Programmatic month end close

Programmatic month-end close

Month-end close is where campaign operations becomes finance evidence. The desk needs to prove what delivered, what spent, what should be billed, what differs across systems, and what needs a make-good or accrual. This skill gives the close process.

Use discrepancy-and-reconciliation for the measurement and ad server discrepancy method. Use this skill to run the full close calendar and handoff.

When to use this skill

• Month-end or campaign-end delivery needs to be closed.
• Platform spend, ad server delivery, client reporting, and invoices do not match.
• A finance team needs billing evidence, accruals, make-good notes, or PO mapping.
• A client asks for final delivery, overdelivery, underdelivery, or discrepancy explanation.
• A platform invoice or credit needs review.

Close package

Component	Required evidence
Delivery export	Platform and ad server delivery by campaign, line, placement, date
Spend export	Media spend, fees where available, currency, tax or billing basis
Conversion export	If billed or judged on outcomes, the agreed conversion source
Discrepancy log	Difference by source, tolerance, root cause, action
Invoice or billing file	Platform invoice, DSP spend file, publisher invoice, or finance export
Taxonomy and PO map	Campaign code, cost center, PO, advertiser, market
Make-good or credit	Reason, amount, owner, approval, expected timing
Accrual	Amount, rationale, source, finance owner
Sign-off	Ops, account, finance, and client owner where required

Close calendar

Window	Work
Last 3 business days	Check pacing risk, taxonomy, PO mapping, invoice setup, and known discrepancies
Day 1 to 2 after close	Pull delivery, spend, conversion, and ad server exports
Day 2 to 4	Reconcile platform, ad server, analytics, and invoice numbers
Day 4 to 5	Resolve exceptions, document credits, prepare finance handoff
By client deadline	Send approved close pack or billing backup

Adjust the dates to the client and finance calendar, but do not remove the pre-close check.

Core process

1. Freeze the close scope. Define the month, clients, advertisers, platforms, campaigns, currencies, time zones, and billing basis. Write whether the client bills on DSP spend, ad-server impressions, publisher invoices, or another source.
2. Pull source exports. Pull platform delivery, ad server delivery, spend, conversion, invoice, and dashboard extracts using the same date range and time zone where possible.
3. Validate taxonomy and billing keys. Campaign code, cost center, PO, market, advertiser, and platform keys must join. Missing keys are close blockers.
4. Reconcile delivery and spend. Compare platform vs ad server, platform vs invoice, dashboard vs source, and currency conversions where applicable. Use tolerance bands from discrepancy-and-reconciliation.
5. Classify exceptions. For each exception, mark timing lag, known discrepancy, invalid traffic, make-good, credit, setup error, missing invoice, platform issue, or data fault.
6. Size financial impact. Convert exceptions into dollars, impressions, conversions, or credit amount. Finance needs numbers, not adjectives.
7. Collect approvals. Ops confirms delivery evidence, measurement confirms numbers, account confirms client framing, finance confirms billing treatment.
8. Archive the close pack. Store exports, reconciliation file, exception log, invoices, approvals, and client copy in the approved location.

Exception log template

Month-end exception
Client:
Advertiser:
Platform:
Campaign:
Source A:
Source B:
Metric:
Difference:
Tolerance:
Root cause:
Financial impact:
Action:
Owner:
Due:
Approval:

Decision rules

• Do not send a client final delivery number that does not state its source.
• Do not mix time zones inside one close pack without documenting it.
• Do not net discrepancies away without keeping the line-level evidence.
• Treat missing taxonomy or PO mapping as a close blocker, not an admin cleanup.
• If a platform invoice disagrees materially with source delivery, hold the billing line until the exception is classified and approved.

Common pitfalls

• Waiting until the first of the month to discover a missing PO or invalid taxonomy.
• Reconciling dashboard numbers instead of source exports.
• Forgetting currency, fees, tax, or time-zone differences.
• Treating a make-good as a note instead of an approved finance action.
• Losing the support case or incident evidence that explains an invoice exception.

Related artifacts

• templates/ops/month-end-close-checklist.md
• discrepancy-and-reconciliation
• cross-platform-conversion-reconciliation
• marketing-analytics-warehouse-and-dashboards
• platform-support-escalation
• month-end-close loop