Month-end close gets easier when the daily mess is named early

I learned the hard way that month-end close is not really a month-end problem. Most of the pain starts on normal Tuesdays when a receipt sits in somebody's drawer, a vendor bill gets coded to the wrong job, or a card charge comes through with no note. The best habit I picked up was keeping a running exception list during the week. Not a fancy report, just a short list of the five things that…