What is the Month End Process
The month end process marks the transition from an open to a closed financial period. Once a financial month is locked, the forecasts and actuals for that month become fixed and read-only. This provides a clear financial cut-off, ensuring reports are stable and auditable.
Locking the month also triggers a recalculation of the Full Year Forecast (FYF). The FYF is made up of:
Actuals from all months that have been locked, plus
Forecasts from the months that are still open.
This calculation is critically important because it gives the organisation a reliable, up-to-date estimate of the project cost at completion. In other words, it combines what has already been spent (actuals) with the latest forecast of what is still expected to be spent (open months). As months are progressively locked, the FYF becomes increasingly weighted towards actual costs, providing stakeholders with greater confidence in the accuracy of financial projections.
Once a month is locked, forecasts and actuals cannot be edited by standard users. Only Financial Administrators can make controlled adjustments (such as accruals or corrections), ensuring that while genuine financial adjustments can still be reflected, the integrity of the locked period is preserved.
What Can Vary Between Organisations
While the principles of the month end process are the same, the exact steps and timing can differ depending on how your organisation manages financial data.
Common differences include:
When the month is locked – the lock date is usually set by Finance and may vary depending on your organisation’s close calendar.
Invoice management – whether invoices are entered manually in Fluid, uploaded in bulk, or fed in from an integrated finance system.
Use of accruals – whether accruals are required, and how they are calculated and approved.
Timing of data feeds – when updates from ERP or other finance systems are received and processed.