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Improve the Speed and Accuracy of the Financial Close Process

AutoRek plays a significant role in building efficient financial processes. AutoRek enables business units to reconcile all manner of close-critical numbers including stock and bank naturally, and most recently we pioneered faster intercompany balances reconciliations to facilitate a faster close.

The Challenges of Close Cycles

US listed companies (and many UK companies are listed in the US) are under enormous filing pressure. The final phase-in of the accelerated filing deadlines saw the SEC reduce from 15 days the time allowed for “large filers” to submit their Form 10-Ks. This reduction presents significant challenges for finance departments, many of which already deal with cumbersome preparation and filing processes. It can be a struggle for finance departments to meet these requirements as they can’t change the external environment to reduce the pressure legislation and regulations are placing on the close process. 

For many organisations the close cycle has been exacerbated by a mixture of human and technology related factors – factors they can’t control. Process problems emerge, for one, weak intercompany reconciliation processes and difficulties associated with having multiple charts of accounts and a complex reporting environment cause problems.  Likewise, reporting procedures and systems that are not highly standardised and automated or poor processing performance of information systems supporting the closing cycle, put an organisation at a distinct cycle-time disadvantage.  Systems that are not integrated to support companywide performance management affect not only the speed of reporting, but also the quality of planning.

How does AutoRek help Fast Close?

Because reconciliations and exceptions are being performed and escalated automatically, at period end business units are presented with out of the order exceptions (assuming they choose to only review the reconciliations at period end). This can eliminate extra work and delays at the corporate and divisional levels. This removes reconciliation from the critical path, both improving the speed and accuracy of the financial closing process.  AutoRek has a defined methodology for helping fast close giving enhanced efficiency and cost savings in the finance function.  Using the same fundamental approach as we do for all reconciliation implementations AutoRek will:  

• Provide detailed audit trails on changes to the data
• Automate numerous manual, time-consuming activities
• Facilitate data sharing and reduce lapsed time
• Increases distribution and visibility of key performance indicators

Find Out More

To find out more please Contact Us with your enquiry. Alternatively, visit our Resource Centre to download the following related Solution Brief: 

•  Fast Close: Improving Speed and Accuracy