Month End closing is the bane of the finance person’s
life – but also our main raison d’être. We have to meet demands for ever more
detailed information, all of which must be understood and explained, in ever
shorter time scales, while carrying on with our day to day responsibilities and
not compromising professional standards. It’s no wonder we get stressed.
Fortunately there are some well proven
techniques for making the process easier and more efficient. And because it
happens twelve times a year, we have plenty of practice to get it right.
The golden rules for stress-free closing:
·
Plan.
It needs to go like a
military operation.
Everyone
involved has to know what they are doing every day, & to have Finance on their
back if they fall behind. A key step is to issue a timetable in advance to
everyone involved.
·
Delegate.
Don’t do it all yourself, use the team and other departments.
Using
other departments may take some persuasion and negotiation, but it’s about
people taking responsibility for their areas. Finance is responsible for
accounting, but not for sales, stock, purchasing etc & people in those
areas have to play their part in the process.
·
Use
technology.
Almost
any process can be improved with better use of IT.
·
Shorten time scales.
It
may sound like a recipe for more stress, but the quicker you can finish, the
more time in a month you have when you aren’t doing closing. There’s also a lot
that can be done before the end of the month.
·
Learn.
A continuous
improvement approach must be adopted.
All
the time be looking for ways to make things quicker and more efficient. If you
have an idea, make sure you write it down and put it into effect the following
month. It may only save you a couple of minutes, but if you make a lot of small
improvements, there can be a big difference in the closing process.
There's even more detailed guidance and suggestions here.
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