Controller's Checklist for Store-Linked Costs

A practical checklist for month-end: fees, apps, ads, COGS, and reconciliations across platforms.

Markdown source

Month-end should not be archaeology. A store-linked cost checklist makes close faster and turns true net profit from a debate into a number everyone already agrees on.

Why month-end becomes archaeology

Store-linked costs—platform fees, app charges, ad spend, COGS—live across multiple logins with different close dates, and reconstructing them after the fact eats days that should not be necessary.

The checklist

1. Reconcile platform fees against settlement reports, not just the fee schedule.
2. Confirm COGS reflects the latest landed cost, including recent freight and duty changes.
3. Tie ad platform invoices to the specific period they actually cover.
4. Flag any recurring subscription charge without a clearly assigned owner.
5. Compare this month's cost categories against last month's for anything missing or newly appearing.

Making close faster over time

Every recurring reconciliation issue should trigger a fix to the source process, not just another manual adjustment repeated next month.

FAQ

Should the checklist run weekly or monthly?

Both—light weekly checks catch issues early, while the full checklist runs at month-end as part of close.

What is the most commonly missed item?

Ad platform invoices that span two calendar periods, which throws off month-over-month cost comparisons if the spend is not split correctly.

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CostRadar keeps fees, apps, ads, and COGS reconciled continuously, so this checklist takes minutes at close instead of days.