Welcome all, to 2015 - an auspicious year in which you WILL improve your work/life balance by cleaning up and speeding up your month end close.
Why do you need a shorter month end close? Simple you get performance information back to the business faster - which is the entire point of the process. As a side benefit, shorter closes also tend to refine processes so they are more efficient throughout the business.
Why do you need a shorter month end close? Simple you get performance information back to the business faster - which is the entire point of the process. As a side benefit, shorter closes also tend to refine processes so they are more efficient throughout the business.
Essentially, you need to be shooting for at worst a work day ("WD") 5 close - my personal view is that you should have completed your reporting by that time as well, but some are saying you can have an extra 3 days to complete that. Ideally, WD 3 is better and is a target I tend to shoot for.
Why not WD1? Practically you need a lot of resources in the Finance team to get that to work. Most businesses without business intelligence systems are better off accepting a slightly longer close.
Why not WD1? Practically you need a lot of resources in the Finance team to get that to work. Most businesses without business intelligence systems are better off accepting a slightly longer close.
So, the key question is - how do you go about shortening up your close?
