Close Completion Report

When a close is finalized and the period lock is verified, Kraal generates a Close Completion Report — a permanent, dated summary of how that client-month was closed.

The report is a record of a conclusion already reached, not the conclusion itself. It exists because the close was finalized in Kraal; it never decides that a close is finished. A month with every checklist item green, a generated binder, or a completed Work Item in a practice-management system does not produce a completion report. Finalization plus a verified lock does.

What it answers

One screen, for one finished client-month:

• What period and which entities were closed, and on what accounting basis.
• When the close started, when it was finalized, and whether the lock was verified.
• What work was required, and what was completed.
• Which reconciliations were required, which passed, and which were signed off.
• What material exceptions were found and resolved.
• What client inputs were needed, requested, and satisfied.
• What adjustments were proposed, approved, and posted.
• What Kraal did automatically, and what required a person.
• What was released — the financial package and internal binder.
• Whether the close was later reopened or superseded.

Where to find it

When finalization succeeds, the close view changes to a completion state:

Close completed
September 2026
Finalized 7 Oct 2026
Lock verified
[View completion report]  [Open financial package]

Open it from there, or from the client's close history when you need an earlier month. Every finalized close has a report; nothing needs to be enabled, connected, or generated by hand.

What is in the report

Section	What it covers
Outcome	Period, entities, accounting basis, finalized date, lock verification.
Close at a glance	Required and completed items, reconciliation totals, blockers resolved, how long the close took.
Reconciliations	Required, passing at finalization, signed off, exceptions resolved — with a per-account drill-down.
Adjustments & postings	What was proposed, approved, posted, or withdrawn, with posting references.
Client inputs & exceptions	What was requested from the client, what arrived, what was accepted, and what exceptions were cleared.
Kraal work	System actions Kraal executed, and the decisions that required a person.
Team effort	Optional. Appears only when a practice-management integration is connected.
Deliverables	The released financial package and the internal close binder.
History	Reopens, supersessions, and re-finalizations affecting this month.

Reconciliations

The summary reads plainly — for example, 10 of 10 required reconciliations passed, 10 of 10 signoffs complete, 4 exceptions resolved, 0 stale reconciliations at finalization.

The drill-down groups by the reconciliation domains that were actually required for that client's close — bank, credit card, AR and AP control accounts, intercompany, prepaids, debt and leases, deferred revenue, and any account-specific reconciliations registered for the client. Domains the client did not need are not listed, so the report never implies a checklist that was skipped. Each row shows the subject account, its status at finalization, preparer and signoff, exception count, and a link to the workpaper.

See Reconciliation Hub for the underlying evidence.

Adjustments and postings

Adjustments are separated into what was proposed, approved, posted, and rejected or withdrawn, with posting date, entry reference, amount summary, and who approved each one. The report links to entries rather than reprinting the general ledger.

What Kraal automated

Kraal reports its own work as counted facts:

Kraal executed 18 system actions during this close.
5 decisions required a person.
3 blockers were resolved before finalization.

Kraal does not claim hours saved. Counting system actions is honest; converting them into a labour-saving figure would not be, so the report stays with what it can evidence.

Deliverables

The client deliverable is the released financial package. The close binder is the internal evidence archive that supports the review — it is never a second client package. Both are linked from the report; see The Close Sheet for how a package is approved and released.

Versions and reopening

Reopening a close does not rewrite its history.

Report v1   finalized 7 Oct
Close reopened 9 Oct    → v1 remains, and shows "Reopened 9 Oct"
Close re-finalized 10 Oct
Report v2   the new finalization

The original report stays exactly as it was issued and gains a note that the period was later reopened. Re-finalizing produces a new version rather than editing the old one. That way a reviewer can see what was concluded first, what changed, and what the current conclusion is.

For how corrections after a lock work, see Corrections & Adjustments.

Sharing a completion update with the client

The report is available to your firm as soon as the close is finalized. Sending anything to the client is a separate action.

1. Open the completion report and choose Send completion update.
2. Kraal renders the client-safe version and shows it to you first.
3. Read the preview, edit any firm-approved additions, and send.

A client-safe update contains only:

• the period that was completed;
• the finalization date;
• a plain completion statement;
• links to the released deliverables;
• any follow-up genuinely needed from the client;
• optional high-level accounting notes your firm approves for sharing.

September 2026 books are complete.
The period was finalized on 7 October.
Your monthly financial package is available here: [link]

No additional information is currently needed from you.

Never included in a client-safe update:

• staff hours, budgets, or profitability;
• staff names beyond your configured contact or signature;
• internal exception diagnostics, reviewer comments, or risk flags;
• automation-versus-human comparisons;
• the internal close binder.

Delivery uses your existing client communication settings, and a human preview is required unless your firm has already approved an automated delivery policy for that client. See Autonomy & Safety and Sharing Reports with Clients.

Team effort

When your firm has a practice-management integration connected — such as Karbon — and this client-month is linked to a Work Item, the report can show a Team effort card:

Team effort
8.4h recorded
10.0h budget
1.6h under budget
13.1h prior close
Source: Karbon · refreshed 8 Oct, 9:12 AM

How it behaves:

• Hours and budget are read from the practice-management system. Kraal never writes time entries and never invents hours.
• Missing or unavailable time data is reported as unavailable, never as zero. A confirmed empty result can be zero; a failed read cannot.
• A late edit to a time entry refreshes the card only. It never changes the completion report's own version or its accounting conclusions.
• If the connected system cannot be reached, the card is not shown for that read; a short note in the report's diagnostics area records that the provider could not be read. Finalization, the lock, the released package, and the report itself are unaffected.
• Effort and budget figures are internal firm data. They never appear in a client-safe completion update.

With no practice-management system connected, the card is simply absent. Nothing else about the report changes, and a missing connection is never presented as a gap in the close.

Troubleshooting

• A finalized close has no completion report — confirm the period actually finalized and the lock was verified, rather than only having its posting locked. The Close Sheet's finalization step carries the full verdict; see Package approval and finalization.
• The report says a close was reopened — that is by design. The original version keeps its original conclusions and gains the reopen note; look for the later version for the current position.
• A number differs from what I see in the close today — the report is a snapshot taken at finalization. Later activity appears in the newer version, not by editing the issued one.
• The Team effort card is missing — either no practice-management system is connected, this client-month is not linked to a Work Item, or the provider could not be reached. Check the integration's health view; the close and the report are unaffected either way.
• A client asked about something in the report — send the client-safe update rather than forwarding the internal report, which carries reviewer and exception detail not meant for clients.

Related guides

• The Close Sheet — working a period through review, finalization, and lock.
• Close Overview — the cross-client queue a close is run from.
• Corrections & Adjustments — changing something after approval or lock.
• Reconciliation Hub — the evidence behind the reconciliation section.
• Karbon Practice Management — the optional integration behind the Team effort card.