Five cut-off questions worth asking before lock

Cut-off failures rarely announce themselves in the trial balance. They hide in shipping docks, goods-received queues, and invoices dated for convenience. Before lock, sit with the people who touch those documents and ask questions that force a date, not a shrug.

1. Which shipments left after midnight but were invoiced before?

Ask for the dispatch log and the invoice date side by side. If the warehouse clock and the billing calendar disagree, record the gap and decide whether revenue belongs in this period.

2. Which receipts sat in receiving without a goods-received note?

Unrecorded receipts inflate the next period’s inventory movement and understate this period’s liability. A walk of the receiving bay on the morning after period end still catches surprises.

3. Who can reverse an invoice date without a second approver?

If one person can quietly move a date, your cut-off sample should include that person’s recent postings — not only a random sample.

4. Are credit notes timed to the same logic as invoices?

Returns and allowances that ignore the original shipment date create matching problems auditors notice. Align the credit-note rule with the revenue cut-off rule and write it down.

5. What evidence will you show if the board asks about the largest deal?

Pick the biggest revenue item near period end and assemble the contract, delivery proof, and invoice in one folder. If that pack feels thin, the readiness memo will say so — better from your team first than from an auditor later.

A cut-off walkthrough compresses these questions into one or two days with your operations contacts present.