Accounting services
Monthly Accounting Services South Africa
Turn transaction records into a controlled monthly finance cycle with clear balances, adjustments and reporting.
A managed monthly cycle means the same work happens in the same order every month, and finishes. Not "the books are more or less up to date", a closed period, a reconciled position and a report you can act on, by an agreed date.
This is bookkeeping plus the accounting judgements on top: accruals, prepayments, depreciation and cut-off, so the monthly numbers actually resemble what the year-end statements will say.
Who this is for
Built around your operating reality
- Owner-managed companies
- Multi-entity groups
- Businesses without a financial manager
- Foreign parents needing local reporting
What we deliver
A controlled, documented service
- Monthly close and reconciliations
- Accruals and accounting adjustments
- Balance-sheet review
- Profit-and-loss reporting
- Cash-flow and working-capital review
- Group reporting support
Common situations
When a managed cycle earns its keep
- You need numbers early enough in the month to act on them
- Year-end is always a scramble and always costs more than expected
- Monthly profit swings in ways nobody can explain
- A funder or board wants regular reporting
- Provisional tax estimates are guesses because there is no interim position
- The finance admin is being done by someone whose real job is something else
What "closed" actually means
A closed month is one where the bank agrees, the control accounts agree, the accruals and prepayments have been raised, and the period has been locked. After that the reported figures do not change, which is what makes month-on-month comparison worth anything.
Without a close, every report is provisional and every comparison is against a moving target. This is the single biggest difference between bookkeeping that costs money and bookkeeping that earns it.
The monthly cycle we run
The sequence matters. Reconciliations come before reporting, because a report built on an unreconciled bank is a guess presented as a fact.
- Capture and reconcile: bank, cards, loans, debtors, creditors
- Raise accruals, prepayments and depreciation
- Reconcile VAT and payroll control accounts to what was filed
- Review the result against prior months and the budget
- Close and lock the period
- Issue the management pack with commentary
Monthly numbers make the tax year easier
A business with reliable monthly accounts can make a provisional tax estimate from actual figures rather than repeating last year. It can also spot a VAT or payroll control account drifting before it becomes a reconciliation problem.
The year-end work also shrinks. Most of the cost in a year-end engagement is reconstruction, and reconstruction only exists where the monthly work was not done.
Clear steps and responsibilities
Establish the close calendar
Reconcile and review
Resolve exceptions
Deliver reports and actions
Learn from other people’s mistakes
Where monthly reporting fails
Reporting before reconciling
A management pack issued from an unreconciled ledger is worse than no pack, because decisions get made on it.
No agreed deadline
A cycle without a date is not a cycle. If the pack arrives whenever it arrives, it will consistently arrive too late to act on.
Cash and profit confused
A profitable month with negative cash flow is common and alarming if nobody explains it. The pack should address both.
No commentary
Numbers without interpretation get filed unread. The value is in what changed and why.
Getting started
What the cycle runs on
- Bank feeds or statements for every account
- Sales and purchase documents for the month
- Payroll reports for the period
- Details of new assets, loans or leases
- Any once-off transactions that need discussion
Frequently asked questions
What to know before you begin
If your situation is not covered here, ask, the answer usually turns on facts a page cannot know.
How soon after month-end are reports available? +
Timing depends on complete records, cut-offs and the agreed close calendar.
Does this include annual statements? +
Annual financial statements are separately scoped but use the monthly records.
Can reports match group formats? +
Yes, where templates, accounting policies and deadlines are provided.
When in the month do we get the pack? +
We agree a date up front and work to it. The date depends on how quickly source documents and bank data arrive, which is why the handover covers that as well.
Is this different from bookkeeping? +
Yes. Bookkeeping records the transactions; this adds the accounting judgements, the close and the reporting. Businesses that buy only the first often pay for the second at year end anyway.
Can you work with our existing accountant? +
Yes, and it is common. We run the monthly cycle and hand a clean trial balance to whoever prepares the statutory accounts.
Talk to M&J about accounting services
Tell us where you are and what is outstanding. We will come back with a scope and a clear next step rather than a generic quote.
- Monthly close and reconciliations
- Accruals and accounting adjustments
- Balance-sheet review
Prefer to talk? +27 87 078 2478
Request a consultation
An M&J consultant will come back to you with the next step.