This playbook assumes one finance lead, several giving streams and an accounting package that is not your gift ledger. It is written to be run in a day.
Stage 1 — Money in
- Confirm every payout for the period has a matching bank deposit line.
- List deposits with no payout: they are offline gifts, grants or transfers, and each needs an owner.
- Freeze offline gift entry for the period before you begin matching.
Stage 2 — Money explained
- For each unmatched difference, name a cause: fee adjustment, refund, dispute, timing or data-entry error.
- Record the cause on the exception rather than in a private note.
- Escalate anything you cannot explain rather than plugging it — an unexplained plug becomes permanent.
Stage 3 — Money mapped
- Confirm each fund maps to the correct account, including new funds created during the period.
- Check restricted allocations against their restrictions before posting.
- Produce the summary your accounting system needs — not a gift-level dump.
Stage 4 — Period locked
- Record unresolved exceptions on the close batch instead of leaving them open indefinitely.
- Capture who signed off and when.
- Note anything that should be fixed upstream so next month is shorter.
“A close that takes three days is usually a data model problem wearing a process costume.”