Which expenses get accrued at month-end close?

Short answer

Costs incurred in the period with no invoice recorded yet, such as services received, wages earned, interest, and usage, once they clear the threshold.

An expense gets accrued at close when three things are true: the company received the goods or services during the period, no invoice for them has been recorded in accounts payable, and the amount clears the materiality threshold in the team's accrual policy. The accrued expense journal entry puts the cost in the month it was incurred.

Expenses that are commonly accrued

Expense	Why it needs an accrual	Typical support
Legal, audit, and consulting fees	Work happens weeks before the vendor bills	Engagement letters, timesheets, vendor confirmations
Contractor and agency hours	Hours worked in the period are billed after month end	Timesheets, statements of work
Wages, payroll taxes, and benefits	Days worked between the last pay date and month end	Payroll register, pay calendar
Bonuses and commissions	Earned during the period, paid later	Plan documents, bookings
Interest on debt	Accrues daily but is billed or paid on a set date	Loan agreement, rate, outstanding balance
Utilities and usage-based software	Consumption is billed in arrears	Meter readings, usage reports
Goods received not invoiced	Inventory or supplies arrive before the bill	Receiving records, purchase orders

What doesn't get accrued

Invoices already in AP: A recorded bill is already a liability. Accruing it again double-counts the expense.
Costs for future periods: A purchase order or contract for work not yet performed is a commitment, not a liability. Payments made in advance go to prepaid expenses instead.
Items below the threshold: Small costs are expensed when the invoice arrives.
Losses that aren't probable: A legal claim or other loss contingency is accrued only when the loss is probable and the amount can be reasonably estimated (ASC 450-20). Otherwise it's disclosed or left out.

Best practices

Start from last month's list: Most accruals repeat. Roll the prior schedule forward, then add new vendors and drop finished contracts.
Check for the invoice first: Search AP and bills received after month end before accruing, so a late-entered bill isn't counted twice.

Building the accrual list in Ramp Stack

Connect the ledger (QuickBooks Online, NetSuite, or Sage Intacct) in Stack > Knowledge > Apps, plus SharePoint or OneDrive if contracts and purchase orders are stored there.
Write the accrual policy into a skill, including the materiality threshold and the account each type of cost is accrued to.
Add month-end accruals to the Close checklist as a recurring task and assign it to a Stack agent.
At close, the agent compares GL detail, open bills, contracts, and purchase orders, plus Ramp bill and card activity where the team uses Ramp, against what has been invoiced. It lists each vendor with activity in the period but no bill, along with the evidence behind it. When the data can't show whether work happened, such as a project that ran late, the agent asks instead of guessing.
The list comes back as a formula-backed workbook. The reviewer drops items that don't qualify, adjusts amounts, and adds anything the data missed.
Stack drafts the accrual entry and the matching reversal for the next period. The task's assigned approver signs off before the entry syncs to the ledger.