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Everything you wanted to know about Month End — and more!

Month-End Close Checklists: Adding Value or Just Ticking the Boxes?

Every financial control team relies on a month-end close checklist, it’s a crucial tool to ensure all tasks are completed and nothing gets overlooked. However, not all month-end close tools are created equal. Some exist merely to claim the presence of an internal-control, but in reality, they are prepared as an afterthought, acting as a hindrance rather than a help to the team. On the other hand, some can genuinely assist a financial control team in reducing stress around the month-end close process by adding value and insights. Here at Easy Month End, we understand the nuances of the month-end close process and what separates effective tools from counterproductive ones. Outlined below are key aspects that make a month-end close tool/checklist valuable for financial control teams, alongside red flags indicating that your current checklist might be creating work rather than aiding the team. Location, Location, Location Where your checklist resides speaks volumes about its efficiency. If it's still printed out and physically signed off, then it's time for your team to upgrade. Paper checklists lack the capability to capture the detail you need, provide time stamps, exhibit flexibility, and serve as weak audit evidence. They are ill-suited for remote work and often end up sitting unused until the last minute, only to be hastily signed off for appearance's sake. The same holds true for any ad-hoc spreadsheet being used as a checklist, they often cannot be accessed by all team members and lack controls around editing and auditable proof of timely completion and review. Time Sponge or Saver A well-designed checklist should not add any time to your busy schedule; it should actually save your team time. From rolling the checklist forward from the previous month to the current one to managing your month-end timetable, the process should take no more than 10 minutes each month. If it takes longer, it's a clear sign that your checklist is more of a hindrance than a help. Switching to an automated solution designed for accountants can make the process seamless and efficient without creating yet another task for the team. Seamless Signoffs If signing off a task takes more time than the task itself, it's a clear indication that your month-end aide is actually a hindrance. Your checklist should be easily accessible, with sign-offs requiring minimal steps and no unnecessary chasing (automated reminders are the gold standard). Any friction in the sign-off process distracts your team from their core accounting work. Sign-offs are key audit evidence, and a seamless signoff allows for easy collection of audit evidence without adding extra time to your workload. Gaining Insights should be Free and Easy While not advocating for extravagant AI integration and the associated costs, having a checklist that provides insights is essential. After month-end, your checklist should offer visibility into when tasks were genuinely completed, who had to complete tasks not assigned to them, allowing you to give your team feedback and continually optimize the next month-end close. Even basic knowledge, like understanding task completion times, can be invaluable for efficiency. Adaptability is Key How easily can you modify your month-end close checklist? If the answer isn't an immediate "super easy," it's time to reconsider your approach. Nothing should be set in stone or difficult to change on the fly. Your team needs flexibility to adapt to any changes your company introduces. Tasks should be able to be reallocated, added, or removed seamlessly, all while preserving the audit history of previous periods. The easiest time to make a change to a process or due date is during the actual month-end close process while you are doing the task. If you have to spend time or seek approval or help to change the month-end checklist, then it is not fit for purpose. Reflection of Reality, Not the Dream The structure of your month-end close checklist is more important than you think. If task due dates are based on calendar days instead of workdays, it's a sign that your checklist may not be fit for purpose. Your checklist structure should align with your team's workflow, displaying due dates irrespective of month-end or weekends. Subcategories should be incorporated to track progress across different areas, and an efficient checklist should make it easy to identify tasks due today and tomorrow, or even yesterday but not yet completed. While your month-end close checklist may not be at the forefront of your team's mind when it comes to efficiency, it is actually more influential than you may think. When executed correctly, it is a dynamic tool that enhances efficiency, saves time, and adapts to the evolving needs of your financial control team. By evaluating and optimizing your checklist based on the outlined criteria, you can transform it from a mere box-ticking exercise into a valuable asset in your financial management arsenal. If any of the above items have left you questioning your team's current month-end close checklist, then reach out to us, and we can help you.

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

Giving your checklist a check up

For every financial control team, the month-end close process is a critical aspect of the job. It's the time guzzler that dictates our overtime and forces us to never take holidays over month end. At the heart of all 12 month-end processes (and for the unfortunate few, 13 close processes) lies your month-end close checklist. This seemingly straightforward document acts as your team's mini GPS navigator, ensuring you stay on course and avoid missing crucial items. But like any map, it needs regular updates to avoid you driving off a cliff. We champion the concept of all documents being 'living documents' — open to change as you use them. So, your team's checklist may receive small updates throughout the year as you add new processes or systems. However, scheduling an annual, formal review with the entire team is a vital process. Think of it as your annual service to pick up anything big before it causes an accident. This yearly review should ideally be scheduled for a quiet time in the year, and doesn’t necessarily have to be at the beginning of a financial year (as, let's face it, you will still be busy closing off the last year). It will not be the highlight of your calendar (but is still more fun than having the auditors in), so it's best to schedule it early in the day, with copious amounts of coffee to fuel the team through it. As you review the month-end close process, consider these crucial questions about each process on your list: 1. Is the task still performed? It might seem obvious, but running down your month-end close checklist may reveal tasks that your team hasn't actually performed for months. If a task has not been performed for a long period of time and has gone unnoticed, it probably isn’t needed. Tasks may now also be completed as part of another process, meaning they should be merged together rather than split out. Or you can just as easily discover that task descriptions are too generalized and need to be broken down further to reflect the work that is actually being performed. Having the entire team present gets team buy-in to change, and also gets the people who are closest to the work sharing their knowledge of the processes. 2. Does the task have the correct due date? Deadlines and when data becomes available for the team to use changes over time. A task's due date may have been correct last year, but it might no longer align with current realities. The aim, however, is not to set unachievable targets for the team, but to accurately reflect the timeline that need to be achieved. Realistic timelines mean you will actually know when you are off track with month-end processing as opposed to always being off track as they are unachievable stretch targets. 3. Does the task have the correct level of review? Not all tasks will actually warrant review. Single actions like locking the AP ledger or sending out email reminders don't benefit from review, and adding an unnecessary layer of review only eats into valuable time or delays other critical tasks. Reserve reviewing for processes involving complex calculations or ledger inputs. Reviews should also be distributed across the team instead of all sitting with the most senior person, this not only spreads the workload but also helps develop your junior staff and ensures the whole team is working on items that are achievable but still involve development opportunities. 4. Is the task description still correct? Task descriptions should mirror reality. Outdated details like “Send the list to Dan,” even though Dan left the company 2 years ago, are all too common and a sign that the team is not updating the checklist during the year. 5. Is there anything missing from your checklist? This is the hardest item to work through as identifying something that isn’t present is always harder than adjusting what is already there. To help identify missing items, have your checklist split by sub-areas (e.g., Fixed Assets, Expenses, Revenue) and work through the checklist by area. This structured approach often reveals missed but vital tasks. When conducting your annual review, keep the below in mind as guiding principles: 1. Hang in there: Try not to rush the meeting or just give it lip service; consider the end goal of not revisiting this for another year. A comprehensive annual review means you will save time by not need constant check-ins throughout the year. 2. Earlier is better: Shifting tasks to earlier in the month-end close process grants more time for reviews and focusing on other items that may not be going smoothly. The closer to the ledger-close deadline, the more stressful month-end becomes. 3. More is not necessarily better: The number of tasks doesn't determine efficiency. Tailor the checklist to reflect your team's workload, systems, and industry. Adding or removing tasks should align with actual work; you are not trying to hit some magical number of tasks. 4. Task descriptions are not procedure documents: Keep checklist descriptions concise, with the aim of telling people what to do, not how to do it. They should serve as supplementary summaries to procedure documents. Best practice is to attach procedure documents to each task which ensures clarity without overwhelming the checklist. 5. Don't take it personally: Inquisitive questions during meetings aren't personal. Embrace the curiosity within your finance team, recognizing that not everyone is familiar with their colleagues' processes. The goal of this annual checklist review is to fine-tune your month-end close process, aligning it with your team's current operations and fostering efficiency. Embrace these questions and principles to streamline your financial control operations. Remember, this comprehensive review is the roadmap to a smooth ride for the year ahead, making the effort invested entirely worth it. If you would like to know more about specialised checklist and workflow software designated specifically for finance teams, then reach out to us at easymonthend.com or sign up for a free trial.

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

Adding Value in Financial Control

If you currently or have ever worked in a financial control team, you will be all too familiar with the recurring directive to focus on 'value-add items, not just compliance.' This is a challenging proposition as compliance is often the main role of a financial control team, so trying to balance the demands of delivering strategic insights while still maintaining rigorous control and compliance standards can be complex.  The below is an introduction to how financial control teams can actually integrate value-adding items into their day-to-day processes to add value without sacrificing control. Building Trust in Information: A cornerstone of the financial control function lies in establishing trust in the financial information presented. The ability to consistently produce accurate underlying information month after month creates an environment where the entire business can confidently rely on the presented numbers, without ever having to question the information, but instead use it to make decisions. This not only ensures the integrity of a company's financial data but also empowers executive teams to make informed decisions promptly, eliminating the need for time-consuming rechecks or delays caused by doubt in the figures presented. The removal of doubt is the true value proposition, enabling the organization to operate with certainty. Compliance Assurance: Central to an effective financial control function is the ability to assert, without hesitation, that the company is fully compliant and on track for future obligations. Instantly providing this assurance, especially during impromptu inquiries, enhances the perceived reliability of the financial control function. However, this assurance is only the first step; the second step is not just confirming that the company is compliant, but also letting those who may be impacted know about future upcoming obligations or how their actions may impact these obligations. As the company grows, so does the complexity of compliance obligations, necessitating a robust system to track and report on them effectively, and sorry to say, but Excel will not cut it. If you really want to add value, you need the systems in place to help you do your job accurately. We here at Easy Month End specialize in helping you track all your obligations and providing auditable evidence of compliance. Simplifying Complexity: Navigating the intricate landscape of financial data is a perpetual challenge for financial controllers. The task involves condensing thousands of transactions, manual adjustments, and estimates into concise reports. The true value delivered by a financial control team is often behind the scenes; it is not the final glossy presentation but the meticulous structuring of source data that feeds the report. An effective General Ledger (GL) structure is critical, facilitating reporting without necessitating a deep dive into individual transactions. This disaggregated information not only streamlines reporting but also addresses inevitable follow-up questions efficiently. So adding value comes right at the beginning by understanding the information that is important to the company and then ensuring that financial transactions are structured in such a way as to ensure that this information is then available to the company without them having to first decipher complex accounting standards or manually group individual transactions themselves. Answering the Follow-Up Questions: In the life of a financial control team, no monthly finance report is complete without the inevitable follow-up questions. The speed at which these queries are addressed is a significant area in which the financial control team can add value. Being the team closest to and actually working with the underlying financial information, maintaining tidy working files is more important than you may realise. More often than not, these follow-up questions can be easily answered by simply checking your month-end working files or balance sheet reconciliations. The goal is to ensure that anyone can open these workbooks and decipher the information seamlessly. Trying to predict and pre-answer every possible question is not only impractical but will also drive your team mad, so simply having your month-end documents and reconciliations with all the supporting information ready to go will achieve the same result with less time investment and stress. Speed of Month-End Close: A primary function of the financial control team is the month-end close process, ensuring that all financial data for the month is correct and ready for reporting. To truly add value to an organization, this process needs to be quick, efficient, and materially accurate. Outdated information is of no use to anyone, neither is inaccurate data. Utilising specialised software, such as Easy Month End, designed to manage the close process ensures optimal efficiency. Cutting down on the time it takes to close each month-end without sacrificing accuracy is one of the best things a financial control team can do to really add value to their company. Cash Flow Optimisation & Management: In small to medium-sized companies, the financial control team will often also double as the treasury team with responsibility for managing the company's cash reserves. This area provides a tangible opportunity to calculate the added value in real terms, such as additional interest income earned. Implementing a clear process for monthly cash flow forecasting, investing surplus cash, and strategically setting maturity dates can significantly enhance financial outcomes and prove why the financial control team is not just a cost center. Variance Analysis: While the Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) team excels in actual-to-budget analysis, the financial control team typically handles month-on-month or year-on-year comparisons. Ensuring that month-end workbooks are not only clear but also easily accessible allows for efficient variance analysis, supporting strategic decision-making. The key is to prepare workbooks and reconciliations with the assumption that someone else may need to pick them up, easily comprehend them, and then determine drivers of change from them. This approach ensures that information can be obtained by the financial controller or other senior members of the team without having to add unnecessary layers to the process. This is one area in particular where having a clear month-end process and workbooks can double as both compliance and value add. Continuous Improvement Embracing a culture of continuous improvement ensures adaptability to evolving business needs. The financial control team should constantly evaluate processes, seeking opportunities to enhance efficiency and add value. This is where the culture of the team is essential. By ensuring all team members are encouraged to simplify processes or raise suggestions in a healthy team environment. The people closest to the workbooks and processes being improved will more often than not have the best insights into how they can be improved. The above is not an exhaustive list of how the financial control team can add value. However, as a seasoned Financial Controller, I truly believe that the financial control team is often under-appreciated and misunderstood. So, the next time you are questioned on the value-add proposition of the financial control team, I hope this helps you direct and educate the relevant people on how our function adds value to the company. If you would like to know more about how Easy Month End can help your financial control team unlock their value-adding potential, then reach out to us

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

Mastering Month-End Close: Key Considerations for Finance Teams

Although the month-end close process occurs every month in every company around the world, no two month-end close processes are the same. While each company has the same objectives, the exact requirements, timelines, and tasks will vary. However, there are several themes that are universally shared by all companies, and if followed, will make your month-end close that much easier. So, let's dive into some of the key considerations that can help your team run a smooth month-end process. Understand Your Deadlines The first and arguably most important consideration is to know what deadlines your team has. It may seem like I am stating the obvious, but it is essential not to overlook it. First, determine whether your monthly deadlines are ‘hard deadlines’ that are immovable, or whether they are more flexible. For example, is there a board meeting that requires a monthly finance report, or is the month-end information not required on any fixed date? There's no point in giving yourself and the team unnecessary stress by working towards a self-imposed deadline that only you and your team care about. So ensure you understand the deadline and allocate your tasks accordingly. Once the deadline is established, consider what actually needs to be performed prior to this deadline. For example, if the major deadline is producing and presenting a monthly finance report, then items such as chasing outstanding debtors or reconciling the next month's AP bills can be pushed back until after the finance report is completed. I am not advocating for tasks to be ignored, but strategically pushing them back can save you and your team time during crucial moments. Work Allocation and Rotation This is always a contentious topic when it comes to managing a finance team, as some finance teams prefer to have each team member perform the same tasks each month, believing that the person will ‘own’ the process and perform it most efficiently. However, this approach can lead to long-term problems for the team. Another team member looking at the process with fresh eyes can drive process improvement and ensure that key knowledge is not centralised in individual people but shared around the team. There should always be some level of task rotation and training in the teams' responsibilities. Even if the rotation occurs only twice a year, it ensures that knowledge is spread across your team, preventing key person risk. Furthermore, work rotation can serve as a great test for your team's procedure documents, which are essential tools in ensuring a smooth month-end process. Pre vs. Post Month-End Tasks One of the most important considerations is when you can actually do all your month-end close processes. Some tasks may not be able to be started until work day one due to the inputs needed. However, if too many tasks in your month-end close process take place after month-end, it can lead to periods of high stress and then periods of time where your team is idle mid-month. A smooth process is one where tasks are distributed so that as much as possible is done prior to the actual end of the month. Sometimes to push a task to pre-month end can take a bit of creative thinking. For example, if a task can be 80% completed before month-end, consider splitting it into two separate tasks: one pre-month-end and one post-month-end. By doing so, you are pushing the majority of the work associated with the task to a period when your team is quieter, meaning you can reduce the workload at your team's busy times. Accruals vs. Actuals Although it goes against a lot of our nature as accountants, sometimes close enough must be good enough. We love exact amounts; however, there are situations where you can't afford to let the whole close process come to a standstill due to one piece of information not having been received. Remember, the goal is to meet your deadlines effectively. If your timelines are tight, certain items are going to have to be estimated rather than waiting for exact figures. Timing of Balance Sheet Reconciliations Balance sheet reconciliations play a crucial role in ensuring the accuracy of financial records. They will inevitably throw up small variance that needs to be fixed; however, few finance teams have the luxury of time or resources to complete full balance sheet reconciliations prior to closing the ledger. A middle ground needs to be found that will give your team comfort that material balance sheet accounts are correct, while also utilising the teams time effectively. Think of this as a "balance sheet rec-lite" approach – a quick check before month-end of the most important balance sheet accounts. This preliminary review helps identify any potential embarrassing errors that do need to be corrected pre-month end. Remember, it doesn't have to be a full-blown reconciliation; it's about catching any red flags early and making the necessary tweaks. Automation and Technology Any advantage software can give your team at month-end must be utilised. The time savings can be significant, and a finance team should not just have software that makes their processes more efficient, but the team also needs to look at how they handle their workflow and task allocation. Excel is a great tool for general data manipulation, but it is not a workflow management tool. While the above items are just a few areas that every finance manager should be aware of when planning their month-end close, it's important to remember that no two finance teams or companies are exactly alike. Adapt these considerations to fit your unique circumstances, and always strive for continuous improvement. If you would like to know more about specialised workflow software designated specifically for finance teams, then reach out to us at easymonthend.com or sign up for a free trial.

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

Getting Your Month-End Close Audit-Ready

If you're like me, you're 'fortunate' enough to experience an annual visit from auditors who will without fail ask the same questions as the previous year. However, while their questions remain unchanged, their demands for higher levels of audit evidence seem to grow each year. Specifically, I've noticed an increasing trend for proof not only of approval but also of detailed review, focusing on what was reviewed, by whom, when, and what the review process covered. Most of the review work that occurs in a finance team is likely to revolve around the month-end close process, as it covers the majority of the routine process that auditors will test. While I cannot give you a comprehensive list of how to document all your team's work to ensure a successful audit, I can give you some high-level themes that your team should consider that will make the audit process easier for your team. When it comes to reviewing work, you know that your team does a good job. You understand the business you work in, so you intuitively know which areas need to be thoroughly examined and which areas only require a light touch review. However, conveying this intuitive knowledge to auditors is nigh on impossible. To get around this some teams (myself in the past included) will document for the sake of documentation. By this I mean the classic sending of an email every time work is completed or reviewed just to prove that you have reviewed it. You may have even added in a throwaway comment like "Looks good, no review points from me" just to demonstrate that you reviewed it and have no comments. All this unnecessary work is time-consuming and adds no value to your team. Most of you reading this probably have a team Excel or Sheets checklist that each team member will mark as done once completed and reviewed. This however is an increasingly hard sell to auditors as sufficient evidence of review as anyone can simply sign off on someone else’s behalf. Dates of review can also be easily changed as there is no unchangeable date stamp leaving room for more unwanted audit questions. Now, I don’t want to just outline a number of issues and then leave you thinking that there is no solution. In fact, the solution to all of your audit evidence (when it comes to review) is actually very simple.  The solution lies in having the right tools for your team. Your team needs software that can capture all of your audit requirements in one place. The easiest way to achieve this is not by continually bolting on more software solutions that one performs one role, but by having your month-end close process documented in software that can record all your audit evidence. It should have the ability to track the review process, capture comments, provide feedback, attach files, and timestamp every action. This system-based approach should not be limited to just the month-end close process but should be applied to all your finance team workflows. Email should not be used by your team to document the preparer and reviewer, or to transfer files internally.  This may seem like an overly simplistic solution to capturing robust audit evidence. However, month-end close is universal to us all, and by doing it correctly and capturing all your audit evidence seamlessly as you do the process, you will easily cover the majority of your audit evidence.  If you would like to learn more about a month-end close and workflow management tool specifically designed for finance teams that meets all your audit evidence requirements, reach out to us at Easy Month End.

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

A Guide to an Efficient Month-End Close

For a process that occurs every month and consumes a significant portion of a finance team's time, we don't spend a lot of energy on ensuring it's an effective process. Sometimes, we need to take a step back and ask ourselves, "Is my month-end close process as efficient as it could be?" Time is always a precious commodity for finance teams, but one way you can create more time is shaving some inefficiencies from your month-end! So sit back, grab another cup of coffee, and see if your team could benefit from any of the following tips. Do you have a clear work allocation?  Nothing will kill your team's rhythm more than not having a clear work allocation, covering both the preparer and reviewer where necessary. Efficiency at month-end comes from team members being able to manage their own time. If there are delays in one area, they should know exactly what to move on to next without having to ask or check in with other members of the team. I am not advocating a month-end close work allocation that is set in stone, you will always need degrees of flexibility. However, there does need to be an overarching plan to ensure that a new allocation is not created each day or week and then circulated, or that people are waiting to be told what to do next. It is important to have your work and review allocation documented in a file everyone can access. If you ever find yourself saying, "But everyone knows what to do, why do we need to write it down?" stop and think about what happens when a team member is on holiday, gets sick, or there is a new starter in the team who constantly asks you what they should be doing every 30 minutes. Save yourself the pain and document who is responsible for what. Have you moved work to pre-month where possible?  Put simply, always move tasks to pre-month end if you can. You may think you're too busy in the days leading up to month-end, but it will always be worse once month-end has ticked over. If there are items that can be processed before month-end, move them earlier and save yourself the overtime that will inevitably come later in the process. This can also be applied to when a task can be started as well. If you can complete the majority of a process pre-month end and then simply add a few more lines for the last days’ worth of transactions, you will be able to spread your workload more evenly throughout the month-end close process. These small wins do add up to real-time savings. Even saving 30 minutes during each month-end close process will amount to 6 hours over the year. That's 6 hours of time back. What can be estimated with reliability early?  Although we love everything to be perfect down the cent, sometimes estimations must do. The key to whether to estimate rather than wait for actuals is understanding the nature of the account. Some accounts will fluctuate wildly month on month with no clear driver, but there will also be many accounts that are relatively stable month on month or have clear drivers that can lead to accurate estimations. Think about those bills that come in month after month or your term deposit interest accruals. You may be a few dollars off, but you'll be close enough that no one will know the difference—or, more importantly, no one will care. For example, if your annual leave accrual is off by one day's worth of leave, will it change any decisions that the business makes in the coming month? What is actually important to your business? Not all accounts in the general ledger were created equal. While we may cherish every number equally due to our need for perfect balance, our attention and time need to be focused on what information is most important to the business. For example, customer revenue figures will determine future strategy, while asset impairment testing won't change any decisions monthly. What areas are important will be unique to your company, so there is no one-size-fits-all, but you will notice that the decision-makers at your company will month-on-month focus on certain areas. It is these areas that you need to ensure are 100% correct and therefore should get more of your team's time and effort. Do you have a clear materiality?  I am not talking about a complex calculation to determine audit materiality, but more of the internal rule within your team on when variances or movements need to be escalated. By giving your team this clear direction on what value is important and what can wait till next month, you are allowing them to spend their time on the most important issues and balances. That $50 variance on a $500k provision for doubtful debts can easily be accepted and investigated after month-end is completed and your team has the time to delve into it fully and determine its cause. This doesn't mean that all decisions should be rigid and formula-driven; you should still encourage your team to use judgment and ask questions. You can even establish different limits and levels of authority for accepting variances, split by either role or account if your team is large enough. Does your team know what is expected of them?  Clear communication is crucial during month-end. This includes not only who is responsible for preparation and review and when the task is due, but also what level of support is expected for each process and how it needs to be documented. These little details are often taken for granted, but they need to be clearly communicated to avoid issues at crucial times. There's nothing worse than having an awkward conversation when someone thinks they've done great work, only to be told by their manager that it wasn't what they had in mind. What can you delegate?  Generally, the more senior members of the team have more on their plates, in order to actually be an effective manager tasks must be delegated down. When delegating work consideration must be given to not only the team members’ current abilities but also their skill gaps. It is always a hard job to delegate work, as it feels like you are punishing your team by giving them more work. However, the correct level of delegation can help your team grow in their careers by exposing them to new areas of work they have not completed before. When the senior members of a team hold onto all the difficult tasks, they become a bottleneck for the team and deprive junior members of the exposure and experience they need to develop. It is always a difficult balance to strike, but it will become easier with time, experience, and clear lines of communication in the team. Do you have clear procedure documentation? There's nothing glamorous about procedure documents, but they are essential to an efficient team. Our brains can only fit so much information, so we need to document our processes to ensure not only consistency in the work being performed but also to stop the same questions from being asked month after month by the people preparing the work. Clear procedure documents are also lifesavers when onboarding a new team member. It's a relief to start a new job and discover that everything is documented and outlined, meaning you do not have to ask basic questions about the name of the report you need to run. Procedure documents don't have to be long and overly complicated; they can be as simple as an extra tab in your monthly workbooks with a few screenshots and sentences to guide new users or remind experienced users about the more challenging parts of the process. These documents are also helpful in providing an understanding of why a particular process is being done. It's one thing to follow an instruction manual, but it's another to understand the purpose behind it. Processes can only be improved when they are fully understood by the preparer. When was the last time you reviewed your month-end processes?  Regularly reviewing your full month-end close process, end to end, is an important job (this can be a relatively simple process with a tool like Easy Month End). I'm not advocating for an in-depth debrief after each month-end; that will make your team roll their eyes or glaze over completely as they daydream about anything else. However, at least once a year, gather your full team, refill your coffee cups, and review the full month-end process. Look at task descriptions—are they still accurate? Are all the tasks even necessary? Can any tasks be consolidated? Are there tasks that are performed each month that are missing from the month-end close checklist? One of the most important considerations to review is the due dates for each task. Can any tasks be brought forward, or are some unable to be completed until a later date? Shifting due dates out shouldn't be seen as a negative. The goal is to set realistic deadlines and have accurate information about how you're tracking. There's no point in showing a task as overdue if you consistently say every month, "Oh, but it's always overdue because we don't actually get that report until WD4." Your month-end close checklist should reflect reality, not a wish list. Mix up the work allocation. Nobody wants to do the exact same process every month for years on end, so work allocations need to be updated where possible. This does not mean changing work allocations monthly, as that will just lead to a reduction in the quality of work performed. However, rotating some of the tasks every six months will benefit the entire team. Fresh eyes on a process will lead to new ideas and efficiencies. It's also an opportunity to update documentation, as performing a process for the first time may reveal just how out-of-date the procedure documents are. Rotating tasks also helps to spread knowledge throughout the team, ensuring that different team members can cover when someone is either out sick or on leave. It also allows your team to actually take holidays during month ends. Additionally, having more experienced team members occasionally perform simpler tasks increases the likelihood of identifying areas for improvement. These tips are not an exhaustive list, as every company's month-end close process is different. However, if you follow the above principles, you'll find your month-end close process becoming easier and easier. You may even achieve that elusive goal of not working overtime during month-end close.

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

Smooth Sailing: The Free Month-End Close Checklist to make your 2023 a Breeze

Month end close is a pain point shared by finance teams and accountants worldwide. We need to accept that while the process will never be fun, it can be smooth and painless with the right tools. The first tool that is essential and yet often overlooked is the month end close checklist. Whether you're following IFRS, US GAAP, FRC, NZ IFRS, APSE, JGAAP, or some other acronym that your regulator has created, the below eight items are essential elements to ensure that your checklist works for you to create an easier month end close process.   1. What is each task's due date? Fuzzy deadlines are frustrating to all involved. An efficient month end close checklist must include clear due dates for each task. Whether the task is due based on the workdayfor that month or a fixed date each month, you and your team need the ability to confidently plan ahead and ensure that everything gets done on time. You can even add extra elements such as when the task should be started to further assist the newer members of your team.   2. Who is preparing and reviewing the task?  Assigning responsibilities is essential; month end tasks with no clear owner are destined to never get done. It is also crucial for assessing workload management among the team and avoiding bottlenecks and burnout.   3. Signoffs are a must. Tracking the progress towards month end close is like having a mini party for each task. Not only does it help you monitor progress, but it also lets you spot any unexpected delays. By keeping an eye on these dates, you'll have a better grasp of how your team is tracking against the plan and allow you to adjust future month end closes to try and make each month end more efficient than the last.   4. Comments Ideas should never be kept in silos; they need to be shared. All months end close checklists must include a comments section. They encourage collaboration and allow your team to raise any issues or suggestions at the time they think of them, enabling future improvements and efficiencies. The best way to make your month end close efficient is to learn from previous month ends and capture data as it comes to the team.    5. Customisation  No two organizations are the same, and neither should month end close checklists. Customise your month end close checklist by adding not only the companies that each task relates to (if you manage more than one company), but also by including sub-areas that allow you to track the month end close process the way you want to. For example, you can split your month end by different areas of the Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, or by the nature of the task. The way in which your team manages a month end close process is unique, and your checklist should reflect this.   6. Simplicity is Key As accountants, we all love a good Excel spreadsheet, we even take pride in complex formulas or macros (VBA) enhanced workbooks. However, for your month end close checklist, the simpler the better. It needs to be used by everyone on your team, not just the Excel gurus. Designing something too complex increases the chances of it breaking and creating more work. So, while a macro-enabled Excel checklist for month end close may tempt you, keeping it straightforward ensures that your entire team can navigate it effortlessly.   7. Sharing is caring when it comes to location. A month end close checklist is only useful when it is accessible by everyone (no desktops versions allowed). Store it in a central location that's easily accessible to all team members. Whether it's a shared drive, a cloud-based storage system, or a dedicated tool (like easymonthend.com), make sure everyone can find it without hunting down ancient scrolls. This way, you'll foster knowledge sharing, collaboration, and a unified approach to your month end close.   8. Continuous review  The work a finance team is expected to do is never static. This means that your team's month end close checklist also cannot be set-and-forget. The tasks need to be reviewed on a regular basis to see if they are still relevant. Can their due dates be moved to relieve pressure on the team? Do new tasks need to be added? Your month end close checklist needs to remain relevant if you want an simple and easy month end close.   To help you on your team's journey to a simple month end close, Easy Month End has created a free downloadable month end close Excel template that will tick all the boxes for the smoothest month end close you've ever had.

Nik Wakelin

Founder / CTO

How many checklists is too many?

So that no one can accuse me of writing clickbait, the answer is: Two. If you are trying to organise your finance team with more than a single source of tasks and workflow, you need a better workflow tool. As accountants, we have an innate inclination to compartmentalise. We love to neatly colour-code and organise everything into its rightful place. However, this borderline obsessive need for orderliness often extends to how we manage our time, tasks, and workflows. Finance teams will create multiple checklists to try and organise work—one for month-end close, one for internal reporting, another for year-end financial statements, and the list goes on. We become like frenzied squirrels hoarding checklists. This is one of those situations where we as accountants must go against our instincts and start amalgamating rather than compartmentalising. While checklists are an essential tool when managing a finance team; relying on multiple fragmented lists creates more confusion than clarity. The decentralized workflow makes it impossible for a finance manager to gauge their team's workload without having to painstakingly wade through multiple Excel spreadsheets and analyse task allocation. It's like attempting to not only solve a Rubik's Cube but also compare the progress your team is making to solve 8 Rubik's Cubes—it's an exercise in frustration and nearly impossible to get a simple snapshot of where the team stands. All work performed by members of the finance team is interconnected, so it should not be managed as if it is a collection of unrelated stand-alone projects. It's time to move to a more holistic approach to managing workflow. Along with the difficulty in reviewing data stored in multiple locations, it also brings obvious risks to the team. Items that are not front of mind and readily accessible are easily forgotten or ignored. Without a centralized system to track the teams’ progress, reassigning work is not easy. There's no guarantee that the reallocation will be noticed without relying on having to have additional discussions or team meetings that just eat up the already short amount of time accountants have. Moreover, there's no efficient way to check if the reallocation clashes with other work the team member needs to perform that is documented in a separate location. It's a recipe for confusion, frustration, and potential bottlenecks. The solution to these issues lies in having the right tools for the job, and in this case, specialised software designed explicitly for finance teams. Our work is unique, and we need tools that reflect this. Gone are the days of trying to use only Excel or software another team uses and happens to have some spare licenses for. It's time to embrace software that provides dedicated dashboards for month-end close, not a generic projects module hastily renamed each month-end to the current month to try and make it month-end software. With specialised software, you can bid adieu to the Excel chaos and welcome a centralised platform that simplifies task allocation, tracks progress and provides real-time insights. If you would like to know more about how Easy Month End can help your finance team bring all your tasks under one dashboard, then get in contact. We want to give you the tools you deserve.

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

Is ambiguity ruining your work flow

There's no denying it, ambiguity can be the silent assassin of any team workflow or process. It lurks in the shadows, akin to the mischievous Puck from Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' wreaking havoc and sowing confusion among the teams’ best-laid plans. For accountants and finance teams, time is always scarce so efficiency is paramount, so any ambiguity can quickly transform the month-end close process into a modern-day Shakespearean tragedy, complete with excessive overtime and a cast of bewildered team members wondering what happened to their dream of an easy month end. This chaos will be magnified even further during the frenzy that is ‘year-end’. Deadlines tighten, workloads skyrocket, and the looming presence of auditors adds an extra layer of pressure. It's like being thrust into the centre stage of a high-stakes production, where every move is scrutinised. Now, let's address a crucial point right from the start: removing ambiguity is not synonymous with micromanaging your team. Clearly defining roles, assigning tasks, and setting deadlines are all hallmarks of effective management. Rest assured, your team members will appreciate the clarity provided by well-defined expectations and review timelines. Think of it as establishing SMART goals for your workflow, offering guidance without suffocating control. The importance of this clarity cannot be overstated, our memory is not perfect, and things will get forgotten. This is why we cannot rely solely on our memory to keep work organised and the finance teams running smoothly. Questions like, 'Am I responsible for handling provisions this month, or was it Kevin's turn?' start haunting us, as the ever mischievous ambiguity sneaks in. Fortunately, there's a simple remedy to eradicate ambiguity and alleviate the pains of the month-end close process and other finance team workflows: clear documentation. It acts as a trusty guidebook, outlining every step and ensuring everyone is on the same page. The easiest way to achieve this is by utilising specialised systems designed specifically for finance teams. With all tasks neatly organized in one central location, complete with clear work allocations, you're not only paving the way for smoother month ends but also creating an overall work experience that is more manageable, with reduced overtime. Imagine having all your team's recurring and standalone tasks effortlessly laid out before you, like a buffet of financial responsibilities. You can easily discern who's accountable for each task, when it's due, and what's required. No more second-guessing or last-minute panic attacks. It's akin to having a reliable personal assistant who never forgets and keeps you in the loop. This newfound clarity empowers the finance team to manage their time efficiently around the clearly defined deliverables. It's the opposite of micro-management; it's granting autonomy and enabling your team to work in their preferred manner. If you're eager to learn more about how Easy Month End can help your team achieve alignment and eliminate ambiguity, don't hesitate to reach out. We're here to help you navigate the path towards a more relaxed, less chaotic work environment.

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

Accounting, it's more than just Month End

Every Month End it occurs without fail: the workload increases, more overtime occurs and rest of the company knows to steer clear of the finance team.  However, the Month End close process should not define us as accountants, we are so much more than just reconciling data and producing the monthly Profit & Loss. The Month End close and reporting process is just the tip of the iceberg that actually get noticed, but beneath the surface is all the other never-ending items that the finance team works on around Month End.    There is always a backlog of items to be completed, whether it is finally getting around to investigating that historic variance on deferred revenue after having said “I’ll look into that later” for 6 months now. Or actually trying to plan ahead for any new IFRS changes effective during the year that you know the auditors will want an accounting paper on.  All these other non-recurring items need to be captured, prioritised, and eventually completed. While this sounds like a basic task, we as accountants sadly do not do it well. We end up with multiple ‘to-do’ lists, one in excel that will never be re-opened or updated, one in some form of generic note taking software as we promise ourselves we will finally go fully paperless, and one in a paper note pad or note book as we break the paperless promise to ourselves yet again.  The problem with all of these (aside from the fact there are so many checklists), is that none of them are designed for accountants, none of them encourage collaboration or effective team management.  The project list needs the flexibility for items to be moved up and down the priority list, due dates changed as suddenly the thing everyone said was urgent, suddenly becomes not urgent. Although priorities change, things still need to get done.  The list also needs to be accessible by the whole team so that everyone can see exactly what is on the often ephemeral ‘to-do’ list. This will help with the inevitable conversation that we have all had along the lines of “I am happy to help you out, but this is what I am currently working on, so which one is more important….”. Having all the non-month end close data in one shared location for the whole team to view with clear prioritisation and due times, will also help avoid overloading the team and allow effective task allocation and reallocation where needed. Most importantly, it may help you live that elusive accountants dream where you are out the door at a reasonable time.  If you would like to know more about how Easy Month End can help your finance team with specialised software that not only will capture your recurring tasks, but also those one off longer dated items, then reach out to the team here at Easy Month End. While we cannot do your tasks for you, we can help make sure that they done with the less amount of administration needed on your side. 

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

Keep Calm and Account On - 10 Tips for Surviving Month End

We know month end is always just around the corner, we even count down to it one workday at a time. However, it is never fun for any finance team. The late nights, the balances that seem to defy logic and just not reconcile no matter what you do...   To help get you through, or just kill some time, here are 10 top tips for surviving month-end close.    1.      Learn from last month: After month end, we just want to purge it from our minds and move on. However, we must unfortunately revisit it and especially re-assess any issues that arose to ensure that they do not occur again and that each month-end close is better than the last.    2.      Plan ahead: Don't wait until the last minute to do the essential planning items like rolling forward your checklist and allocating the work across the team. Try to factor in any known or potential spanners and timeline changes.   3.      Communicate with your team: Plan for month end with the whole team. Everyone has a role to play so everyone should have a voice throughout the planning and execution of month end. Ambiguity is the killer of any team process, if your team is not 100% sure what they are doing and when it is due, it will all fall apart. This will reduce any surprises and the ensuing overtime they cause.     4.      Use technology to your advantage: Accounting is a specialty of its own and requires the correct tools to be done correctly. Make sure you have the right tools and software to correctly streamline the month-end close process. Don't be afraid to use them to your advantage.   5.      Keep an eye on deadlines: It's important to stay on top of deadlines and the team’s progress towards those deadlines during the month-end close process. Make sure you know not only when items are due, but also whether they are currently on track to be completed, and reallocate tasks where needed.   6.      Prioritize your tasks: Not all tasks are created equal, always factor in time sensitivity and materiality. Unfortunately, some items may have to be only ‘materially correct’ to ensure that everything gets done.   7.      Double-check everything: Always give work the final once over. It is always faster and less embarrassing to fix an Excel formula error earlier in the process and not after the ledger is closed and you are playing the ‘how material is this’ game.   8.      Be proactive: Try to identify any potential issues before they arise. This can be thinking about downstream consequences or anything you could do at the beginning of a process to help others out. Remember that month-end close is a team activity so always check in on the team and their workload.    9.      Keep your cool: It’s already a stressful time, panicking will not help you hit those tight deadlines. Throughout the whole process just remember to take a deep breath, have another coffee, and channel your inner zen.    10.   Celebrate when it's over: Ensure you always celebrate success. Once it is all over, take a moment to celebrate…. And then see step one for next month.    If you dread month end or want to know more about the specialised tools that are available to help the team get through month end close, then we at Easy Month End would love to hear from you.  We aim to make your next month end the easiest yet!

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

Year End: It's not fun.

Let's state the uncomfortable fact up front: Financial Year End is never fun for your Finance team. You end up working late nights, having dinner in the office, wondering why the opening trial balance does not agree with your financial statements, and answering the never-ending slew of audit questions from auditors that seem to get younger each year.   Leading up to year-end, we all say to ourselves, “I hope this year-end is smoother than last year.” But instead of just hoping or praying to the patron saint of accountants (St. Matthew, in case anyone was wondering), the best way to ensure a smooth year-end is through effective planning.   To start, you need to look at the prior year-end (sometimes those sleeping dogs just need to be woken up). The previous year's work allocation and sign-offs, if captured correctly, can show you the day when all the year-end tasks were completed, whether they were completed behind or ahead of schedule, who completed each task, and any issues that were encountered. This information is essential to capture each year to help you improve the next. Ideally, a system should capture all this information to avoid you doing all the hard work to gather some data and be prepared... only to dig up last year's Excel checklist and find half-signed-off document. 😮‍💨   Using this information from the previous year as your baseline, you can more effectively allocate the current year's tasks. As you make the necessary changes for the coming year, you will be able to see that certain items were completed much earlier than originally anticipated, meaning you can bring forward the due date. remove any peaks in work and ensure that work is spread evenly between the team. You can also identify areas that took more effort and time than originally anticipated and ensure that senior staff members are working on them for the current year-end.   It's crucial to map all this out visually for the team, showing exactly what they are responsible for and when it is due. This timeline and checklist need to be centralised (an "one-document-per-person" approach will ensure a painful year-end for you and the team) and accessible, and everyone needs to understand where they fit into the bigger picture. It will help give the team clarity as to whether not only they but also the whole team is on track or not.   Once you are in the thick of the year-end close and reporting process, this is where your plan needs flexibility. You will never be able to foresee every last-minute hurdle that occurs. There is always one area each year that will prove to be the problem account, whether it is an entire review of an inventory line for impairment or a particularly interesting revenue contract requiring a lot of judgment. When an account becomes obvious that it will take more time than anticipated to deal with, you need to be able to see in an instant how the other members of the team are progressing so you can reallocate work as required.   All of the above points require the team to use the correct tools made specifically for accountants. While no tool will be able to complete your entire year-end close process and reporting for you, you can get the right tools to help you survive the process and reduce the overtime required.   If you want to know more about how Easy Month End can help you enable a smoother year-end process through our software designed specifically for accountants and finance teams, reach out to our team. Unfortunately, we can‘t do your year-end for you, but we can help make the process as smooth as possible.

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

Excel is not (always) the answer

The first step to fixing any problem is first accepting that there is a problem, and as much as we hate to say it, our dependence on Excel is a problem.  Us accountants live, breathe and love Excel. It's versatile, easy to use, and a bathes our faces in a pleasing shade of green. But, while Excel is great for data manipulation, calculations and basic reporting... we're somewhat guilty of trying to jam any problem we come across into the "I'll just make a spreadsheet" hole. Finance teams will use Excel for monthly checklists, project management, tracking who is on leave, writing down key team deliverables, who is paying for coffee this week... we have pushed Excel to the edges, and it's time to admit it might not be the greatest fit for all our needs.    Face the facts: Excel should not be the only piece of software that accountants and Finance teams use to organise their work. We should be embracing specialised tools to help reduce our workload and overtime that occurs each month end.    For instance,  every accountant and finance team will use Excel for the under-appreciated (yet absolutely essential) team checklist. Whether it is the ever-present month end task checklist, or your year end and finance statements checklist, or longer running projects and team priorities - if it is a list then we accountants will wedge it into Excel.  After all, Excel is familiar to us, and sometimes it is all we have at our disposal (why are we so scared to spend money on ourselves?). But what might happen if we used the right tool for the right job? Excel won't tell us when a task was completed with date stamps, Excel can't provide a comprehensive audit log, Excel can't alert us of upcoming tasks, it won't chase the team for overdue tasks, it can’t roll itself forward from one month to the other (watch those holidays!). We're working around the fact that Excel doesn't do a lot of the things we need, blinded by our love for that familiar green glow.   Don't worry - we're not going to take away your Excel. All we're saying is... maybe consider some checklist software made especially to be Really Great Checklist Software, and leave Excel for tracking the lunch kitty.

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

Your finance team is hybrid, your management style should be too

It's a cliché these days to say that sitting in an office from Monday to Friday, nine to five sitting is a thing of the past. Your Finance team now has some folks working remotely, doing flexible hours or even working from different countries (with associated time zone headaches). All of this means the way we organise and communicate with our Finance teams needs a drastic change.  Sometimes it is not possible to ask that two second question across the desk or see an overloaded team member drop their head into the hands, however work still need to be discussed and stress levels checked. A team split by time and space just means that more thought is needed to find the balance between the micromanager insisting on two video calls a day to discuss progress updates, and the absentee manager who just hopes everything will figure itself out in the end.  It's not just checking in on the team to get a feel for progress that can be a team killer, individuals also need to know what work they need to do and when it is expected by. No one wants to end up in the situation where Joe sends you his work for review at 4:59pm on Friday because he was waiting on confirmation for an immaterial balance for the last two days. He didn't set out to ruin your weekend - he may have simply not known how urgent it was.  The first, most important, and thankfully easiest solution to implement is ensuring that you have your team has the correct software to support you. Modern accounting teams should not be trying to make do with either no work management tool or trying to co-opt multiple pieces of software that were very clearly not designed for accountants. The right software designed specifically for accounting teams will help your team find the middle ground between knowing how the all the team is progressing on their tasks, while giving them the freedom and space to actually complete the tasks. If you would like to know more about how Easy Month End can help your Finance Team manage their workflow in the hybrid work setting, then please get in touch! Managing a finance team is full time job, so let us help make is as smooth a job as possible.

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

Email is not a workflow management tool

Being an accountant is not easy! On top of the never ending work there is also the serious issue of negative stereotypes. Mention you're an accountant at a party and watch the awkward silence that follows as the other party struggles to find a follow up question. It's easy to forget that we are essential to the smooth operation of a business - and yes, we do deserve nice shiny things.  One of those nice shiny things is a proper tool to organise our and manage our workflow - and we are not talking about a tool designed for another profession that we have just making do with! I am talking about proper tools that are designed to consider the cyclical yet also ad-hoc nature of accounting.   As accountants we must admit to ourselves that emails and instant messages are not an effective way to manage work. Sending emails asking for someone sitting beside you to approve a journal in the system just so you have that audit evidence if needed should not be how any team operates. This is especially true when a nine-email long thread begins with a confusing back and forth of any items that need to be changed.  We need effective communication, auditable evidence and a foolproof way of passing tasks from preparer to reviewer, and the way this happens need to be exactly tailored to the work that accountants and finance teams perform. The days of using fallible human memory and endless emails to organise workloads and process flow cannot continue.  We need to stop making do and for once open up the budget for ourselves and get the tools that we actually need to be accountants. Embracing the right tools will save time (which as we know better than most also means money!), reduce friction and most importantly, will make life easier.  If you would like to know more about how Easy Month End can help you and your team better organise workflow with our software then reach out to the team here at Easy Month End. There is always more work to be done as an accountant, so let Easy Month End take care of your team work flow needs and make your month end easier. 

Pete Archer

Founder / CEO

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