Achieving A Healthy Financial Close Process is Closer Than You Think

Finance and accounting (F&A) teams are realizing that they need to adapt to the digital landscape to improve efficiency and increase confidence in their financial close process. When teams can close the books fast, they allow for an increase in value-added activities that enable departmental and organizational growth. There are three main components teams need to evaluate to achieve an efficient financial close and confidence in reporting: people, process, and technology.

Close Component #1: People

In today’s world, fast-paced environments and significant efficiency gains from automated processes are becoming the standard. F&A talent is looking for organizations that keep them sharp and are on the cutting edge of technology. F&A teams need individuals who can easily adapt to change and learn quickly. The foundation for a good team integrates the building of digital skills so that talent stays up to date and can work on a wide variety of tasks.

By leaning into effectively automated processes within your financial close process, you can fully leverage the value-add of automation — talent will have more time to focus on strategic initiatives, not just crunching the numbers. The appeal of automation allows you to attract and retain talent while staying ahead of the competition.

When looking for F&A talent, teams should focus on candidates who possess the desired skills needed to perform their job, but also an ability to adapt to change and learn quickly. By investing in a team that can adapt, learn quickly, and perform at the highest level, your Office of Finance is able to stay ahead of the curve and implement solutions that improve your financial close. The right people will deliver more strategic value to their F&A team, and contribute to what F&A teams deliver to the business overall – the Office of Finance contributes heavily to organizational value.

Close Component #2: Process

The first step in establishing a more efficient financial close is standardizing your processes. Too often, organizations try to leverage automation before evaluating the processes they have in place, and in turn, continue to enable inefficient processes that can increase their organization’s risk.

Teams need to walk before they run – laying down the proper groundwork and evaluating processes ensures that when automation is employed, it enables more efficient, reliable, and accurate reporting that creates a healthier financial close process.

Close Component #3: Technology

Technology should be leveraged once F&A teams understand the strategic direction of the organization, and where technology fits in. Automation alone does not produce a high ROI — automation alongside process improvement and creating efficiency gains for your financial close, however, does. Implementing technology has become a necessary demand for today’s workforce, as we live in the digital landscape, if organizations do not adapt, they will get left behind with inefficient, manual solutions.

By leveraging into a holistic solution, F&A teams can enable financial automation across the entire Record-to-Report process which allows for effective management and visibility into your organization’s financial health. Being intentional with the automation of processes and integration of trusted technology is the best way that organizations can reach a world-class financial close.

Enabling a Healthy Financial Close Process With People, Process, and Technology

People, process, and technology all work together to create an efficient financial close, which allows CFOs to be confident in their reporting. Organizations are able to maximize their operational readiness, ensuring that the systems they have in place are efficient and able to adapt to the changing landscape.

With the right people, teams are adaptable and efficient; with the right processes, teams can ensure accurate and reliable reporting; with the right technology, teams are proactive and able to leverage automation to help decrease time spent on reporting and increase time spent on value-added activities that support the organization. People, process, and technology flow into one another.

To learn more about how people, process, and technology help organizations achieve a healthy and efficient financial close process, download our eBook.

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Written by: Mikayla Jordan