Close calendar and cadence
The two-week Rackson close rhythm, the hard Wednesday prelim deadline, and what gates what.
The close runs on a two-week rhythm relative to period end. Several weekly operational reports run on their own faster cadence and are not part of the close, though they share source data.
Source: Rackson Exec Summary.docx section 3 and Rackson_RRS_RCY_Review_Process.docx sections 4, 47.3, and 50.1.
The hard deadline
Prelim financials go out Wednesday of the first week post-close, after John reviews. This is a hard deadline for Steve Song. Every upstream task — inventory, delivery recon, labor reclass, GL reclass, bonus accrual, debt entries — must be complete before the Wednesday send.
Week 1 — period-end week
The physical inventory count happens mid-day Monday. High-count exceptions over $1,000 are reviewed and flagged to area coaches, with corrections made in RTI if unresolved.
RTI period-end inventory is run and handed to Maureen to post on Tuesday, after the actual-vs-theoretical (AvT) review. On the RCY side, Stock Count Detail is exported from R365 and compared current versus prior period at account and item level.
The Loop automation runs for both BK and DHC (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub) — mostly automated, with occasional variance troubleshooting.
Labor reclass, GL reclass, and bonus accrual entries are posted from their respective automated Excel processes.
Expectation is 8 invoices per store per month. Any store materially above or below that, or any invoice over $600, gets flagged to Mike Mikos.
This is a gate, not a check. Prelims do not go out without it.
Week 2
- Prelim financials go out Wednesday of the first week post-close, after John's review.
- RTI inventory is re-run and re-posted on Monday of the second week to catch corrections made after the first pass. Adjustments are made at that point rather than by reopening the original entry.
The workday sequence
The close checklist tracks each task against a workday (WD) number, where negative numbers fall before the period technically closes. This is the concrete version of the week-shape above.
| WD | Task | Category |
|---|---|---|
| –2 | Utilities Accrual | Utilities |
| –1 | CAM / Real Estate | Occupancy |
| 1 | EDI Food Costs | COGS |
| 1 | Utility Accrual JE | Utilities |
| 1 | Base Rent | Occupancy |
| 1 | Depreciation and Amortization | Depreciation |
| 2 | Post Sales in Intacct | Sales |
| 2 | CAT Tax | Sales |
| 2 | Royalty / Advertising Accrual | Sales |
| 2 | Coke/RSI Rebate Accrual (store level) | Sales |
| 2 | Payroll Expense Allocation — weekly | Payroll |
| 3 | Inventory Adjustments Posted | COGS |
| 3 | Post Payroll Expense | Payroll |
| 3 | Post Payroll Bank Transaction | Payroll |
| 3 | Loan Statement Reconciliation & SWAP | Interest |
| 3 | Bank Reconciliation | Cash |
| 3 | Bank Charge Allocation Entry | Cash |
| 3 | Check Prelim to GP Report | Sales/COGS/Labor |
| 3 | Send Preliminary Financials | Sales/COGS/Labor |
| 3 | AP Processing Cutoff | COGS/General Expenses |
| 4 | Delivery Service Reconciliation | Delivery Services |
| 4 | Delivery Service Fees | Delivery Services |
| 5 | In-House Maintenance | General Expenses |
| 5 | [BS] Prepaid Insurance [14300] | General Expenses |
| 6 | Sales Tax Reconciliation | — |
| 7 | Closed Store Reclass | General Expenses |
| 7 | Bonus Accrual | Payroll |
| 7 | Review & Send Financials | ALL |
This is a partial capture — the source sheet was filtered when recorded, so several task IDs in between are not shown. Treat it as representative of the shape and cadence, not a complete task list. Open the live P[n] Close Checklist.xlsx for the full current set. See Close checklist for where it lives and how it's structured.
"Check Prelim to GP Report" is jointly owned by the client (RACK) and PBI — one of the few tasks on the checklist that isn't purely PBI-side. "CAT Tax" is the Ohio Commercial Activity Tax accrual, distinct from sales tax (its own WD6 task) and from property tax.
When the review work actually happens
- Close work typically begins the Monday or Tuesday after period end. Preliminary work can often start the preceding Thursday, and as efficiency improves, starting as early as Friday is expected to become workable.
- AP closes for payment processing on Thursday of close week. Once that happens the check date should not move — whoever is finishing AP should treat Friday as a hard checkpoint.
- Weekly deposit verification (POS deposits to bank and GL) is performed mid-week — currently Wednesday — by the client's bookkeeper, Karen. Getting this done before period-end close begins is what allows the close timeline to be accelerated, since the deposit-in-transit summary is already substantially resolved by the time the balance sheet review starts.
- Reconciliation work is concentrated WD5–WD7: in-house maintenance and prepaid insurance on WD5, sales tax on WD6, and closed-store reclass, bonus accrual, and the final review-and-send all on WD7.
Quarterly items
Quarterly work is layered on top of the monthly cycle. The balance sheet workbook is organized to show both a period view and a quarter view — confirm which set you are in before concluding a schedule was missed on a monthly view.
Quarterly or annual-only items include fixed asset depreciation (moved to quarterly), property tax RJE recalculation (P1, P5, P8, P11), Ohio CAT filing, the unused credit line review, and ERTC tracking (annual).
Cadence notes
A holiday falling during close week has historically still been counted as a working day for scheduling purposes, even though the team acknowledged this makes an already tight week tighter. Flag it explicitly when planning a holiday-adjacent close rather than assuming the calendar silently adjusts.
Mike has generally been flexible about a day of slippage when there's a legitimate reason, based on the team's track record of otherwise staying on schedule.
As the team scales, the value of a more senior person on the account is expected to show up less in the early prelim work (WD –2 through WD2) and more from WD3 through WD7, where the bulk of reconciliation and review work is concentrated.
Rather than performing every balance sheet reconciliation at period end, the full slate would be broken into a rotating weekly cycle throughout the period. Discussed between Jonah and Jeff as a way to spread workload and catch issues earlier — not yet built into the file structure.
Beginning with Period 6, the standing PBI/Rackson review meeting was proposed to move from Tuesday to Monday. Confirm with Steve Song whether this took effect.
Related
- Close checklist — the checklist file, its columns, and the mid-period notes list
- Review process overview — the reviewer's order of operations
- Running and delivering prelim reports — the mechanics of the Wednesday send