From install to month-end close: the whole workflow, before you buy

1. First run

The installer is code-signed, so Windows shows the verified publisher GRANITE HALL SOLUTIONS LLC. On a brand-new version you may see a one-time Microsoft Defender SmartScreen notice (normal for any newly released signed app). Confirm that publisher name, then choose More info → Run anyway. See what to expect during install. Once installed, open the app, review the First Run banner, then open the Onboarding Center from the top bar. You can reopen it anytime from the top bar or the Training workspace.

• Review workspace orientation.
• Explore the four areas of the app: investment accounting (Ledger), day-to-day operations, governance and exam support, and digital/payments services.
• Activate the license.
• Confirm local backups.
• Preview an import.
• Build first report support.

2. License activation

Open Subscribe to enter your license key, see how many computers your plan covers, and confirm your paid features are active. Activation checks your license only, never your portfolio. No holdings, balances, or report data are sent to validate the license, so the app stays fully on-premises even when licensing is online.

Each activation is one Windows computer, not a named user, and each computer keeps its own ledger. Replacing or retiring a computer? Release it under Computers On This License on the same Subscribe screen, and its seat is free for another computer right away. On a new computer that reports the activation limit is reached, type your license key, choose Show computers, and release the old computer from there.

• Confirm your plan is active and check whether you're in any grace period.
• Confirm the activation limit and which computers use it.
• Release computers you no longer use.
• Keep a record of your license details on hand for your IT team's review.

3. Restore points: roll back a bad import or close in seconds

Every restore point is a local, integrity-verified snapshot of your book. Create one before any import or month-end close and you have a known-good state to return to. (In the app this workspace is shown as “Time Machine.”) Open Controls to see the automatic backups the app saves on your computer, create your own backup before a big change, confirm each backup is complete and unaltered, and roll back to an earlier point when your institution's policy allows.

• Create a checkpoint before imports.
• Create a checkpoint before month-end close.
• Run a restore drill during implementation.

4. Suite workspace

Beyond investments, the Suite shows every workflow one license can cover. Each pillar maps to a real institution job: Ledger (the investment subledger and close), Operations (payment file reconciliation across network, core, and GL files), Governance (exam and audit evidence binders and cyber/vendor review), and Digital (member-facing services). The workspace shows current readiness for each so you always know what's live.

• Review service pillars and current readiness.
• See which file types the app can bring in before you start an import or reconciliation.
• Choose the right evidence binder for the audience.
• Let the built-in assistant walk you through bringing in files, assembling exam documentation, handling payments, or reviewing cybersecurity and vendors.

5. Import workflow

Open Imports to preview and load Excel workbooks (.xlsx and .xlsm), CSV and TSV files, holdings exports, and custodian, data-provider, and market-value files. The preview shows you exactly what will be added, what will be updated, what's blocked, what's a duplicate, and any errors to fix, before anything is saved. Your spreadsheet does not need to be prepared first. The app finds your headings even below a title block or across two rows. It checks each sheet and picks the ones that hold your investments. It shows which column each field is read from so you can correct any of them. An older Excel 97-2003 file, an Excel Binary Workbook, or a password-protected workbook needs to be saved as a regular Excel Workbook (.xlsx) with no password first, and the app tells you how. An import template CSV is available if you want a starting layout, but it is optional.

Your holdings come in with their accounting. Amortized cost, accrual basis/balance, premium/discount, mortgage factor, original/current face, CPR, and call dates import when the file has those columns (WAC/WAM, PSA speeds, and step schedules with the import profile that reads them), and holdings without a CUSIP import on their account or certificate number. Upload your workbook or your current system's export. If it came from an investment system, choose the ready-made import profile that matches its layout. Then preview. Reconcile the imported totals against your last month-end report, and the columns you pick are used again for the next file with the same headings.

• Upload your workbook or file, and choose whether you are adding holdings or updating ones you already have.
• Run the preview, then check Columns and questions: each field shows the column it is read from, with a few of its values. Pick another column if one is wrong, and answer the questions the app asks, such as the date the balances are as of. The preview says what it worked out for anything else the file leaves out.
• Read through the preview before you save anything.
• Fix or answer the flagged rows, and check the totals against your last month-end report. If your file has a total row, the preview compares it with the holdings found.
• Undo that one import with Rollback if you need to. The app shows what it will remove and put back before anything changes, and tells you why if later activity or a posted close stands in the way.

6. Investment records

Open Investments to review each holding's CUSIP, issuer, balances, GL mapping, regulatory reporting details, maturity and call dates, fair value, and full transaction history.

• Search by CUSIP, issuer, or investment number.
• Confirm how each holding maps to your GL accounts and portfolio groupings.
• Confirm call-report and ALM mapping.
• For mortgage-backed and CMO holdings, review the supporting detail (original and current face, current factor and its date, WAC/WAM, CPR/PSA prepayment assumptions, and CMO type, group, and tranche), plus the step-coupon schedule where it applies.
• For a CMO tranche, you'll see the other tranches in the same deal listed in paydown order; for step bonds, you'll see the full schedule of coupon-rate changes.
• Export a filtered set of records whenever you need to back up a review.

7. Daily activity

Open Daily Activity to record principal and interest payments, premium or discount adjustments, maturities, calls, sales, market-value updates, rate resets, and manual adjustments.

• Select the investment first.
• Confirm amount, date, type, and GL impact.
• Queue each item for review before it posts. On one computer the queue and the approval are recorded under the same operator, so keep a second reviewer's sign-off in your close file when your policy requires one.
• Sales, calls, and maturities are queued then posted by an approver; posting computes realized gain/loss against amortized cost, redeems a call at the call price and a maturity at par, and reduces or closes the position.

8. Month-end close

Open Month End to review accrual and amortization figures (calculated on the correct cost basis), GL support, premium/discount warnings, factor and CPR assumptions for mortgage-backed holdings and CMOs/CMBS, variable-rate reset notes, your close checklist, and the supporting documentation for your close package.

• Confirm all activity is posted or deferred.
• Refresh rates and market values where applicable.
• Review any exceptions before you post the entries and generate close support.
• Mortgage-backed holdings and CMOs post their actual principal paydowns, using the custodian-reported factor when it's available, or a modeled estimate (CPR/PSA) that's clearly flagged when it isn't. CMO tranches pay down according to their structure, including sequential, PAC and support, and VADM and Z bonds.
• Step bonds accrue each day at the coupon scheduled for that day, and each coupon is paid at the rate in effect over its own coupon period.
• Export close evidence.
• Once the close has posted, download its journal batch from Close History: the close's balanced GL entries as journal lines laid out for your core's GL import. A file downloaded from Month End before the close posts is marked PREVIEW and is not for your core's GL. Confirm the layout with your core administrator before the first import.

Correcting a posted period

Posted closes stay sealed: every close package is sealed with a hash so a later change can be detected. Corrections are new, approved, auditable entries, the pattern examiners prefer. Find an error after the close? Open Activity → Transaction Posting and pick the date: choosing a date inside a closed period starts a guided flow that either posts a current-period adjusting entry referencing the original period or, when the entry genuinely must carry the original date, queues an explicitly flagged prior-period adjustment with a required justification note. Both routes go through the review-before-post queue and land on the audit trail.

9. Report support

Open Reports to prepare your FFIEC RC-B and NCUA support, a CSV extract with WAL and call-report lines for your call-report filing software (it reads the holdings as they stand when you export it, not the posted close), CECL support, and custom CSV reports, with built-in tie-outs, drill-down from totals to detail, and validation checks. On your own ledger, nothing on the Reports screen takes a sign off or an approval. On a demo or sample ledger, the Regulatory Package Builder panel there lists sample packages, each with an Approve button that records the user who approved it and the time. The Safekeeping, CECL Memo and Part 703 Reports screens take a sign off: a sign off there records the one person who prepared it and the date, and what that screen prints has a blank line for a reviewer to sign on paper. The app does not send it to a second person for approval. The ALM investment export is on the Imports screen.

The NCUA 5300 and FFIEC RC-B support is built for the quarter-end you choose (the last eight are listed) from the positions recorded when that quarter's month-end close posted, so post that close first. A quarter without a posted close is a Blocker, and a trade, sale, or price entered after the quarter-end does not change it. The 5300 support covers the page 1 investment accounts and Schedule B Sections 1 to 3, plus 788 and NV0159 to NV0161 from Section 4, as a staged XML file for CUOnline import with account support, holding detail, and tie-outs. RC-B support covers items 1 through 8 and Memoranda 1 to 4 (Memorandum 7 on the FFIEC 051) in thousands. Neither is a filing: you review the support, complete the call report in CUOnline or your Call Report software, and file it.

• Confirm categories, designations, book values, and fair values.
• Export portfolio & GL packages from your live book: Summary Recap, GL Balance Sheet, Book-to-Market, and Assumed Calls (yield-to-call vs yield-to-maturity).
• Save a report as a reusable definition (base report + scope filter) and run, copy, rename, archive, or import/export it.
• Run the built-in checks and reconcile each report's totals back to your ledger and GL.
• Keep approval evidence with the package.

10. Reconciliation and payments

Open Reconcile to compare one payment rail at a time: the network or processor file, your core's file for the same activity, and that rail's GL file. Each run takes one network file, one core file, and that rail's GL file, under 2 MB in total. Files can be comma, tab, or pipe delimited, or ACH files; entries are matched on a shared reference such as a trace number, with duplicate and date checks. A run can be signed off only when every item matches, and the sign-off is recorded.

• Review unmatched items and amount and date differences.
• Save a profile for files you compare every day.
• Sign off a run once every item matches.

11. Assistant and training

Use the Assistant for step-by-step guidance through common tasks, and Training for tutorials tailored to each person's role. The Assistant helps you get a task started. It isn't a final approval or a substitute for accounting advice.

• Prepare an exam binder.
• Work payments exceptions.
• Run cyber and vendor review.
• Prepare call-report support.
• Complete month-end close.
• Investigate stale prices.
• Correct premium or discount issues.
• Start restore or recovery workflow.