The Challenges to Keeping a Virtual Close On Track

Many finance and accounting teams struggle while operating in a virtual close environment, especially in times of crisis.

The need for accurate, real-time information, visibility into financial processes and high productivity doesn’t disappear when completing close processes remotely. In fact, the demand for these items significantly increases.

The root cause of many virtual work issues can be traced back to the tools organizations utilize for their financial processes. During a virtual close, everything must be executed remotely with potential legacy processes — practices that don’t lend themselves to dispersed workforces.

Challenge #1: Absence of Traditional Communication Methods

One of the greatest challenges that organizations face in a virtual workforce environment is the absence of previous in-person interactions. Remote work eliminates the in-person communication that can speed up processes such as financial reviews and account reconciliation.

Challenge #2: Lack of Standardization and Consistency

The use of spreadsheets creates a lack of standardization and consistency in the close process, causing many bottlenecks. Accountants often develop complicated, multi-level spreadsheet systems, and organizations quickly find themselves buried in mountains of excess documentation and investing an inordinate amount of resources to maintain this highly manual process.

Challenge #3: No Visibility Into The Close

In many organizations, team members, especially management, have difficulty determining or quickly viewing the status of tasks, risk factors, bottlenecks, and more — especially when working remotely. A manual process leveraging spreadsheets doesn’t provide real-time visibility and a central place to manage close activities.

Challenge #4: High Compliance Risk Due To Manual Errors

According to a recent report by EY, almost half of CFOs are not confident, or even somewhat confident, in their financial compliance. These numbers only increase when organizations shift to a virtual close process because manual processes lack key functionality for managing all compliance initiatives across an organization.

Though there are many challenges to overcome within a virtual close environment, the right close process tool goes a long way to solving many of these problems. Download this eBook to discover these challenges in greater detail and learn more about the solutions to these challenges.