The Close-Week Survival Plan (PDF Guide)

Most people try to fix close week by working faster or staying later. This guide does three things instead: it shrinks the work that lands in close, protects the time you have, and stops you redoing things.

The 8 steps

1. Map your current close and find the critical path
2. Pull work forward into the week before close (T-5 to T-1)
3. Set the close calendar in business days and get it to everyone who feeds it
4. Protect close week from interruptions, with a triage table and word-for-word scripts
5. Run close day by day: the BD1–BD5 playbook and a 10-minute standup
6. Review smarter: written materiality thresholds and a flux shortcut
7. Shut down each night, with an open-loops log and a hard stop
8. Hold a 15-minute retro so next month is easier

Also inside: a self-check that shows where your close is breaking down, copy-ready emails (cutoff reminder, open-items request, close calendar), the most common schedule killers and how to defuse them, a one-page close-week checklist, guardrails for using AI on close work, and an appendix on the SaaS and subscription close.

Every step ends with a short "Your Output" checklist, so you know when you're done.

Format: PDF, 31 pages. Stamped with your email at purchase.

Want the Excel toolkit and AI prompts too? The Close-Week Kit has all three.