A month-end close checklist for a multi-branch restaurant group

A restaurant group closes its month across many small ledgers at once: every branch has its own sales batches, its own deliveries, its own waste and its own stock count, and a central kitchen may be selling to all of them. The numbers only become one set of accounts once each branch has been closed on its own. This checklist is written in the order a small finance team can work it, from the last days of the month to the review. Adapt it to your own chart of accounts and your own calendar; strike out what does not apply rather than skipping it silently.

Before the month ends

• Agree the cut-off with every branch manager: the date and time of the last sale, the last delivery and the stock count.
• Ask suppliers for their statements as of month end, so they arrive in the first week, not the third.
• List the recurring costs that should land every month: rent, service charges, utilities, licences, software, cleaning, pest control. A missing one is an accrual.
• Confirm who will count stock at each branch and at the central kitchen, with which count sheet.

Sales and settlements, branch by branch

• Each branch: the end-of-day revenue report against the card and bank deposits, day by day through the month. Investigate a pattern, not a single small difference.
• Card and wallet takings: what each payment method took against what the bank actually credited, net of the processor's fee.
• Delivery app payouts: orders, commission and refunds on the statement against the sales recorded for that channel.
• Refunds, voids and staff meals: compared with the branch's own usual level, and explained where they jump.
• Branch sales reports against revenue posted to the ledger, per branch.

Purchases and supplier bills

• Goods received but not yet billed: list them and accrue them, so food cost is not understated.
• Bills with no receipt behind them: hold them until a branch confirms the delivery.
• Bills against orders and receipts: quantity and price, line by line (see three-way matching).
• Duplicates: the same supplier and invoice number twice, including bills entered at two branches.
• Supplier statements against your ledger: every difference explained, not just the total.
• Missing tax invoices: ZATCA's invoicing guideline gives a supplier until fifteen days after the end of the month of supply to issue one. Chase what is late before you close, because input VAT is claimed on the invoice, not on the delivery.

Stock and food cost

• Stock counted at every branch and at the central kitchen, at the agreed cut-off, and entered before anyone moves stock again.
• Transfers between branches and from the central kitchen: both sides recorded, in the same month, at the same cost.
• Waste and spoilage logs entered, so they do not end up hidden in the count variance.
• Actual food cost per branch (opening stock, plus purchases and transfers in, minus transfers out and closing stock) against the cost the recipes say the sales should have used. A gap is a question, not an answer.
• Price movements on the main ingredients since last month, so a margin change is explained by price or by usage.

Payroll, accruals and prepayments

• Payroll for the month posted, with overtime, allowances and staff provisions your policy requires.
• Accruals for costs incurred but not billed, each with how the amount was estimated. The supplier's own billing history is a better guide than a round number.
• Prepayments released for the month: rent paid in advance, insurance, annual licences.
• Depreciation for kitchen equipment and fit-out, by branch.
• Central costs allocated to branches on a basis you can explain and repeat.

VAT

• Output VAT on sales reconciled to the sales ledger, per branch and per channel.
• Input VAT claimed only on bills that carry a valid tax invoice, and not on purchases ZATCA treats as non-deductible, such as hospitality or vehicles available for private use.
• Know your filing period. Larger businesses file monthly and the rest quarterly, on thresholds ZATCA sets. ZATCA's reminder for June and the second quarter of 2026 set July 31, 2026 as the deadline for both, the last day of the month after the period ended, and named late-filing penalties of 5 to 25 percent of the tax.

Review and lock

• Bank accounts reconciled, every unexplained line listed with an owner.
• A management pack per branch: sales, food cost, labour cost and the movement against last month and the same month last year.
• Open questions written down, with who owns each one and when it will be answered.
• The period locked in your accounting system once the review is signed, so nothing is posted into it afterwards without a person reopening it.

Where RoleAxis fits

RoleAxis's Finance department covers parts of this list with its agents. The Payables agent checks supplier bills against orders and receipts and drafts holds. The Receivables agent compares sales clearing, card settlements and the bank and reports each gap. The Close agent reports what stands between today and a closed month, names accrual candidates with the supplier's billing history (never a proposed amount), and shows cost movements against each account's own average. None of them posts a journal entry, and closing or reopening a period is refused by the code for every agent. The close, the judgement and the sign-off stay with your team.