Close & Consolidation at Half the Effort

Technology & Software • ~7–9 min read • Updated March 13, 2025

Month-end shouldn’t take a month. The teams that win shift from heroic batching to continuous accounting—automating reconciliations, intercompany, and consolidation while tightening control.

Why this matters now

Investors expect faster reporting and cleaner QoE. Controllers face growing entity counts, complex revenue rules, and integrations after M&A—while FP&A needs time back for forward-looking work. A slow close consumes capacity and hides structural issues.

Cutting close time by 40–60% unlocks talent for decision support, improves audit readiness, and reduces the risk of late surprises.

Our point of view

Closing faster is a design problem, not a heroics problem. Five moves matter most:

  1. Design for materiality: Define thresholds by risk and revenue recognition; stop reconciling noise.
  2. Automate reconciliations: Bank, subledger, and accrual recons run daily with exception queues.
  3. Standardize policies & CoA: Global chart, posting rules, and no custom entity-side workarounds.
  4. Intercompany at source: Enforce balanced entries, netting rules, and automated eliminations.
  5. “No-hands” consolidation: Pre-close validations and straight-through processing to group results.

Evidence & examples

Case: SaaS group from 10-day to 4-day close

Daily subledger postings, auto-recons, and standard accrual playbooks reduced close effort by 55% and audit adjustments by 70%.

Case: Intercompany without drama

A global software firm implemented entity-level matching and monthly netting routines, eliminating 80% of manual eliminations and slashing FX noise.

Framework: The R2R Blueprint

  • D-3 to D-1: Lock subledgers; clear exceptions; finalize accrual policies.
  • D+0: Close entities; auto-eliminate intercompany; run consolidation validations.
  • D+1 to D+3: Analytics & disclosure; management review; release.

Implications & strategic actions

For CFO & Controller

  • Set an explicit close SLA (e.g., T+5) with tracked blockers and owner accountability.
  • Move to exception-based work: dashboards flag what’s risky or material.
  • Fund a close excellence squad (process + automation + data) with 90-day deliverables.

For Accounting Ops

  • Publish policy playbooks (revenue, accruals, IC, FX) and kill one-off spreadsheets.
  • Instrument recon coverage & age; auto-assign and escalate overdue items.
  • Codify posting rules to stop re-work at month-end.

For IT/Automation

  • Implement event-driven integrations to keep subledgers current.
  • Build pre-close validations (orchestration + rules) to catch errors before D+0.
  • Enable audit trail-by-default for hands-free evidence packs.

Operating cadence

  1. Daily: Auto-post subledger events; clear exceptions within 24 hours.
  2. Weekly: Intercompany pre-match; run eliminations rehearsal.
  3. Monthly: T+5 release goal; publish blocker log and root-cause actions.
  4. Quarterly: Policy and SLA tune-up; retire manual steps permanently.

Closing

A faster close is a better close. With automation at the core and policies that reflect materiality, finance gets its time back—shifting effort from recounting the past to shaping what happens next.

Thought Leadership by Dr. Dodi Mossafer, DBA