The December close ran 30 tasks with 3 late, and the reporting package (CL-30) finished 1 day late, at WD+6 against WD+5. The script's identity checks passed.

**What caused the delay:** Dana Whitfield's accrual register sign-off (CL-17) was due WD+2 and finished WD+4, a 2-day slip. It is the first late task on the critical path, and everything after it (CL-28, CL-29, CL-30) waited on it. The data doesn't show why it took until WD+4.

**Late but not on the critical path:**
- CL-08, cycle count adjustments (Marcus Oyelaran), was due WD+1 and finished WD+2. It did not delay the package.
- CL-30 (Ruth Calloway) was late only because CL-17 was late.

**Exceptions:**
- **Out of sequence:** CL-21 (Priya Raman), the fixed asset roll-forward, finished at WD+1. Its dependency, the depreciation run CL-20, finished at WD+2.
- **Missing evidence:** CL-11 (Tomas Herrera), the AP cutoff review, and CL-24 (Marcus Oyelaran), the sales tax return, are marked complete with no evidence reference.

**Fixes for next month:**
1. **Dana Whitfield:** start the accrual sign-off as soon as CL-09 and CL-16 finish. This is the one change that would have saved the day.
2. **Ruth Calloway:** hold a reporting package slot at WD+5, and confirm with Dana which accrual inputs gate it.
3. **Priya Raman:** run CL-21 after CL-20, so the roll-forward reflects the depreciation run and the projects placed in service.
4. **Tomas Herrera and Marcus Oyelaran:** attach evidence to CL-11 and CL-24 before marking them complete.

The retrospective is in `output/checklist-note.md`, and the script figures are in `output/checklist.json`. The data notes cite `close_checklist_2025-12.csv`, 30 rows, sha256 `31db03c89bb8`.