# Month end with your accountant

Payouts > Reports · Story · https://vendordue.com/docs/month-end

**In short:** There's nothing to close at month end: payouts land and lock by themselves. Spend ten minutes checking nothing is stuck, then give your accountant the month's bills for Xero or QuickBooks, the payouts and receipts as PDFs, and the Margin report.

Who: Admin. Where: Payouts > History, Reports.

In VendorDue a month doesn't need closing. Each payout locked the day it landed, and nothing that's locked changes. Month end is a check that nothing is stuck, and a handful of downloads for whoever keeps your books.

## Ten minutes on the first of the month

1. **Answer **Activity > Needs attention**.**
   Anything there may be holding a vendor's money back. See [Reading Activity](https://vendordue.com/docs/reading-activity#needs-attention).
2. **Look at **Payouts > To pay**.**
   Pay what you owe, or know why you haven't. Anything you paid outside VendorDue needs recording, dated the day you paid.
3. **Open the month in **Payouts > History**.**
   It says how many payouts landed, their total, and how much of that is paid, like "8 payouts, $612.40, 100% paid".
4. **Download the month for your books.** Below.

## What to give your accountant

| File | Where | What it's for |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **For your books** | **Payouts > History**, the month | Every payout as a bill, to import into Xero or QuickBooks |
| **Payouts, your copy** | The month's download | Every payout with your share and costs on each line |
| **Receipts** | The month's download | Every payment you recorded against those payouts |
| **Margin report** | **Reports**, the month, **Download** | Sales, discounts, tax, refunds, what vendors earned and what you kept |
| **Everything owed** | **Payouts > To pay** | What you owed vendors at month end |

### For your books

Press **For your books** on the month and choose:

- **Where it is going**: Xero or QuickBooks. The columns match their own import templates.
- **How much detail**: **One bill per payout**, one line each, or **Every sale as its own line**, where "every sale and deduction stays a separate line under its vendor's bill."

Each vendor is a supplier and each payout a bill, so your books show what you owed each vendor and when. Set the account these bills go to, and their tax rate, once in **Settings > Payments** under **Accounting export**; otherwise you fill them in at import.

If you export a month twice, VendorDue tells you when it last went, so you don't import the same bills twice.

> **For your accountant:** VendorDue keeps the record of what each vendor earned and what was paid. It isn't accounting software and doesn't file tax forms. How consigned sales appear in your books, as your revenue with a cost, or as sales made for someone else, is a choice for you and your accountant; both treatments can be built from these files.

## When the month doesn't add up

### History's total doesn't match the bank

History counts payouts by the day they **landed**. Your bank shows payments by the day they **left**. A payout that landed on 30 September and was paid on 2 October is in September's payouts and October's bank. Match them with the **Receipts** download, which lists each payment with its day and reference.

### A refund came in after I'd done the month

Nothing changes in the closed month. The refund comes off the vendor's next payout, so it appears in the month it happened. See [Refunds and returns](https://vendordue.com/docs/refunds-and-returns).

### I found a mistake in last month

Don't look for a way to edit it: there isn't one, on purpose. Put it right with a line on the vendor's next payout, with a reason. Your accountant sees the original and the correction. See [Adjustments and corrections](https://vendordue.com/docs/adjustments).

## Common questions

**Do I need to close the month before the next payouts land?** No. Payouts land by themselves whatever you do at month end.

**Can my accountant have their own login?** Yes. Invite them as a Viewer: they can read everything and download it, except files with vendors' payment addresses, but can't change anything. See Admin and Viewer.

**What about the end of the year?** Download each month the same way, or pick the whole year in Reports. Each vendor can download all their payouts for a year in one PDF.

Checked against VendorDue on 2026-10-06.