What is this page about: What Astra's monthly close memo is, when it runs, the six sections it covers, who it's delivered to and how, and what it deliberately leaves out.
On this page
- When It Runs
- What You Receive
- Where You Read It
- Who Should Care
- What the Memo Covers
- Scope and Limits
- Good to Know
- Related Articles
Once a month, Astra produces a close memo, a structured observation about how your business changed over the prior month. This memo is for finance leaders (CFO, controller, segment finance leads) and is delivered through your configured notification channel.
When It Runs
Astra's monthly review runs automatically on the first day of each month at 4 AM UTC, on the assumption that period close is complete. The trigger is a calendar-based schedule rather than a check on close status, so if close finishes late, the memo still runs on schedule and may reflect incomplete data.
What You Receive
The close memo is a single message with six numbered sections, in this order:
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Executive summary
Three to five sentences: headline P&L number, EBITDA, cash, and anything from sections 5 or 6 that needs flagging.
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P&L summary
A variance table (actual / budget / variance / prior month) followed by short driver paragraphs for any line that moved materially. If no budget is provided in Company Memory, the memo benchmarks against the prior month and the trailing-6-month average instead.
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Material journal entries
A table of significant entries posted in the period (JE number, description, amount, rationale), including any prior-period error and its materiality assessment.
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Balance sheet: key movements
Cash walk, AR aging and DSO, deferred revenue waterfall, accrued expenses composition, intercompany.
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Open reconciling items
Anything not tied out at close: what it is, the amount, the diagnostic, and the expected resolution date.
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Controls & compliance
Confirmation that scheduled control checks ran across cash, AR, AP, payroll, intercompany, revenue recognition, and tax, with findings (or "no findings").
Prose is kept terse, roughly 500-800 words total with tables on top of that, and every numerical claim includes the number, the comparison period, and where it came from. If a section has nothing material to report, Astra states "Nothing material this month" and moves on. The message opens directly with the executive summary, with no cover note or preamble.
Where You Read It
Astra delivers the close memo through your configured notification channel, the same one used for other Astra findings. The channel is specified in Company Memory, the instructions you provide to Astra.
You can also find each month's run under Settings (gear icon) → Jobs, labelled "Monthly Review," where you can open the run to see the memo. This view requires the Workflows permission and only appears if Astra is enabled for your company.
Who Should Care
The monthly close memo is the durable record of the period. Here's who cares about what. This is not a routing rule: the memo is a single message delivered once to whoever is configured as the recipient(s) in Company Memory.
- CFO: executive summary, P&L variance and drivers, balance sheet movements
- Controller: material journal entries, open reconciling items, controls and compliance
- Segment finance leads: P&L drivers and movements relevant to their segment
The memo never attributes work or remediation items to named individuals. Astra writes in its own voice about the checks and reconciliations it performed.
What the Memo Covers
The monthly review draws on Astra's full view of your closed financials:
- General ledger and subledgers for the closed period
- Bank balances, AR/AP aging, contract roster
- Vendor and customer master data
- Astra's own memory: observations, flags, dismissals, and resolutions from daily and weekly runs over the prior year-plus
- Approval queues, manual journal entry log, control exceptions
Astra compares the closed month against the budget provided in Company Memory. If no budget is provided, it benchmarks against the prior month and the trailing-6-month average instead, and always against a real figure rather than an invented target.
Scope and Limits
- Variance summary, with commentary only where it moved. The memo covers every line in the variance table, and writes driver commentary only for lines that moved materially, rather than recapping each one or repeating the dashboard.
- Observations with evidence, for you to act on. The memo sets out what it found and the numbers behind it, and leaves the conclusions and the actions to you.
- Materiality over completeness. Each section keeps the items where the magnitude matters, someone can act on it, or the pattern is genuinely new.
- One message, delivered once. A single complete artefact. The monthly run produces this memo and nothing else, with no separate findings or follow-up messages.
Good to Know
- Without a notification recipient configured in Company Memory, Astra still prepares the close memo, it just doesn't deliver it.
- The memo references specific entity IDs (bills, invoices, vendors, journal entries) from Light's data. Click through to view the entity details in the platform.
- If two data sources disagree on a number, Astra states the conflict explicitly rather than choosing one.
- If Astra lacks a baseline for comparison (for example, your first few months in Light), the memo states "no prior baseline" rather than inventing one.
- The monthly review is part of the same per-company Astra enablement as the daily and weekly runs. If Astra is enabled for your company, all scheduled runs are active, and the monthly review has no separate toggle.