once closed or before the deadline)
Example
A hypothetical tea brand's September books are due by October 15. On October 20, QuickBooks cash still doesn't tie to the bank statement and $8,000 sits in an uncategorized account. Days past deadline = 20 − 15 = 5 days. Once every check passes, it drops to 0.
How to read it
Lower is better, and zero is the goal. Inflection treats a month as closed when every applicable check passes: QuickBooks month-end cash ties to the bank within $500 or 1%, nothing is left in uncategorized, Ask My Accountant, or suspense accounts, revenue is booked (and COGS, if the business normally has it), QuickBooks revenue is at least 90% of Shopify net sales, and the month's numbers haven't changed for 3 days. Margin KPIs computed before then can move.
What moves it
- Bank and card reconciliations not yet completed
- Transactions left in uncategorized or suspense accounts
- Shopify, Amazon, and wholesale sales not fully booked in QuickBooks
- Inventory and COGS entries waiting on landed cost or counts
- Bookkeeper capacity and month-end adjustments still in progress
What to do when it's flagged
- Check which close test is failing and assign it to an owner with a date
- Clear uncategorized transactions and finish the bank and card reconciliations
- Reconcile QuickBooks revenue to Shopify and other sales channels
- Hold margin and profitability decisions until the month is closed, or label them preliminary
How Inflection tracks it
Inflection's KPI Monitor flags this as Watch as soon as books are past the 15th-of-the-month deadline (more than 0 days) and Critical when more than 7 days past by default; each client's thresholds are adjusted to their business.
The close status is inferred from QuickBooks (P&L and balance sheet), connected bank feeds, and Shopify sales.
Updated 2026-10-11. Example figures are hypothetical.