Closentry
Setup Guide

1. What you need

3. First start

The app opens in its own window. The first time, a Getting started panel shows the two jobs Closentry does, each step by step: the month-end close (company, close period, trial balance, account reconciliations, approval) and bank and statement matching (import, map, reconcile, review, sign-off). Each step opens its screen and gets a tick when it is done. Open the panel again at any time from the ? button, where the User guide, this Setup guide and the tutorial videos are too.

Home then shows Set up your month-end close until the first trial balance is in: add your company, create the close period, import the trial balance. A bank reconciliation needs no setup.

Before the first real reconciliation, open Setup (side menu → More → Setup › Company & matching) and set:

• Company name and Prepared by. Both appear on reports and on the sign-off. The companies of the close are offered as one-click choices, so the same name is used everywhere.
• Base currency (AED by default), amount decimals (3 for BHD, KWD, OMR) and the date format (day first by default). Under Dates, the weekend days: Saturday + Sunday, or Friday + Saturday.
• Optional, under Privacy & compliance: Encrypt saved data with my Windows login, Mask IBANs in exports, and the cash-reporting threshold (AED 55,000 by default).

4. Free trial and licence keys

Every feature is open for 30 days from the first start on a computer. The Licence page (side menu → Setup › Licence) shows the days left, what the current plan includes, and this computer's code.

Enter a licence key

1. Open Licence.
2. Paste the key from the email (it starts with -----BEGIN), or click Open .lic file and choose the file.
3. Click Activate. The status changes to the plan name and its end date.

Plans

• Seats count the people who prepare, review or approve. Viewers are free.
• Earlier Team plan: it is no longer offered, but existing Team keys stay valid and can be renewed.
• One licence for the whole team: the team admin activates the key once. It is stored in the team folder and covers every member.
• Licence tied to one computer: when you buy, send the code shown under This computer's code. If the Licence page has a Buy a licence button it opens the shop; otherwise contact the company that supplied Closentry to you, with that code.
• Trial extension keys add days for a pilot. Each one works once and goes in the same box.

5. One person or a team

People are recognised by their Windows login (for example CONTOSO\jsmith), which is read from Windows. There is no separate password and nothing to log out of. Whoever is signed in to Windows is the person using the app. Lock the PC (Win+L) when you step away.

6. Set up a team folder

IT or the finance admin does this once.

1. Create the folder. Use a network share, for example \\fileserver\Finance\Reconciliation, or a folder in a SharePoint document library that every member syncs with OneDrive. Every PC must see the same files.
2. Set Windows permissions. Give the finance team group Modify rights on the folder and remove everyone else. Give auditors Read rights if needed. The app enforces roles inside the folder; Windows decides who can reach it at all.
3. Copy the folder path. In File Explorer, hold Shift, right-click the folder and choose Copy as path.
4. Create the team. The team admin opens Team & roles, pastes the path under Create a team → Shared folder, enters a team name (for example "Group Finance") and clicks Create the team. That person becomes the admin, preparer, reviewer and approver.

What the team folder holds

7. Add people and roles

After the team is created, Team & roles shows the People list and the Approval policy.

1. Ask each colleague for their Windows login. Their own Team & roles page shows it, with a copy button.
2. Under People, enter the login (DOMAIN\user), the name and optionally the email, then tick their roles.
3. Set the Approval policy:
   • Approval levels: 1 (reviewer approves) or 2 (reviewer, then approver).
   • Need a complete sign-off checklist to submit: when this is on, a preparer can't submit with open points. When it is off, they can submit with a written comment, and the comment is recorded.
   • Allow people to approve their own work: only for a one-person team. When it is off, nobody reviews or approves their own work.
   • Edit lock timeout: after how many hours a forgotten edit lock (for example a PC switched off with a workpaper open) stops counting, so someone else can edit.
4. Click Save people and policy.

A person can hold several roles. Even with several roles, separation of duties applies: whoever prepared a workpaper or completed a task cannot review or approve it, and the final approver must be a different person from the first reviewer.

8. Colleagues join the team

1. The colleague installs the app (section 2) and starts it.
2. They open Team & roles, paste the same folder path under Join a team and click Join the team.
3. If the message says their login is not in the team, the admin adds it (section 7) and they try again.

From now on, Workpapers, the close screens, Approvals and the Waiting for you panel on Home show the shared work.

9. Where data is kept

Main files in the personal folder

To keep the personal data somewhere else (for example on a backed-up drive), start the app with Closentry.exe web --data-dir "D:\Finance\Closentry" from a shortcut.

Saves are atomic, so a crash never leaves half a file. A damaged file is set aside as name.damaged-<time> and you are told at start-up.

10. Backups and record keeping

• Include both the personal data folder and the team folder in the company's normal backups.
• Keep records for as long as your retention policy requires. Close settings → Retention records each policy with its source and owner; the UAE examples it starts with are interpretations to confirm with your adviser, not legal advice. The audit trail is never trimmed. It rolls over into archive files, which must be kept too.
• Each user can also export a portable copy of a session: Export & print → Session file (.brsession).
• With Encrypt saved data with my Windows login switched on, the personal files can only be opened by the same Windows account on the same PC. Keep session exports as well if PCs are replaced often.

12. Updating and removing the app

Update

1. Close the app on that PC.
2. Replace Closentry.exe with the new version, keeping the same name and place so shortcuts still work.
3. Start it. Data, settings, licence and team membership are kept, because they live outside the program file.

Update every member of a team to the same version within a few days of each other.

Remove

1. Delete Closentry.exe and its shortcuts.
2. Only if the data is no longer needed (check the record-keeping periods first): delete C:\Users\<you>\.bank_reconciliation_pro and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Closentry.

Closentry-cli.exe reconcile BANK.xlsx LEDGER.xlsx --out report.xlsx
Closentry-cli.exe reconcile STATEMENT.csv LEDGER.csv --type supplier --out report.csv
Closentry-cli.exe reconcile JUL.xls GL-JUL.xlsx --carry-forward open-jun.csv --save-open open-jul.csv

14. Troubleshooting