dragonmantank/cron-expression — last day of the month (PHP)

<?php

require 'vendor/autoload.php';

use Cron\CronExpression;

$cron = new CronExpression('0 0 L * *');

// When does it fire next?
$next = $cron->getNextRunDate();
echo $next->format('Y-m-d H:i'); // e.g. "2026-04-30 00:00"

// Is the schedule due right now?
if ($cron->isDue()) {
    runMonthEndJob();
}

// Multi-step preview
foreach ($cron->getMultipleRunDates(5) as $date) {
    echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i') . "\n";
}

<?php
// app/Console/Kernel.php

protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule)
{
    // Using the named helper (Laravel 8+)
    $schedule->command('billing:close-month')
             ->lastDayOfMonth();   // → equivalent to ->cron('0 0 L * *')

    // Or with an explicit cron expression
    $schedule->command('reports:monthly')
             ->cron('0 1 L * *')   // 01:00 on the last day of every month
             ->onFailure(function () {
                 // alerting hook
             });
}

Laravel's scheduler runs every minute (via a single system cron entry on the server) and dispatches the matching schedule entries. The last-day-of-month job will be picked up correctly because the underlying parser supports L.

<?php

use Symfony\Component\Scheduler\Attribute\AsSchedule;
use Symfony\Component\Scheduler\Schedule;
use Symfony\Component\Scheduler\ScheduleProviderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Scheduler\Trigger\CronExpressionTrigger;

#[AsSchedule('billing')]
final class BillingSchedule implements ScheduleProviderInterface
{
    public function getSchedule(): Schedule
    {
        return (new Schedule())->add(
            CronExpressionTrigger::fromSpec('0 0 L * *')->message(
                new CloseMonthMessage(),
            ),
        );
    }
}

• Server timezone — `getNextRunDate()` uses the PHP default timezone (set via `date_default_timezone_set` or `php.ini`). For UTC consistency, pin it explicitly: new DateTimeZone('UTC').
• Laravel scheduler precision — the scheduler runs every minute. A last-day-of-month job at 00:00 fires somewhere in the 00:00:00-00:00:59 window, not precisely at the second.
• `isDue()` vs `getNextRunDate()` — isDue() tests against the current minute; getNextRunDate() looks forward. Don't mix them when testing at the boundary of a minute.
• L vs LW — both supported. LW gives last weekday; useful when month-end falls on a weekend and you want the latest business day instead.