Steven Palmieri takes that close as a Tax CFO, the Entrepreneur's CFO. You get the books caught up, reconciled, and ready for statements. If the month is still open, closing it comes before any guess about the year. A tidy story on top of an open month does not help a lender, and it does not help you.
The bank
What to send first
Send access to the bank, the last month you closed, and the question you actually want answered. That is enough to start. You do not need a perfect folder on the first day. We count the open months before we name a fee, and we say that count on the call.
Older months get walked until each one ties. A missing deposit, a double bill, or a transfer that landed in the wrong account is fixed in the month it belongs to. The month you are standing in stays tied to the same bank, so the close does not drift a week behind the real cash.
Before December, the choices that are still open can be written down while they can still change the year. Once December is over, the ledger can only record a year that has already run. Financial statements come from the closed months, not from a guess.
Your week
The days you keep
The close takes a block of time. The rest of the week stays with you, including the admin login. A Design District showroom can still take a deposit on a weekday that is not the close. A permit moving through DallasNow does not have to wait, but the books should know the money when the month is finished.
An owner in Bishop Arts can keep the counter. The close does not ask the shop to shut for a second day. If the useful hour is after a Deep Ellum room goes quiet, say so. The hour can move. The login does not.
Payday stays with the payroll provider the owner already runs. Setting that provider up can sit inside the first month. Once it is running, payday is not part of the close. A buyer week at the Dallas Market Center can pack the showroom, and we still hold one afternoon that belongs only to reconciling the bank.
No guess
What we will not pretend
We will not call a month closed because the calendar turned. We will not guess owner pay from a balance that has not been tied. SCORE and the North Texas SBDC remain useful conversations, and neither one is a substitute for the tie out.
Sales tax collected in the city, including the DART penny, belongs in the books before the report morning. That morning might be a day you still have. The close makes the morning ordinary. It does not take the morning away from you.
If the file later asks for a signed report, that signature is named on the disclosures page. The cleanup under it can still happen here. Name the newest month you already trust when you send the note, even if the honest answer is that you are not sure.
