Run a Close and Approve Journals

Last updated: August 11, 2026

Run a close and approve journals

Run a month-end close to completion and approve the proposed journal, one item at a time — the third phase of the end-to-end "follow a transaction" journey. You start from a configured template, work each item to Awaiting review, sign it off item by item, approve (or edit or dismiss) the proposed JE, tie out the workpaper behind it, and complete the close. Nothing leaves the close without this per-item human approval.

1. Open Close Management

Sidebar → Close Management → /close-management: the closes list + templates (a single active close redirects straight in).

*The firm's closes — a close active for the period*

NB: Your sidebar may look different. An active close can be found in Active Closes or Close Checklists.

2. Start the close

Start close → business/template + period + assignees, Start now or Schedule. This creates one close item for each item in the template. Full start procedure: start a month-end close; the template comes from establish a month-end close template (full walkthrough).

3. Work the close detail shell

Header (status + Complete close) · progress ribbon · item rail · board. Items move Queued → In progress → Awaiting review → Approved; an AI run finishing lands the item in Awaiting review, not Completed.

*Close detail, List view — items still To do, header carrying Export and Complete close*

*Board view — the same items as columns: Queued, In progress, Awaiting review, Approved*

4. Approve per item — the human gate

Open an item → its pane exposes Approve / Unapprove / Re-run. Approve is the canonical sign-off: it moves the item from Awaiting review to Completed, stamps who approved it and when, and advances the progress counter; Unapprove reverses it only while the close is still under review. No aggregate approve bypasses item review.

*After the run — the generated workpaper in the Workpaper tab*

*Approve on the item — awaiting review flips to completed, the progress counter moves, Unapprove appears*

5. Approve the proposed journal — the keystone moment

The item's PROPOSED JOURNALS tab is the JE gate: Approve / Approve & export / Dismiss / Edit + a per-line editor (Dr-Cr / Account / Tax / Amount / Dimensions / Add line). Approve creates the real JE in Artifact (proposed → created); Edit sends a re-validated balanced line set; Dismiss requires a reason the post-close learning pass reads so the agent stops re-proposing it. Approve & export is the literal seam into Phase 4.

*Proposed journals tab — a proposal still PENDING, its lines balanced, before anyone approves*

*Approve (or Approve & export) fires — the proposal flips to created/exported and offers View in the ERP*

6. Tie out the workpaper

Open the item's workpaper; read each figure's provenance (source · calculation · rationale · tie-out status · materiality) in the audit side panel, and edit a cell to correct it. Editing an audited cell marks it "edited since audit" — and that correction is the training signal the post-close learning pass folds into the item's durable learning (a clean approve with zero corrections is captured as a confirmation, so the agent reinforces what worked, not only what failed).

*Open in editor — the workpaper canvas with the audit side panel open on a material figure*

7. Complete the close

Header → Complete close → completion mode. The close cannot complete until every item is Completed and zero failed; completing fires the post-close learning pass.

Next steps

Good to know

Role: an accountant or reviewer seat on the business, with Close Management enabled.
A configured close template. A close instantiates its items from a template that was authored once — build one via Establish a month-end close template and start a run via Start a month-end close. With no template there is nothing to start.
Prepared journals. The proposed JE you approve here is the one prepared upstream in Prepare and validate journals; an item shows its proposed-journal gate only when it actually carries a proposed entry.
Give the run a moment. The item pane, the proposed-journal gate and the populated workpaper appear once the close is open and its items have run — if everything still reads To do or Queued, you are early, not blocked.