Month-End Best Practices your CFO will Love

At SkyStem, we value the close of the month as much as you do. However, when careless errors and inefficiencies lead to overtime and late nights, things can become challenging quickly. To ensure your close process runs as smoothly as possible, we’re sharing our top month-end close best practices that your CFO will appreciate.

Keep Track of Your Notes 
Sticky notes are handy for quick reminders but fall short for important information. Notes written on paper or in Excel spreadsheets can easily get lost. Instead, try to consolidate everything into a central repository. Staying organized now will pay off later.

Eliminate Status Update Meetings 
We've all experienced meetings that could have been replaced by an email. This common issue wastes time and disrupts workflow, especially when nearing the month-end close with tight deadlines. Instead of these time-consuming meetings, consider using task trackers to maintain transparency, allowing the entire team to view the real-time status of reconciliations.

Cut Corners the Right Way 
Simplifying your work involves finding effective shortcuts that maintain quality. Evaluate your monthly closing process critically—can you reconcile accounts more quickly or reduce bureaucratic steps? Track time during your next close to identify which activities are the most time-consuming and prone to inefficiencies. Embrace creative solutions and remember that there are countless tools available to help streamline your process.

Standardize for Consistency 
Imagine your month-end close checklist. Did you overlook anything? With complex processes, having a plan is crucial.

To reduce errors during the month-end close, consider implementing standardization. While individual approaches can drive innovation, they can also hinder processes that require consistency, like the month-end close.

Here are some key elements to standardize in your department:

• Journal entries
• Cover sheets
• Checklists
• Reports
• Thresholds

Standardizing does not mean you cannot make changes. It is a good idea to periodically review your process to ensure it continues to meet your company’s needs.

Clean While You Cook
There is nothing like a home-cooked meal, but the sight of dirty dishes, spills on the counter, and scattered ingredients can be overwhelming. If only you had cleaned up as you cooked rather than waiting until the end! The same principle applies to accounting.

Address issues as they come up rather than postponing them until month-end. By keeping track of inconsistencies and variances from day one, you will be better prepared when the deadline approaches. This approach not only keeps you more organized but also reduces stress and prevents burnout.

Automate Your Month-End Close
The idea of introducing automation can be a bit daunting at first. With the rise of self-driving cars, it is natural to wonder if robots will soon take over all our jobs. But do not worry—while month-end automation software can handle many repetitive tasks, it can’t replace the value of a real, live person. Automating routine activities will free up your time to focus on more valuable work, such as flux analysis.

Adhering to these month-end close best practices will streamline your process and bring greater peace of mind to you and your team. 

Elevate your close with SkyStem’s ART, a comprehensive software that addresses all these best practices. ART centralizes your department’s documentation, facilitates standardization, and even performs account reconciliations automatically! Ready to automate your month-end close and reduce manual tasks by up to 90%? Schedule a demo to see ART in action—your CFO will appreciate it.