Minns
    Your money · Month end & insight

    Know where the business stands, every month, not every year.

    Your assistant runs the month end the same way every time and stops where your yes is needed. Once the month is locked, it turns the numbers into what they mean: what changed and why, how long the cash lasts, and the few things worth deciding. It is written to be read in ten minutes, not worked through like a spreadsheet.

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    Works from your books in Minns, pulled from Xero or QuickBooks, or read from FreeAgent.

    The close as it reaches you, drafted from the locked numbers. Example names and figures.

    01 · Month end, step by step

    The same close every month, waiting for you only where it should.

    The month end is a fixed workflow the accounting engine runs. Statements in, your rules applied, the last bank lines suggested by your assistant, then your review of what it could not place and the journals it drafted. The books are reconciled to the bank, accruals and prepayments are released for the month, and the checks run.

    Only then does it ask you to approve the month, showing the profit on the sales. Your yes locks it, so the figures in the pack are figures that cannot quietly change. If a check fails, the run waits and says exactly what: a trial balance out, a suspense account holding money, a line nobody explained, an invoice left as a draft, VAT that does not agree.

    • With a nightly pull from Xero or QuickBooks, a new month starts your assistant on the close without being asked.
    • Accruals, prepayments and deferred income are released by the day, each period, with no journal to remember.
    • Reopening a locked month is your choice, and the audit trail records it.
    02 · What changed and why

    Variances explained from the ledger, not from a hunch.

    Once the month is locked, your assistant drafts the management accounts: profit and loss against last month, last year and your budget, the balance sheet, and cash flow reconciled to the bank. It splits each gap into causes you can act on, selling more, at a different price, with more materials per job, and finds the postings that show it.

    You agree once what size of difference is worth explaining, and it explains those, not every pound. A variance it cannot tie to the ledger is written as a question for you, never as a plausible story.

    • Favourable and adverse are written as such, not as plus and minus.
    • Every figure is taken from the books' reports, and the arithmetic runs as code with the working shown.
    • A month that was not closed is said at the top of the pack.
    03 · Cash and forecasts

    How long the cash lasts, as a range you can trust.

    Forecasts are worked out by tested code, not the model's own arithmetic, so a figure can be produced again from its inputs. A line with a steady history is forecast from its own past, with the method checked against the months held back and the simple answer kept unless a cleverer one does clearly better. A line with a driver, hours, jobs, headcount, is built from that driver and the assumptions you agreed.

    Because the future is uncertain, your assistant shows the range: the likely cash in each month, the one in ten worse case, and the chance cash falls below the cushion you want. Ask what if a big customer goes quiet and the same model is run again with that one driver changed.

    • Every assumption written beside the line it drives, for you to read and change.
    • Forecasts carry 80% and 95% ranges, and their accuracy against what actually happened.
    • Your assistant can work out debtor, creditor and stock days too, and where cash is tied up.

    Illustrative figures. The ranges come from running the forecast many times over the assumptions you agreed.

    04 · Board pack

    A short pack for directors, investors or the bank.

    Agree once who reads it and which four to eight measures matter, each with a definition, a source and a target. Each month your assistant drafts the pack from the locked numbers: the month on a page, a scorecard with each measure against its target, the management accounts, the cash forecast, and the decisions that need making.

    Measures that come before the money, enquiries, jobs on time, staff, are read from the apps you connected. One with no reliable source is left out with the reason, never estimated. The pack is a draft until you say it is final, and sending it to anyone is a separate yes each time.

    • On track, watch or off track by a rule you agree once, never by feel.
    • Thirteen months of trend beside each measure, so seasonality shows.
    • As a page, a PDF, or a dashboard refreshed each month.
    The use case: one month end

    From the last day of the month to the board meeting.

    One month for one business. The engine closes it, your assistant does the explaining and drafting, and you approve and send.

    1. 1 OCT

      The month turns

      The overnight pull brings in September's last lines from Xero. A new month has started, so your assistant begins the close.

    2. 1 OCT

      Most of it explained

      Rules, invoice matches and transfers explain 235 lines. Three lines and an accrual for the accountant's fee wait for you.

    3. 2 OCT

      Your answers

      You place the three lines and approve the accrual. The books reconcile to the bank and every check passes.

    4. 5 OCT

      Approved and locked

      You approve the month's accounts: profit £4,142 on sales of £48,200. September locks.

    5. 6 OCT

      The pack, drafted

      You ask for the pack. Management accounts, variances, the cash forecast and the scorecard, drafted from the locked numbers, with the materials overrun as a question.

    6. 8 OCT

      The board

      You read it in ten minutes, answer the question, and send the pack to your co-director before the meeting.

    Example names and figures.

    Who decides

    It does the work. You make the calls.

    What the assistant may do on its own, and what only you, or someone you choose, may do.

    The assistant may

    • Start the month end, explain bank lines and draft accruals and journals.
    • Fix what the checks find, and say what it could not.
    • Draft the management accounts, variances and commentary from the locked numbers.
    • Build forecasts and scenarios with the assumptions written down.
    • Draft the board pack.

    Only you may

    • Approve journals and the month's accounts.
    • Lock a month, and reopen one.
    • Agree the budget, the targets and the assumptions behind a forecast.
    • Decide the pack is final, and send it to anyone.
    Questions owners ask first

    Straight answers.

    Does the month close on its own?
    No. The engine runs the steps, but it stops for your review of anything unclear and asks you to approve the month before it locks. The books are never locked without a person's yes.
    Where do the numbers in the pack come from?
    From the books engine's reports after the month is locked. Your assistant quotes them exactly, and anything it works out from them runs as code with the working shown.
    Do I need a budget?
    No. Without one, the month is compared with last month and the same month last year, and the pack says so. Your assistant can build a budget with you from last year's actuals and the drivers behind them.
    How far can I trust the forecast?
    It says. Each forecast carries its range and its assumptions, and as the months pass your assistant can measure it against what actually happened, so you can see how close it has been.
    Will it send the pack to my investors?
    Only when you say so. The pack is a draft until you call it final, and each send is a separate yes from your own mailbox.

    Give your business an assistant.

    Connect your mail, calendar and books in a few minutes. It works the way you do, and asks before it acts in your name.

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