Prepare a month-end evidence handover for a mainland China ecommerce business
Organize month-end orders, settlements, receipts and expense evidence with clear coverage, open issues and handover responsibilities.
A month-end handover often stalls even after all the files someone intended to send have arrived. The recipient still cannot tell whether the pack is complete. A useful handover explains which business activity it covers, which sources have been obtained, which differences are understood and who will continue unresolved work. A folder of files is not evidence that the month's work is finished.
This guide offers a practical way for owners and finance staff of mainland Chinese ecommerce businesses to organize records. It is not an official tax checklist or a substitute for applicable accounting rules, professional review or filing requirements. Mainland entities with domestic, foreign-invested or cross-border operations should establish their own scope; obligations of separate overseas entities require separate assessment.
Establish what the month includes
Start the handover note with the legal entity, stores, platforms, payment channels, business period and intended output. Stores belonging to different entities should not be combined in one entity's books simply because they share an owner. An inactive store, payment account or month without sales may still have refunds, fees or balance movements to check.
For each source, retain its coverage period, extraction time, filters and completeness status. Cross-border records also need their currencies, business time zones and the basis actually used for conversion. Preserve original files and distinguish working sheets from platform exports.
“No activity,” “not received” and “partly received” are different states. An export containing only settled orders does not establish that all orders for the month are covered. A complete bank statement does not establish completeness of unsettled amounts within a platform.
Connect four groups of records through the actual business
Use the following table to organize the handover, not to impose a new system or mandatory field template. Reuse relationships supported by existing records and ask for clarification only where an unresolved fact affects the conclusion.
| Records | What they explain | Common handover omissions |
|---|---|---|
| Orders, fulfilment and refunds | Transactions and changes in their status | Cross-month refunds, cancellations, incomplete fulfilment and entity or store coverage |
| Platform or payment-channel settlements | Transactions included in each settlement and deductions applied | Unsettled amounts, deposits, reserves or holds, fees and adjustments |
| Bank and payment-account statements | Actual receipts, payments and their timing | Combined payouts, split receipts, transfers between accounts and funds in transit |
| Purchasing, fulfilment, advertising and other expense evidence | The business purpose and support for expenditure | Contracts, delivery or acceptance evidence, invoices, payment and the relevant period |
Relationships need not be one-to-one. One receipt can settle several batches, and a batch can combine orders, refunds and deductions. Establish the actual relationship instead of removing differences to make totals match. The guides to business-record and bank reconciliation and ecommerce expense evidence explain the corresponding investigations.
Explain cutoff differences and open balances
Do not limit the pack to cash entering or leaving during the month. Explain items continuing into the next period: completed business awaiting settlement, a platform payout not yet received by the bank, a refund accepted but not completed, or incurred expenditure with supporting records still being collected. Preserve business status, settlement date, receipt date and accounting period separately.
Consider an illustrative handover, not a customer case. A store enters a settlement batch at month-end, but the bank receives the payout in the following month. A separate refund is also in progress. Record the settlement's bank-matching status and the refund's supporting facts and subsequent outcome as distinct issues. Offsetting the two unexplained differences would not establish that either had been resolved.
Finance staff still need to assess the appropriate period and treatment from fulfilment, refund conditions and the entity's applicable rules. Bank receipt timing does not by itself determine the period in which sales revenue is recognized. Missing evidence also does not establish a zero amount. See the cross-month refund guide for that investigation.
Make open issues possible for someone else to continue
For each consequential difference, retain a concise record of the entity and period, amount and currency, verified facts, associated evidence, missing information, responsible person and the judgments affected. If an amount is not reliable, identify the uncertainty rather than presenting an estimate as reconciled fact.
Distinguish records received, checks completed, differences remaining and professional treatment completed. Receiving an invoice does not automatically validate an expense's allocation. Finding a difference does not automatically establish wrongdoing. Tax questions require their own assessment of transactions, entity, location, period and applicable conditions; an internal close timetable does not change statutory filing deadlines.
When additional records arrive, preserve their receipt time, relationship to the original issue and resulting treatment. Authorized staff should make any necessary accounting correction under the applicable rules and explain the affected periods and results. Simply replacing a file can erase the explanation of why a difference disappeared.
Deliver what finance staff and owners each need
Finance staff need reconciliation records, treatment and outstanding issues, with a route back to the relevant originals. Owners principally need to understand changes in profit and cash, differences that still affect decisions and matters requiring their action. Both can use the same reviewed facts. Ordinary questions do not require the owner to approve every line, while a concise report must still preserve important uncertainty.
Before handover, check whether scope is complete, repeated exports have been identified, consequential differences have a clear next step, later evidence can be incorporated, and important reported figures and statuses agree with the review. If work remains open, identify its impact and owner instead of marking everything closed.
Articles 9, 14 and 17 of the Accounting Law address actual transactions as the basis for accounting, obtaining and reviewing original evidence, and periodic reconciliation of books with assets, funds and related records. These requirements support careful evidence and reconciliation; they do not turn the suggested handover table into a statutory voucher or a comprehensive compliance conclusion. Read the Ministry of Finance's published law.
How to involve CaiGeek
A practical request is: “Organize last month's close records for these stores. Explain whether the scope is complete and separate confirmed relationships from unresolved differences among orders, settlements, receipts and expenses. Use existing facts and ask only for gaps that affect judgment. Preserve what finance staff need to review and give the owner a concise result.”
CaiGeek is an AI financial assistant for mainland Chinese SMEs. Organization, analysis and delivery depend on released capabilities, available records and actual authorization. Professionals retain necessary judgment and review. This workflow does not claim that every platform connection, complete monthly close, automatic posting or tax filing has already been validated.
An existing team can explore the business and profit analysis example. If a team is needed to take continuing responsibility for agreed monthly work, read about managed finance and contact CaiGeek with the current handover gaps and service needs.
Written with AI assistance. Examples illustrate analysis methods; apply them using business records and relevant conditions.
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