Where does every client stand in this month’s close, and who needs to do what next?
Meridian’s Month-end Close Dashboard gives firms a unified, always up-to-date view of client processing across their entire client list. It shows which clients are waiting on input data, what Meridian is processing, what’s ready for review, and what has been shipped to the client.
Because Meridian runs the close, the dashboard reads status directly from the work. As Meridian completes each step, the checklist and dashboard update without anyone needing to separately record that progress. Managers can see the true state of the close across their team without needing to assemble updates from individual preparers.
What the Month-end Close Dashboard shows
The dashboard groups clients by stage and shows checklist progress, deadlines, owners, blockers, and alerts across the firm’s full client list:
- Prepare: The close is waiting for one or more required inputs, such as a bank statement or a payroll file.
- In progress: Meridian is executing the client’s close checklist.
- Review: Meridian has completed the close and its self-review. Firm-specific and client-specific checks, flux analysis, exceptions, business insights, and supporting evidence are organized for the accountant to review.
- Done: The accountant has reviewed, approved, and delivered the month-end close package to the client.
The client list can be filtered by status or team member. Each client shows step-level progress and, when blocked, the specific dependency that needs to be resolved. Instead of sitting in a generic open queue, a client can show that it is awaiting a particular statement, connection, payment input, or client response.
The firm can see which clients need action from the team, which Meridian is running, which are ready for review, and which are complete.
Status that updates with the work
The checklist and dashboard are two views of the same workflow. When an input is missing, the dashboard shows what is missing. When Meridian begins a step, finishes it, or flags an issue, the client’s status changes with the underlying work.
Keeping the dashboard current is therefore a byproduct of completing the close, not another responsibility for the team. Managers spend less time asking for updates or reconciling task status with what has happened in the books. They can focus instead on resolving blocks, assigning review work, and understanding capacity across the client portfolio.
Firms can also choose how each close begins. A close can be started manually, which remains the default, or configured to start automatically once the client’s data dependencies have been satisfied. For firms using automatic runs, clients move from Prepare to In progress as their inputs become available, and the dashboard may already contain books ready for review when the team opens it.
A better starting point for review
The dashboard is not only a progress view. It routes the team’s attention to the clients and issues that require human judgment.
Before a close reaches Review, Meridian performs a comprehensive self-review over the completed work. It runs the firm’s standard checks and any checks specific to the client, performs a flux analysis, surfaces exceptions, and identifies business insights that may be useful in the next client conversation.
The review surface brings those findings together with the relevant evidence and changes. The accountant can inspect what Meridian did across the ledger, reconciliations, and supporting schedules without reconstructing the work from scratch. The team begins with completed books and a focused review, then applies judgment and gives final approval.
How this fits into Meridian
The Month-end Close Dashboard is the firm-wide view of accounting execution and review within Meridian. It is part of a broader platform with four connected parts:
- Recurring workflows: Firms define the inputs, steps, checks, and expected outputs for work such as month-end close, customize the process by client, and let Meridian execute it.
- Meridian AI: Teams delegate ad hoc client requests, cleanup, restatements, review follow-up, and other one-off projects through chat.
- Client portal: Meridian gathers the files, answers, and approvals it needs directly from clients and connects each response to the relevant work.
- Firm management: The team coordinates work across the firm, reviews what Meridian has done, and decides what should become part of the ongoing process.
Together, these surfaces connect the work itself to the way the firm manages it. The dashboard shows what is happening across every client because Meridian has the context to know what each close requires, what has been completed, and what needs to happen next.
Meridian’s Month-end Close Dashboard is available now. If you are not using Meridian yet, talk to our team about how to get started.