The monthly operations close: a one-hour routine that keeps a small RIA's records current
A monthly operations close is a fixed hour, usually in the first week of the month, where a small RIA brings its records up to date: reconcile last month's custodian data, clear any unassigned accounts and trade exceptions, review open trade holds and transfers, look ahead at client reviews and IPS dates coming due, and check that the compliance logs have their entries. Done monthly, quarter-end and year-end become much smaller jobs.
Small firms tend to do their records in bursts: a big push before billing, another before the annual review, a third when an exam letter arrives. In between, things drift. Accounts arrive and sit unassigned, exceptions pile up, and holds outlive their reason. A monthly hour stops the drift.
What's on the monthly checklist?
| Step | What you're looking for |
|---|---|
| Reconcile custodian data | Account counts and values match between your records and the custodian |
| Clear unassigned accounts | New accounts linked to the right household, with strategy and status set |
| Review trade exceptions | Every flagged trade explained or fixed |
| Check open holds | Each hold still has a live reason; lift the rest with a note |
| Check open transfers | Nothing stalled without a next action |
| Look ahead 90 days | Client reviews and IPS review dates coming due, booked |
| Compliance logs | Complaints and incidents, personal trading, brochure delivery all current |
| Note open items | Anything not finished gets an owner and a date |
When should it happen?
Pick a fixed slot, such as the second business day of each month, after the custodian's month-end data is in. Put it in the calendar for the year. A close that waits for a quiet day doesn't happen.
A worked example
Take a hypothetical two-person RIA. On the second business day of the month, the operations lead blocks an hour. Two new accounts from a client's transfer are unassigned; she links them and sets their strategy. One trade is in the exception queue, a withdrawal sale, and gets its reason noted. A trade hold from a client death is still needed and stays. Three client reviews are due in the next 90 days and get booked. The personal trading log is missing one quarterly report; she sends a reminder. Fifty minutes, and the list of open items has two lines.
What are the common gaps?
- No fixed slot, so the close slips to "when there's time".
- Unassigned accounts left for weeks.
- Trade exceptions nobody looks at.
- Open items with no owner.
When is this overkill?
If you have very few accounts and little activity, a quarterly close may be enough. Most firms with regular trading and new clients benefit from monthly.
How Advorra fits
Most of the checklist lives in one place in Advorra: custodian account files with unassigned accounts to match, the trade blotter's exception queue, trade holds, the 36-month IPS review clock, and the compliance registers. See the product page, or read about reconciling custodian data and operations numbers to watch.
One thing to do this week: put twelve one-hour monthly closes in next year's calendar.
An operations routine, not legal or compliance advice.
Questions advisors ask
How long should the monthly close take?
About an hour for a small firm once it's routine. The first one or two take longer while you clear the backlog.
Who should do it?
Whoever runs operations, with the advisor reviewing anything that needs a decision.
What if we find a problem?
Note it, give it an owner and a date, and fix it before the next close. Don't let the close turn into a three-day project.
Is this different from the quarterly billing run?
Yes. The close keeps records current; billing is its own process. A clean monthly close makes the quarterly billing run easier.
Is this compliance advice?
No. It is an operations routine.
See it on a demo firm
Advorra is practice software for independent RIAs: clients, models, IPS, billing and compliance records in one place, on top of the custodian you already use. Built by The CollabHub.
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