Month-End Close Checklist for a Singapore Small Business

A month end close checklist for a Singapore small business has to run on three official clocks. For employees covered by the Employment Act, MOM says salary is due within 7 days after the salary period ends and overtime within 14 days. CPF contributions are due on the last day of the calendar month, and CPF Board takes enforcement action against employers who have not paid by the 14th of the next month. A GST return and any payment are due one month after the accounting period ends, says IRAS.

Below, those clocks become a 12-line checklist with an owner and evidence for each line, and a worked October 2026 calendar for an illustrative eight-person firm. In October 2026 the main due dates all fall on Saturdays, which changes the day you should act.

For the illustrative firm described below (a salary period that is the calendar month, a July–September GST quarter). Weekdays are our calculation from the 2026 calendar.

• Saturday 31 October 2026: CPF due date for October contributions (CPF Board); July–September GST return and payment due (IRAS).
• Saturday 7 November 2026: end of the 7-day window for October salary (MOM).
• Saturday 14 November 2026: end of the 14-day window for October overtime (MOM).
• Monday 16 November 2026: GST GIRO deduction for businesses on a GST GIRO plan. IRAS’s table shows 15 November, a Sunday this year, and its page says a deduction date on a weekend or public holiday moves to the next working day (IRAS).
• Monday 16 November 2026: CPF Board’s enforcement date for October contributions, because the 14th is a Saturday (CPF Board).

Which deadlines does a month-end close have to meet?

Each rule links to its page, as read on 17 October 2026.

• Salary and overtime. For employees covered by the Employment Act, salary is due at least monthly and within 7 days after the salary period ends, and overtime within 14 days. Pay on a working day, during working hours, into a bank account or by a cheque the bank has cleared (MOM on paying salary).
• Who can claim overtime. The overtime rules sit in Part 4 of the Employment Act, which does not cover managers and executives. MOM says a non-workman earning a monthly basic salary of S$2,600 or less, or a workman earning S$4,500 or less, can claim overtime at no less than 1.5 times the hourly basic rate. An employee can work up to 72 overtime hours a month, and employers can apply for an exemption if they need more (MOM on overtime).
• Pay slips. An itemised pay slip goes with each payment, or within three working days of it, and copies for current employees are kept for the latest two years (MOM on pay slips).
• CPF. Employers pay CPF for employees who are Singapore Citizens or Permanent Residents earning total wages above S$50 a month (CPF Board on how much to pay). Enforcement action follows if payment has not arrived by the 14th of the next month, or the next working day if the 14th is a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday. Late payment interest is 1.5% a month from the day after the due date, minimum S$5 (CPF Board on enforcement).
• GST. A nil return must still be filed. IRAS says it grants no extensions except for newly registered businesses and a short list of reasons; “not enough manpower to handle GST matters” and “closing of accounts at year-end” are not accepted, and the request form is due at least 5 working days before the filing due date (IRAS on due dates).
• Records. GST records must be kept for at least 5 years from the end of the accounting period (IRAS on record keeping).

Anything else, such as reconciling the bank account, is practice; each checklist line says which.

What does an October 2026 close look like for an eight-person firm?

The firm is illustrative: eight employees on monthly salaries, a Monday-to-Friday week, salary paid on the last working day of the month, a July–September GST quarter paid by bank transfer rather than GIRO, and CPF paid by Direct Debit through CPF EZPay.

• Tuesday 27 October. Payroll inputs frozen: managers confirm leave, no-pay days, allowances and overtime hours.
• Wednesday 28 October. Pay and CPF calculated, and CPF on October salary submitted. CPF Board’s payment page says a Direct Debit shows as “Paid” in CPF EZPay after two working days, so on our reading a Wednesday submission should show as Paid by Friday.
• Thursday 29 October. July–September GST return filed and paid.
• Friday 30 October. The last working day before the Saturday 31 October due dates. The IRAS and CPF Board pages we read do not say those dates move when they fall on a weekend (CPF Board does say so for the 14th), so our inference is that Friday is the safe limit. October salary is paid with pay slips.
• Monday 2 to Wednesday 4 November. Close week: bank accounts reconciled, listings checked, GST account updated, overtime calculated, owner review.
• Friday 6 November. October overtime paid, the last working day before the 7-day salary window ends on Saturday 7 November. The 14-day overtime window ends on Saturday 14 November.
• Monday 16 November. CPF Board’s enforcement date for October contributions (the 14th is a Saturday). If October CPF were still unpaid, interest would have run since 1 November.

Deepavali falls on Sunday 8 November 2026, and MOM says Monday 9 November is a public holiday if an employee’s rest day falls on 8 November, so count working days with care for anything due that week, such as a pay slip for the 6 November overtime payment. A business on a GST GIRO plan still files by 31 October. IRAS shows the July–September deduction on 15 November, which is a Sunday in 2026, and says a deduction date on a weekend or public holiday moves to the next working day, so expect it on Monday 16 November.

The overtime sum, with illustrative numbers: an administrative assistant (a non-workman, under the S$2,600 limit) earns a basic S$2,288 a month and works 6 hours beyond contractual hours in October. MOM’s monthly-rated formula gives an hourly basic rate of (12 × 2,288) ÷ (52 × 44) = 27,456 ÷ 2,288 = S$12.00, so overtime pay is S$12.00 × 1.5 × 6 = S$108.00. The salary is chosen so the division is exact; with a real salary, write your rounding rule on the calculation sheet.

What should the 12-line checklist say?

Copy it into a shared sheet and replace the roles with names. “Basis” says whether a line comes from an official page or is our practice suggestion.

• 1. Freeze payroll inputs. Owner: office manager. Evidence: one dated sheet of leave, no-pay days, allowances and overtime hours, confirmed by each manager. Basis: practice.
• 2. Calculate overtime for staff who can claim it: hourly basic rate × 1.5 × hours, and check nobody is over 72 hours (see our overtime pay guide or the overtime pay calculator). Owner: office manager. Evidence: calculation sheet. Basis: MOM.
• 3. Pay salary and overtime on a working day, within 7 and 14 days of the end of the salary period. Owner: owner approves the bank batch. Evidence: dated bank confirmation. Basis: MOM.
• 4. Issue itemised pay slips with each payment, or within three working days. Owner: office manager. Evidence: send log, plus two years of copies. Basis: MOM.
• 5. Submit and pay CPF so payment has cleared by the last day of the month. Owner: office manager. Evidence: EZPay submission showing “Paid”. Basis: CPF Board. Rates are in our CPF contribution rates guide, and our CPF contribution calculator works out each person’s employer and employee shares.
• 6. Reconcile each business bank account to its statement. Owner: bookkeeper. Evidence: dated reconciliation with the statement attached. Basis: practice; IRAS lists business bank statements among the records to keep and recommends separate business accounts.
• 7. Check the sales listing: date, number, customer, description, amount before GST and GST amount for each invoice. Owner: bookkeeper. Evidence: listing total agrees to the ledger. Basis: IRAS lists sales listings among documents a business should keep. See GST on quotes and invoices.
• 8. Check the purchase listing: each supplier invoice filed and listed with the supplier’s GST registration number, amount before GST and GST amount. Owner: bookkeeper. Evidence: listing plus invoice folder. Basis: IRAS, as for line 7.
• 9. Update the GST account (output tax and input tax, which IRAS says helps you complete the return). Within one month of the period end, file and pay, even if the return is nil. Owner: bookkeeper prepares, owner approves. Evidence: IRAS acknowledgement and payment confirmation. Basis: IRAS for filing and payment; practice for the monthly update.
• 10. Review who owes and who is owed: overdue customer invoices and supplier bills due in the next 30 days. Owner: owner. Evidence: dated list. Basis: practice.
• 11. File the month’s records: invoices, receipts, statements, payroll files. Owner: bookkeeper. Evidence: indexed folder. Basis: IRAS (GST records, at least 5 years) and MOM (pay slip copies, latest two years); the rest is practice. See how long to keep business records.
• 12. Sign off the close with the date, open items and the next three deadlines. Owner: owner. Evidence: one-line close note filed with the month. Basis: practice.

To turn the lines into a routine your team follows, see our guide to writing a process people use; the inbox triage routine keeps supplier and customer follow-ups from slipping.

When does this routine not fit your business?

• You are not GST-registered. Lines 7 to 9 will differ, and IRAS has a separate record-keeping guide for businesses that are not GST-registered.
• Your accounting period is different. The one-month rule runs from the end of your own period, and IRAS has a rule for special accounting periods. Use your own due date, not 31 October.
• You pay after month-end. The Employment Act window allows payment up to 7 days after the salary period, but CPF Board computes contributions on wages payable in a calendar month. The pages we read do not say how a payday after month-end fits, so ask CPF Board before relying on a later date, including for overtime paid in the following month.
• A Direct Debit fails. CPF Board makes the deduction again seven calendar days after the first unsuccessful one, and warns that an unsuccessful deduction may incur late payment interest. If the first deduction failed on Friday 30 October (an illustrative case), the second would fall on Friday 6 November, after the due date, so check the balance and your bank payment limit before submitting.
• It is your company’s year-end. The annual corporate tax return sits outside this routine; see our guide to Form C-S and the 30 November deadline.

How do you start before the next month-end?

Copy the 12 lines, put names against them, and add your own payday and GST period end. Set reminders for the CPF submission date, the GST filing date and the Friday before any deadline that falls on a weekend, and redo the weekday check each month: the Saturdays above are true for October 2026 only. Recheck the official pages before each close; the dates they carried on 17 October 2026 are in the source check below. For other dates up to March 2027, see our SME compliance calendar, and note that the December close also feeds the year-end IR8A return; more routines are in our productivity topic.

Common questions