6 top month end close resources for finance teams

2024 is halfway through, which means these three things might be top of mind for you and your team:

• Your organization’s financial health
• The progress made towards annual goals
• Plans to approach the second half of the year to be bigger, better, and bolder

Now is as good a time as any to ask yourself: Are my processes efficient? Are my goals realistic? And what do we need to adjust or implement to make us more agile going forward?

Soon it will be budgeting and planning season. But before that is here, month end close will come around—a few times! So, there’s no better time than now to reflect on your processes, identify areas of opportunity or improvement, and make sure you’re set for the rest of this year and beyond.

To help you out, we’ve rounded up 6 top month end close resources for finance teams, including:

• 9 reasons why your month end close is challenging
• How to overcome common pain points with month end close
• The ultimate month end checklist for efficiency and accuracy
• Top tips to transform your financial close
• Real customers share their financial close challenges
• Take the next steps towards changing the way you close your books

Filled with tips, tricks, and practical next steps, this blog post has what you need to build a faster, more efficient close.

9 reasons why your month end close is challenging

Does your month end close process take longer than you’d like? Mastering the close process might feel impossible, but it doesn’t have to be. This blog looks at the common close challenges that can complicate your process and actionable next steps you can take to help you overcome them.

How to overcome the common pain points with month end close

Chaotic, urgent, stressful, long, tedious—these are all words we’ve heard people use to describe their month end close process. Along with symptoms like lack of visibility, no single version of the truth, no audit trail, and delays. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Learn how you can overcome these challenges to take your month end close from a chaotic process to a streamlined dream.

The ultimate month end close checklist for efficiency and accuracy

A month end close checklist will help ensure your data is accurate and complete, so you know that you’re making decisions and analyzing for trends and anomalies with accurate information. But the benefits go beyond that too. A month end close checklist ensures you have:

• Fluxos de trabalho simplificados
• Minimal errors
• Enhanced compliance
• Improved decision-making
• Systems in place for efficiency

Get the full 10-step month end close checklist and best practices so you can approach this repetitive process with speed and agility every single time.

Top tips to transform your financial close

Half of businesses today still rely on manual, time-consuming methods for reconciling their accounts. If you’re struggling with this approach, the first step is to automate and optimize your processes. Dive into the world of account reconciliation software in this blog post and learn how you can:

• Centralize tracking and visibility
• Automate repetitive close period set up procedures
• Check for unreconciled amounts
• Add comments and relevant documentation

Real customers share their financial close challenges

Lincoln Grimes, Finance Manager at WesleyLife shares how their current month end close process takes 8 business days and an additional 3 or 4 days to manage the reporting outputs, but their goal is to reduce it to 5.

Learn how Prophix One Account Reconciliation can help.

Take the next steps towards changing the way you close your books

We’ve talked about the challenges associated with month end close and how to overcome them but this on-demand webinar will walk you through exactly how account reconciliation software will improve the visibility, timeliness, and auditability of your close. Learn how you can centralize your tracking, develop greater focus with automation, ensure data integrity, and improve collaboration with Prophix One Account Reconciliation.

Transform your month end with Prophix One™

Transforming your financial close is an essential next step to improve accuracy, efficiency, and compliance. When you leverage account reconciliation software, like Prophix One, you can standardize your month end close, optimize your workflows, and know you have full version control, making financial close a streamlined, repeatable process.