Month-end close checklist for a Nigerian SME (2026)

Closing your books every month is the habit that separates businesses that know their numbers from those that are permanently surprised by them. A disciplined month-end close means accurate reports, no nasty tax surprises, and a company you can actually steer. Here is the checklist a Nigerian SME should run, in order.

The month-end close at a glance

1. Reconcile bank and cash accounts

Start here. Match every line on your bank statement to a transaction in your books. Reconciliation catches the things that quietly break your accounts: a payment you forgot to record, a bank charge you missed, a customer transfer sitting unallocated. Do the same for petty cash — count it and match it to your cash log. Until the bank reconciles, no other number can be trusted.

2. Record all income and issue outstanding invoices

Make sure every sale for the month is in the books. Raise any invoices you haven't yet issued for work delivered, and record all customer receipts. If you work on the accrual basis, revenue belongs in the month it was earned, even if the customer hasn't paid — so don't leave delivered-but-uninvoiced work out.

3. Record all bills and expenses

Enter every supplier bill and expense receipt for the month, including the ones not yet paid (they become payables). Chase down the crumpled receipts and the bank-app screenshots. Missing expenses overstate your profit — and overstate the tax you'll eventually pay on it.

4. Post the payroll journals

Payroll is where most Nigerian month-end errors hide. For the month's payroll run, post the journal that records:

• Gross salaries as an expense.
• PAYE deducted, sitting in PAYE payable until remitted to the State Internal Revenue Service.
• Pension (employee + employer share) in pension payable.
• NHF (where the employee has opted in — it is voluntary for private-sector staff from 2026 under NTA 2025) and NSITF (1% of payroll, employer-borne).
• Net pay actually paid to staff.

Confirm the payslip totals tie to the journal. A payroll journal that doesn't reconcile to the payslips will haunt your year-end.

5. Review VAT and WHT positions

Two statutory positions to settle every month:

• VAT — net off the output VAT you charged (7.5%) against the input VAT you can recover, and confirm the amount payable to the Nigeria Revenue Service. The VAT return and payment are due by the 21st of the following month.
• WHT — total the withholding tax you deducted from vendor and director payments and prepare to remit it. Confirm you actually withheld where you should have.

Reviewing these monthly means the cash to pay them is set aside, not accidentally spent.

6. Reconcile receivables and payables

Produce your list of who owes you (receivables) and who you owe (payables), and sanity-check it. Are there invoices marked unpaid that were actually settled? Old balances that need chasing or writing off? This is also your early-warning system for cash-flow trouble.

7. Post accruals and prepayments

Match costs to the month they belong to:

• Accruals — expenses incurred but not yet billed (for example, December's electricity used but invoiced in January). Record them now.
• Prepayments — costs paid in advance covering future months (for example, an annual insurance premium). Spread them across the period they cover.

This is what makes accrual accounting give a true monthly result instead of a lumpy one.

8. Review the profit and loss against budget

With the books complete, produce the profit and loss statement and compare it to your budget or to last month. Ask: did we make money? Where did costs run ahead of plan? This 15-minute review is the entire point of closing the books — it turns bookkeeping into management.

Statutory deadlines that land after month-end

Close promptly, because the remittance clock is already running:

Confirm the exact dates that apply to your business — but treat month-end as the trigger to prepare all of them.

AnooreHR closes most of this list for you: payroll runs post their journals automatically with PAYE, pension, NHF, and NSITF split to the right accounts; VAT and WHT positions update as you record transactions; and bank reconciliation is guided. Your month-end becomes a review, not a reconstruction. Book a demo or sign up free to run a clean close on your own numbers.

Frequently asked questions

Related: Bookkeeping basics for Nigerian SMEs · Nigeria payroll compliance calendar 2026 · See pricing