Accrual Identification

Missed accruals are the quiet way a close goes wrong: a vendor that bills every month simply doesn't invoice, an accrual booked last period never reappears, and the period looks complete because nothing is obviously broken.

Kraal's Accrual Identification step looks for those gaps on its own during the close. It proposes the accrual, states why it thinks the accrual belongs, attaches the records it based that on, and then stops — every proposal waits for a person.

Nothing posts on its own

Accrual Identification never auto-posts, at any autonomy level. Its proposals are always held for review. See Autonomy & Safety for how Kraal decides what may post automatically and what always waits.

What Kraal looks for

The step reads the period's bills, journal activity, and the client's recurring schedules, and raises a candidate whenever a normal pattern breaks.

What it noticed	In plain language
Recurring vendor, no bill this period	A vendor that charges this client most months has no bill in the period being closed. Kraal proposes an accrual at the vendor's usual amount.
Last period's accrual has gone missing	An accrual was recorded for this counterparty in the prior period and there is nothing comparable this period. Either the expense really stopped, or the accrual was dropped.
A schedule produced nothing	An active accrual schedule exists for the client but no entry came out of it for this period. Kraal reports the gap rather than posting a second entry.
Cutoff-sensitive activity	Activity around the period boundary that suggests an expense belongs in the period being closed.

Each candidate carries a confidence of high, medium, or low. Confidence describes how cleanly the pattern matched — it is never a substitute for your judgment, and a high-confidence candidate still needs an approval.

Kraal only ever proposes here. It does not decide that an expense is real, and it does not quietly change a schedule.

Every proposal shows its reasoning

Open any candidate and you get two things before you decide:

• The reason why — one plain sentence describing the pattern Kraal matched, written for a reviewer rather than an engineer. For example: "This vendor billed in most of the last six months at a similar amount; no bill has been received for this period."
• The support behind it — the underlying records: the vendor's billing history and the amounts, the prior-period entry that is missing its twin, or the schedule that produced no entry.

Amounts, counterparties, accounts, and posting dates are shown as proposed values, not as facts about the books. If Kraal cannot determine something, it shows an em dash — a dash means not known, never zero.

Review, edit, approve

Candidates arrive in the period's review queue like any other close proposal.

1. Open Accrual Identification from the close checklist, or the Accruals page for the period.
2. Read the reason and expand the support.
3. Adjust the amount, accounts, or posting date if your judgment differs from the proposal.
4. Accept to post the accrual, or Reject to dismiss it.

Rejecting asks for a reason, and the reason is kept with the candidate. That matters more than it sounds: a rejected candidate is not resurrected next month as if nothing happened, and the next reviewer can see that the call was already made and why.

Accepting posts through the same review rail as every other close proposal, so the entry lands in the audit trail with you named as the approver. See Audit Trail & Activity Log.

Reversing entries

Most identified accruals are estimates that the real invoice will replace next period. Accepted accruals can therefore post with an automatic reversing entry in the following period — the proposal says so plainly ("Reverses next period") before you accept.

Check two things before accepting a reversing accrual:

• the reversal lands in a period that is still open; and
• the vendor's real bill, when it arrives, will post to the same accounts.

This is the same convention payroll accruals use — see Close Items in Depth.

Turn a recurring accrual into a schedule

When a candidate is clearly not a one-off — the same vendor, the same amount, every month — you can promote it instead of re-approving it every close.

1. Open the candidate in the Accruals Register.
2. Choose Make recurring.
3. Confirm the monthly amount, the start date, and how many periods it should run.

Kraal creates a standing accrual schedule for the client. From the next close on, the amount is handled by that schedule as a normal recurring close item, and the candidate is marked as converted so it stops competing for your attention. The schedule is editable afterwards like any other — see Client Setup & Close Workflow for where accrual schedules live.

Promoting a candidate requires close-configuration permission. If you do not have it, the action does not appear.

The Accruals Register

The Accruals page is the register view for this work. It shows, for the selected client and period:

• Candidates — what Kraal identified, with kind, counterparty, amount, confidence, whether it will reverse, and its current status (proposed, accepted, rejected, or converted to a schedule).
• Active accrual schedules — the standing accruals already running for the client.
• A summary — counts by status and kind, plus totals, so you can see at a glance whether the period has anything outstanding.

Downloads

Download	What it is	Use it for
Export CSV / Export Excel	A static snapshot of the register exactly as displayed.	Sharing the list, or attaching it to a workpaper.
Export schedule (formula workbook)	An .xlsx whose schedule columns contain live Excel formulas, plus tie-out rows comparing the worksheet against Kraal's own numbers at export time.	Tracing the math, or running a controlled what-if.

The formula workbook behaves exactly like the debt, lease, prepaid, and fixed-asset workbooks: recomputing in Excel is expected, editing it never changes the register or the books, and an OK tie-out means the worksheet agrees with Kraal to the cent. Read Formula-Driven Register Workbooks before relying on one — especially the section on when DRIFT is normal.

Where it appears in the close

Accrual Identification runs in the adjustments stage of the close checklist, alongside the other accrual and judgment items and before the review pass. On the Close Sheet it behaves like any other row: it reports what Kraal did, links its workpaper, and holds the period's review step open while candidates are still waiting on a decision.

The step's workpaper is archived into the Close Binder with the rest of the period's supporting schedules, so the reasoning behind an accrual — and behind one you declined — stays part of the record.

Kraal also re-checks for accrual gaps between closes as part of its background sweeps, so a gap that opens up mid-month is not held until the next close to surface. See Kraal Sweeps.

Troubleshooting

• A candidate looks wrong — reject it with a reason. Do not accept and reverse it later; the reason is what stops it coming back.
• The same accrual appears every month — use Make recurring to convert it into a standing accrual schedule.
• A candidate names a vendor we stopped using — reject it and note the reason. Kraal will keep the rejection rather than re-proposing the same gap.
• "Schedule produced no entry" but the entry did post — check the schedule's period index and start date in Close Prep; the step reports the gap it saw and never posts a second entry to cover one.
• No candidates at all — that can be a clean period, but check the step's workpaper. If Kraal could not read a source, it reports that plainly instead of showing an empty, all-clear list.
• I can't see Make recurring — the action needs close-configuration permission for the client.

Related guides

• Errors & Risk Review — the companion step that flags duplicates, errors, and risk signals.
• Close Items in Depth — what every other automated close item computes and how to review it.
• Formula-Driven Register Workbooks — live-formula Excel working papers and how to read a tie-out.
• Corrections & Adjustments — what to do when something has to change after it posted.
• Autonomy & Safety — what Kraal may do on its own, and what always waits for you.