Month-End Close for Brokerages
A month-end close that finishes on time
The same steps in the same order every month: trust, carrier and commission reconciliations, accruals, the general ledger close in Applied Epic, and a financial package on a business day you can plan around.
What you get
- A published close calendar stated in business days after period end
- Trust reconciliation and the trust asset versus trust liability comparison
- Carrier statement matching and direct-bill commission reconciliation
- Month-end accruals and adjusting entries, then the general ledger close in Applied Epic
- Monthly financial package with a named exception list
What changes for your brokerage
- A close that lands on a committed business day, every month
- Trust, carrier and commission reconciliations built into the calendar
- Every balance sheet account supported by a schedule, not a plug entry
- Unresolved items named on an exception list instead of absorbed
- Year-end becomes a roll-up rather than a reconstruction
What a close actually involves
Why close discipline matters in a brokerage
The numbers that move most in a brokerage are the ones that matter most: what is in trust, what you owe insurers, what commission you have earned, what producers are owed. Reconciled only occasionally, small differences compound quietly until nothing ties out and year-end turns into a forensic exercise. Closing every period catches those differences while they are still small and still explainable.
What "closed" actually means here
Closed does not mean the bookkeeping is finished for the month. It means every balance sheet account is supported by something: the trust bank reconciled and compared against the trust liability, premiums payable tied by insurer, commission receivable aged by carrier, accruals posted, and the general ledger period locked so it cannot be changed after the fact. Anything that could not be resolved is named on an exception list rather than absorbed into a balance.
The close runs inside Applied Epic
Most Canadian brokerages run on a broker management system, and the close works best inside it rather than alongside it in spreadsheets. The Applied Epic accounting module carries the trust ledger, carrier reconciliation, direct-bill commission reconciliation and the general ledger close, all tied to the same policy and billing data. The common failure is the reverse: the real accounting drifts into spreadsheets, the system falls behind, and the two stop agreeing. (Applied Epic and Applied Systems are trademarks of Applied Systems, Inc.)
A committed turnaround, not a moving target
The calendar below is stated in business days after period end, because calendar dates move and carrier statements do not observe them. Your dates are set around when your bank data and statements actually arrive, agreed before the first close, and published to everyone who feeds the process. That includes the billing and expense cutoff your own staff have to hold, because the close cannot start on time if the inputs arrive late.
Year-end stops being a reconstruction
Because each period closes properly, year-end is a roll-up of work already done. Your external accountant receives reconciled accounts, supporting schedules, and the trust and carrier documentation behind them. We do not perform audits or reviews and we do not file your corporate return, so their independence stays intact.
Who does what
BrokerLedger does
- Publish the close calendar and hold the dates
- Lock the prior period and code the month's activity in Applied Epic
- Reconcile the operating, trust and credit card accounts
- Compare trust assets against the trust liability schedule and report the position
- Match carrier statements and reconcile direct-bill commission to what was remitted
- Tie premiums payable by insurer and age the receivable
- Post accruals and adjusting entries, then close and lock the general ledger period
- Issue the financial package with a named exception list
Your brokerage does
- Hold the cutoff: billing, expense claims and payment requests in by the agreed date
- Answer coding questions on unusual transactions inside the close window
- Approve payment runs and producer payouts. We prepare them, you release them.
- Send bank, credit card and carrier statements we can't pull ourselves
- Work the collections and carrier queries the exception list raises
- Own trust compliance decisions and any regulator filing, as the principal broker
- Keep your external accountant for year-end, tax filings and any assurance work
The close, business day by business day
Business days are counted from the first working day after period end. This is our normal shape for a brokerage with monthly direct bill cycles. Your actual calendar is set around when your bank data and carrier statements arrive, and it's agreed before the first close.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Before period end | The calendar is published and everyone who feeds it knows their cutoff: the last day for billing, expense claims and payment requests to be in. |
| Business day 1 | Prior period locked to new entries. Bank, trust and credit card activity pulled. Cutoff confirmed with the brokerage: late billing posted, deposits in transit identified. |
| Business day 1 to 2 | The month's transactions coded, with agency bill and direct bill kept on separate accounts rather than blended. |
| Business day 3 | Trust bank reconciliation completed, with outstanding items listed by date and amount. |
| Business day 3 to 4 | Trust liability schedule built: premiums payable to insurers, return premium owing to clients, other client money held. Trust assets compared against it. A shortfall or unexplained difference is raised the same day, not held for the package. |
| Business day 4 to 6 | Carrier statements matched against what the system recorded, agency bill and direct bill handled separately. Differences listed by carrier with the policy, the amount and the apparent cause. |
| Business day 6 | Direct-bill commission reconciled to what carriers actually remitted, and each statement tied to the deposit that came with it. Commission income and commission receivable corrected. |
| Business day 6 to 7 | Premiums payable tied by insurer. Receivable aging reviewed, with over-90-day items flagged for your team to work. |
| Business day 7 | Producer and sub-broker splits calculated off the reconciled commission figures, ready for your approval. |
| Business day 8 | Accruals, prepaids, depreciation and adjusting entries posted so income and expense land in the right period. |
| Business day 8 to 9 | Trial balance reviewed and every balance sheet account agreed to its supporting schedule, then the general ledger period closed and locked. |
| Business day 10 | Financial package issued: profit and loss, balance sheet, trust position, carrier and commission exception lists, and a short written summary. A review call follows. |
How we get started
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Scoping call
We go through your Applied Epic setup, carrier count, when your bank data and statements actually arrive, and how the close runs today. You get a written scope and price before any work starts.
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Baseline period reviewed
We review your last completed period end to end and report what reconciles, what does not, and what is being carried forward. Nothing is changed at this stage.
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Cleanup quoted separately
If prior periods are unreconciled, that is scoped and priced apart from the recurring close, so catch-up cost and monthly cost are two visible numbers. Nothing is restated without your sign-off.
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Calendar agreed and published
Close dates are set around your real data arrival, then published to everyone who feeds the process, including the billing and expense cutoff your staff have to hold.
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First close
The first period is closed on the new calendar and the package is reviewed with you line by line. Format, content and timing get adjusted after that cycle.
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Standing monthly close
The same steps in the same order every month, with the package on the agreed business day and a standing call for the decisions the exception list raises.
What we need from you to start
- Applied Epic access with accounting module permissions
- Read-only bank, trust and credit card access, or a reliable statement feed
- Carrier portal access, or the last three months of statements for your main markets
- Your most recent documented trust reconciliation, and the last month it was completed
- The current premiums payable listing by insurer and the receivable aging
- Your chart of accounts and a recent trial balance
- Producer agreements and current commission split rates
- Your last completed year-end financial statements and the adjusting entries behind them
- Your fiscal year end, and the date of your next regulator filing
Is this the right fit?
A good fit
- Brokerages whose close lands in the middle of the following month, or not at all
- Books that only get cleaned up at year-end
- Brokerages on Applied Epic that still rebuild the close in spreadsheets
- Principals who need a trust position monthly rather than annually
- Owners who want the same steps in the same order every month, with a date attached
Not what we do
- Audits, reviews and other assurance engagements. We don't provide assurance.
- Corporate tax returns and tax planning, which stay with your external accountant.
- Filing with your provincial broker regulator on your behalf.
- Brokerages that want the close kept in spreadsheets outside the management system.
Related reading
- Applied Epic accounting for Canadian brokerages How the accounting module carries the trust, carrier and commission work.
- Month-end close in Applied Epic The close steps as Epic itself runs them.
- Premium trust accounting in Canada What the trust reconciliation inside the close is actually proving.
- Carrier statement and commission reconciliation The matching method behind business days 4 to 6.
- Brokerage financial reporting and KPIs What to watch in the package once the close is stable.
- Monthly brokerage bookkeeping The fuller engagement this close sits inside, including coding, AP and AR.
- Brokerage accounting glossary Every term used on this page, grouped by topic, with where it shows up in Applied Epic.
The CPA who builds your file knows brokerage accounting
BrokerLedger is CPA-led and works inside Applied Epic. Our services are shaped by how a brokerage's books actually move — agency bill versus direct bill, commission income, producer compensation — not what a generic small-business bookkeeper assumes.
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