ForzaOKB

Step 7.3 — Monthly Cadence

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Step 7.3 — Monthly Cadence

Trigger: End of each calendar month. Suggested completion: first five business days of the following month. Owner: Concetta (primary). External CPA (review). Nick (material items, write-off approvals).

🎯 Ideal State

The objective: Close the books accurately, run the monthly compensating controls (reserve reconciliation being the most important), review financial position, and identify trends not visible at daily or weekly resolution.

Nine Monthly Cadence Activities

1. Monthly reserve reconciliation (Step 5.5)

The second-highest-value compensating control in the workflow (after the weekly chargeback review). Directly addresses CBCG Report findings.

  • Pull HaulPay reserve statement for the month
  • Build expected-reserve, expected-release, and expected-chargeback worksheets
  • Compare HaulPay’s statement to Forza’s expected state
  • Flag discrepancies (3 types: HaulPay holds more / less than expected, releases without matching Shipper payment)
  • Investigate, document, record reconciled state in QuickBooks-Online

Prerequisite: HaulPay factoring agreement obtained, reserve % and aging window known.

2. Monthly AP reconciliation (per Step 6.3 Gap Closure 5)

Verify carrier vendor balances in QuickBooks-Online against EZ-Loader carrier records. Three outcomes: clean match (no action), small variance (investigate), material variance (investigate root cause — sync issue, documentation gap, payment posting issue).

3. Monthly AR reconciliation

  • Factored invoices: verify QuickBooks-Online AR against HaulPay portal.
  • Path A self-finance: same as factored for invoicing purposes; Forza carries timing risk.
  • Path B: direct Forza AR in QuickBooks-Online. Reconcile against Shipper payment history.

4. Self-financed exposure review (per Step 1.3a Gap Closure 5–6)

Pull total self-financed AR exposure:

  • Path A total outstanding via HaulPay
  • Path B total outstanding via Forza direct
  • Combined exposure vs. Nick’s portfolio ceiling
  • If approaching ceiling — Nick notification, no new self-financed Shippers until exposure decreases

5. Month-end write-off decisions

Per Step 5.3 Gap Closure 4: review short-pays and AR items identified as uncollectable during the month. Nick approves write-offs above the defined threshold.

6. GP and margin review

  • Revenue, direct costs, gross profit for the month
  • GP% trend vs. prior months
  • Margin-review threshold violations (per Step 3.2) — loads booked below threshold
  • Margin-impact of in-transit exceptions (Step 3.6) — detention, layover, TONU, rate adjustments aggregated

7. Monthly metrics summary

Consolidation of weekly metrics into a monthly view. Feed into EOS Rock review if appropriate.

8. Month-end journal entries and QuickBooks-Online close

Standard accounting close:

  • Accrual entries for loads delivered but not yet invoiced
  • Accrual entries for carrier bills received but not paid
  • Close the month in QuickBooks-Online — lock the period to prevent retroactive changes

9. Month-end document retention cleanup

Archive the month’s completed records per retention policy. Move closed loads, paid invoices, and cleared bills to archive folders in SharePoint.

Monthly Close Package

Time commitment: 1–2 days of focused Accounting work.

Output: Monthly close package delivered to Nick and External CPA:

  • Financial statements (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow)
  • Reserve reconciliation summary
  • Exposure report (self-financed ceiling vs. actual)
  • GP/margin trend
  • Write-off summary
  • Notable items requiring Nick’s awareness

🤖 SYSTEM AUTOMATION:

QuickBooks-Online handles standard close mechanics. Financial statements auto-generate. Reserve reconciliation is partially automated once expected-state worksheets are templated. Most human effort is in reserve discrepancy investigation and exposure review.

🛑 HARD GATE:

Monthly close is a financial integrity gate. An unreconciled month accumulates risk — CBCG Report was the materialization of multiple unreconciled months. Close must happen; reserve reconciliation within close is non-negotiable.

📍 Current State

  • Month-end close happens via QuickBooks-Online with CPA involvement.
  • Reserve reconciliation does not happen systematically — same root cause as Step 5.5 current state. Contract terms unknown, no expected-state worksheet methodology.
  • Monthly AP reconciliation not documented as a standing process.
  • Self-financed exposure review not happening — no portfolio ceiling exists yet.
  • GP/margin review happens informally, not structured monthly.
  • No monthly close package delivered in a consistent format.

🚧 Gap

  1. Monthly reserve reconciliation not happening — CBCG Report compensating control not operational.
  2. Self-financed exposure review not operational — portfolio ceiling doesn’t exist yet, tracking not built.
  3. No documented monthly cadence framework — nine items in ideal state, some happen in practice but not against a structured framework.
  4. No monthly close package — Nick’s visibility into monthly state is limited.
  5. EOS integration undefined at monthly cadence.

🛠️ Gap Closure Actions

  • Obtain HaulPay factoring agreement and extract reserve % and aging window (same as Step 5.5 Gap Closure 1) Owner: Nick or Concetta | Effort: External
  • Document the 9-item monthly cadence framework Owner: Casey + Concetta + CPA | Effort: Medium
  • Build self-financed exposure monitoring report (same as Step 1.3a Gap Closure 5) Owner: Casey + Concetta | Dependency: QBO sync working + Nick portfolio ceiling set | Effort: Medium
  • Establish monthly close package format and distribution Owner: Casey + Concetta + Nick | Effort: Low
  • Define EOS integration at monthly cadence — which items feed scorecard vs. Rock reviews Owner: Casey + Nick + Concetta | Effort: Low
  • Establish close-completion timing standard — first five business days of following month Owner: Casey + Concetta + CPA | Effort: Policy

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