Close the Month
Close out a month of household spending against the project's ledger: sweep the month's entries for category strays and surprises, compute the in/out/net totals and category breakdown, compare against the prior month, and write a short honest month summary with one concrete action for next month. Locks the target month and the reconciliation checks FIRST, then reconciles the entries, then writes the summary — so the close is a repeatable ritual with the same shape every month, not an ad-hoc glance at the numbers. Use for monthly budget close, month-end money review, 'how did we do this month', and household spending retrospectives.
How it runs
| # | Step | Who runs it | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scope the close | Researcher | target month, reconciliation checks, comparison baseline |
| 2 | Reconcile the month | Researcher | sweep entries, fix strays, compute totals and deltas |
| 3 | Write the month summary | Copywriter | honest month summary with one next-month action |
| 4 | Evaluate | Reviewer | Grade the deliverable against every acceptance criterion. All pass → finish; any fail → loop back and fix the gap. |
| 5 | Finish | Developer | All acceptance criteria met. Stamp a short summary and report DONE. |
Say something like "close the month" or "monthly budget review" or "how did we do this month" or "month end close" or "budget month summary" in chat to start it.