Are you struggling to maintain accuracy and timeliness in your monthly or quarterly financials?
These six strategic questions can help you create a framework for achieving precision and timeliness in your financial reporting.
- Have you established a detailed checklist that specifies all closing activities, assigns responsible individuals, sets clear deadlines, and is shared with everyone involved in the closing process?
- Dr. Atul Gawande authored the insightful book "The Checklist Manifesto," which emphasizes the importance of checklists, even for routine tasks. He highlights that people often forget routine steps, sometimes leading to profound consequences.
- Is there an instruction manual with standard templates for critical tasks in the close process, including screen captures to illustrate the steps?
- Are you utilizing the appropriate accounting systems and tools to minimize errors and ensure a timely financial close?
- Is there a comprehensive chart of accounts that clearly defines the purpose of each account, and ensure vendors are configured with default posting accounts to streamline the financial close process?
- Are robust review and control mechanisms in place to ensure high-risk and material items are thoroughly examined, and is there a system in place to stay updated with relevant accounting pronouncements?
- Do you regularly hold brainstorming sessions to address challenges and suggest improvements, such as streamlining reconciliation processes in your recurring close procedures?
Having asked these questions, organizations can identify the areas that can alleviate the struggle with producing financial reports each month. The discussions around these questions can help uncover the root causes of ongoing errors and may prevent future errors.
Author: Deepa Patel, CPA | [email protected]
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