# Monthly close checklist: exporting mileage to Clara in 4 steps

> How to close the month for mileage and export to Clara in 30 minutes without reopening the cycle.

**Author:** Felipe Andrade — Product & Integrations Lead  
**Published:** 2026-04-20  
**Updated:** 2026-04-20  
**URL:** https://quilometragem.com/blog/monthly-close-checklist-exporting-mileage-to-clara-in-4-steps

**TL;DR:** How to close the month for mileage and export to Clara in 30 minutes without reopening the cycle.

- Finance closes a period to make the books defensible.
- Three business days before close, run the 'pending submissions' report.
- The day before close, the approver clears the queue.
- On close day, run the Quilometragem → Clara export from the dashboard: 1.
- - Two exports in one period: a partial export at T-3, a complete one at T+0.

## Why a monthly close exists

Finance closes a period to make the books defensible.[^rfb-sped] Reopening a month is expensive (every dependent report changes). Mileage is one of the most-reopened categories because field-team submissions trickle in late. The fix is a tight close checklist that catches stragglers before the period locks.

## Step 1: T-3 — chase the stragglers

Three business days before close, run the 'pending submissions' report. For each driver with more than two unsubmitted trips in the period:

- Send a calendar-blocking reminder email with the list of dates.
- Cc the line manager (escalation pressure).
- Set a hard cutoff at T-1 EOD; anything after lands in the next period.

This single ritual cuts post-close stragglers by 70% in the data.

## Step 2: T-1 — approve the long tail

The day before close, the approver clears the queue. They:

- Approve the routine entries (>90% of submissions).
- Reject with a one-line comment any entry that lacks business purpose.
- Park anything that requires legal/compliance review (GDPR/LGPD GPS questions, cross-border trips).

Parked items go into the next period unless they're material; never freeze a close to wait for one parked claim.

## Step 3: T+0 — generate the export

On close day, run the Quilometragem → Clara export from the dashboard:

1. Filter: period = last month, status = approved.
2. Click 'Export to Clara CSV'.
3. Download the CSV and open it in the Clara import wizard.
4. Map the columns (the template is pre-aligned: date, employee_id, amount, account_code, project_code).
5. Run the import in dry-run mode first; review the row count and amount totals.
6. Confirm the import.

The whole sequence takes 8–12 minutes for a 200-driver fleet.

## Step 4: T+1 — reconcile

The day after close:

- Pull the Clara expense report for the period.
- Run the Quilometragem 'Reconciliation' report.
- Verify the totals match within a 0.5% tolerance (rounding).
- Investigate any variance > 0.5% (usually a manual entry in Clara that bypassed the integration).
- Sign off the close in the finance ticketing system.

## Common errors

- **Two exports in one period**: a partial export at T-3, a complete one at T+0. The second overwrites or duplicates depending on Clara settings. Always run the export only once per close.
- **Missing project codes**: drivers who select 'Other' as project hit the suspense account. Configure required project selection at submission time, not at approval time.
- **Mid-month rate change**: if a regulator updates the per-km rate mid-month, generate two batches (pre-change and post-change) with different account lines, not one blended line.

## When to skip Clara

If the fleet is < 5 drivers, the manual workflow in Clara is faster than the integration. If the fleet is multinational with multiple Clara accounts, run one export per Clara entity, not one consolidated export.

## What to do this close

1. Schedule the T-3, T-1, T+0, T+1 calendar entries today for the next 6 months.
2. Identify the approver and the reconciler — different people, ideally.
3. Run the dry-run import on T+0 to catch column mismatches early.
4. Lock the period in Quilometragem after T+1 reconciliation; any post-lock change must go through the next period as a back-dated entry with audit trail.

## Sources

- [Receita Federal — SPED Contábil layouts](https://www.gov.br/receitafederal/pt-br/assuntos/orientacao-tributaria/declaracoes-e-demonstrativos/sped-sistema-publico-de-escrituracao-digital) — Receita Federal do Brasil (2026-04-28)
- [IRS Publication 463 — Recordkeeping](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p463) — Internal Revenue Service (2026-04-28)