If you’re like most finance professionals, you know the end-of-month rush all too well. From reconciling bank statements to preparing financial reports, the financial close process is filled with critical, time-sensitive tasks.

As someone who’s been in this industry for a while, I can tell you that automating this process with financial close software can be a game-changer. This type of software helps equip finance teams with the tools they need to issue accurate financial statements, reduce human error, and stay on top of financial data in real time.

In this blog, I’ll explain what financial close automation entails and how it can turn your close process from a high-stress scramble into a smooth operation.

What is Financial Close Automation?

Simply put, financial close automation is the use of technology to streamline and digitize the traditional manual process of closing the books at the end of a financial period. This includes tasks such as reconciling accounts, journal entries, and creating financial statements.

Traditionally, these tasks were done manually using spreadsheets and other basic tools. But with the advancement of technology, finance teams now have access to specialized software that can automate these processes and greatly improve efficiency.

What Financial Close Processes Can We Automate?

As I mentioned, automation allows finance professionals to move away from manual, repetitive work. This is a significant development because, according to a recent report, over 90% of financial leaders reported challenges with the financial close process.

Let’s take a closer look at the key processes we can automate in the financial close and how they can make month-end less of a scramble:

1. Invoice Processing

Invoice processing is one of the biggest bottlenecks in the financial close process. When done manually, it’s tedious, time-consuming, and prone to errors—any of which can slow down month-end closing. With Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, automation can scan, extract, and feed invoice data directly into accounting software. This eliminates manual data entry, reduces human error, and creates a digital audit trail for each transaction. For finance teams, this means invoices are processed promptly, month-end reviews become quicker, and the close process is streamlined.

2. Expense Management

Managing expenses can create delays during the close process, especially when there’s a backlog of paper receipts and manual approvals. With automated expense management, employees can submit expenses online, and managers can review, approve, or reject them in real time. Automation also ensures compliance by flagging expenses that don’t align with company policy, reducing last-minute corrections. By keeping expenses organized and accurately categorized, finance teams can produce cleaner, more reliable reports without bottlenecks during the financial close.

3. Payroll

Payroll can significantly impact the financial close process, especially in large organizations where payroll data must be validated before closing. Payroll automation software calculates deductions, taxes, and benefits automatically, ensuring that each paycheck is correct and disbursed on time. This not only eliminates payroll errors but also keeps payroll data ready for inclusion in the month-end close, reducing delays and enabling finance teams to wrap up the close faster.

4. Accounts Receivable

Outstanding invoices and late payments can cause inconsistencies in the close process, creating discrepancies that need to be reconciled. Automating accounts receivable helps by tracking payments, issuing reminders, and automatically recording payments, which means more consistent cash flow visibility. With automated AR, finance teams can reduce days sales outstanding (DSO), improve their cash position, and more accurately forecast during the financial close, resulting in smoother, more predictable closing cycles.

5. Account Reconciliation

Account reconciliation is crucial to the financial close, yet manual reconciliation can be incredibly time-consuming. Automation compares account balances across systems, verifies reports, and flags discrepancies. By catching errors early, automated reconciliation minimizes the chance of mistakes on financial statements, in bank reconciliation, and saves significant time. This means that accountants can complete reconciliations more confidently and quickly, leading to faster month-end closings.

6. Accounts Payable

In manual workflows, accounts payable often lags behind, slowing down the close process with overdue invoices or missing approvals. By automating accounts payable, finance teams can streamline the payment cycle, enforce financial policies, and follow a clear approval workflow. Automation reduces late fees, enables early payment discounts, and ensures that all accounts payable are settled on time, allowing the financial close to proceed smoothly and without unnecessary delays.

7. Journal Entries and Adjustments

Journal entries and adjustments are critical during the financial close, especially when it comes to accruals and deferrals. However, these are prone to error and time-consuming to handle manually. Automating recurring journal entries eliminates repetitive data entry and reduces the risk of mistakes. This ensures that entries are timely and accurate each month, making the close process faster and leaving a clear audit trail that can simplify reviews and audits.

8. Consolidations for Multi-Entity Management

Multi-entity reporting adds layers of complexity to the close process, especially when different entities use different currencies or financial standards. Automated consolidation software streamlines these processes by handling currency conversions, intercompany eliminations, and custom reporting for multi-entity organizations. For finance teams, this means quicker, more accurate consolidations, which translate to a more efficient close and fewer headaches.

Automation has the power to turn the financial close process from a lengthy, manual endeavor into a faster, more reliable workflow. With software like Sage Intacct, finance teams can streamline everything from invoice processing and payroll to account reconciliation and consolidations for multi-entity management.

Financial Close Automation Tips

Automating the financial close process can be a game-changer, but it requires the right strategy to make the most of your tools. Here are some practical tips to help your finance team optimize automation and achieve a smoother close.

• Start with High-Impact Areas: Identify the most time-consuming or error-prone tasks in your financial close, such as account reconciliation, invoice processing, or expense management. By automating these high-impact areas first, you’ll quickly see the benefits and build momentum to extend automation across other parts of the process.
• Standardize Processes Before Automating: Standardize workflows for tasks like expense approvals, journal entries, and accounts payable processing. This reduces the likelihood of errors and ensures that automation solutions can run smoothly without customization for each scenario.
• Leverage Real-Time Reporting for Transparency: Real-time reporting can give your finance team greater visibility into financial data, reducing the need for last-minute adjustments and manual corrections. Use automation to generate up-to-date financial reports throughout the month, so you can identify potential issues early and keep the close process on track.
• Set Up Approval Workflows: Automating approval workflows can prevent bottlenecks, especially when multiple departments need to sign off on expenses, invoices, or journal entries. By setting up clear, automated approval pathways, you can eliminate delays and make sure that every step of the financial close process has the necessary checks without manual follow-ups.
• Invest in Training and Change Management: Introducing automation is a shift in workflow that requires buy-in from the finance team. Invest time in training your team on new systems like Sage Intacct, focusing on how each feature benefits their daily tasks. By helping team members understand and embrace automation, you can maximize efficiency and ensure a smoother transition.
• Use Dashboards to Track Progress: Dashboards can give your team a high-level view of the financial close process, showing the status of key tasks in real time. Use automated dashboards to track progress, identify any delays, and proactively address issues before they affect the close timeline.
• Keep an Eye on Compliance: Automation makes it easier to stay compliant by automatically following company policies and financial regulations. Use automated tools to flag transactions that don’t meet policy standards or trigger alerts for review, ensuring that your close process stays compliant without last-minute corrections.
• Regularly Review and Optimize Automation Workflows: Once automation is in place, it’s essential to regularly review and fine-tune your workflows. Are there any areas where bottlenecks still exist? Are tasks being delayed due to unoptimized processes? Periodically assess your automation setup and make adjustments to improve efficiency and support the evolving needs of your business.

By following these tips, your finance team can get the most out of financial close automation, creating a more manageable month-end process that supports both day-to-day to improve accounting accuracy and long-term growth.

Benefits of Financial Close Automation

There’s no denying that financial close automation offers numerous benefits to businesses of all sizes and businesses are continually looking for ways to optimize their financial close process. Here are just a few reasons why your finance team should consider implementing it:

Reduces Human Error

By automating tasks like reconciliation and data entry, finance teams reduce the risk of human error, making the close process more accurate and reliable. This allows finance professionals to work with confidence, knowing that key figures are correct.

Saves Time and Increases Efficiency

Manual tasks are often time-consuming and repetitive. Automation frees finance teams from these burdens, allowing them to focus on high-impact, strategic work that drives the business forward.

Provides a Single Source of Truth

With all financial information in one place, teams gain a reliable, centralized view of the organization’s financial health. This creates a clear audit trail and ensures transparency throughout the close process.

Improves Scalability

As companies grow, so does the complexity of the financial close process. Automated solutions are scalable, so as an organization expands, the finance team can handle larger volumes of data without compromising accuracy or speed.

Enhances Compliance and Security

Automation helps enforce compliance by following standard procedures, setting up approval workflows, and flagging transactions that may not align with company policies. This built-in compliance check reduces the risk of regulatory penalties and supports internal controls. Additionally, by storing financial data securely within an automation platform, companies can protect sensitive information and maintain an audit trail that shows exactly who performed each task and when.

Boosts Real-Time Visibility and Decision-Making

Automation provides finance teams with up-to-the-minute access to financial data, which is invaluable for making informed decisions. Instead of waiting for reports to be manually compiled, finance leaders have real-time insights into the organization’s financial performance. This visibility empowers leaders to make proactive decisions, address issues promptly, and pivot quickly in response to changing market conditions.

Reduces Close Cycle Time

By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, organizations can shorten their financial close cycle significantly. A streamlined close process means that teams aren’t working late into the night to meet deadlines. Instead, finance professionals can maintain a steady workflow, complete tasks ahead of schedule, and spend more time on valuable analysis rather than on manual processes.

Increases Employee Satisfaction

The financial close process is notorious for creating high stress within finance teams. With automation, team members can focus on more meaningful work, reducing burnout and improving job satisfaction. By automating routine, repetitive tasks, automation allows finance professionals to spend more time on strategic activities, like analyzing trends or advising leadership, which can lead to a more engaged and motivated team.

Financial close automation offers a powerful set of advantages for finance professionals. This not only benefits the team but also the organization as a whole.

How to Choose the Best Financial Close Automation Software

With so many options available, how do you choose the best financial close automation software for your business? Here’s a guide to help you make the right decision—with a closer look at why Sage Intacct stands out as a top choice:

Look for Comprehensive Automation Capabilities

The best financial close software should go beyond basic accounting tasks and offer a comprehensive set of automation tools. This includes automating critical processes like account reconciliation, financial reporting, journal entries, and consolidations for multi-entity management. The software should be able to handle both day-to-day accounting needs and end-of-month requirements seamlessly, ensuring that every stage of the financial close is covered.

Ensure Real-Time Reporting and Analytics

One of the most valuable features of project cost management software is real-time reporting, allowing finance teams to access and analyze financial data instantly. Real-time visibility into your data helps you catch discrepancies early, track trends, and make timely adjustments—all of which are essential for an efficient close. Look for a platform that enables real-time reporting without requiring manual data compilation, so your team can provide timely insights to leadership.

Sage Intacct offers powerful real-time reporting capabilities that pull data from across the organization, making it easy for finance teams to generate accurate, up-to-the-minute reports and support proactive decision-making.

Prioritize Multi-Entity Consolidation Features

If your organization operates multiple entities, look for software that can simplify consolidations across locations, currencies, and financial frameworks. The right platform will automate currency conversions, intercompany eliminations, and consolidated reporting, allowing you to quickly and accurately generate multi-entity financial statements. This feature is particularly important for organizations experiencing growth or managing complex corporate structures.

Consider Integration with Your ERP and Other Systems

Your financial close software should integrate seamlessly with your existing ERP and other key systems, such as payroll, accounts payable, and expense management platforms. Integration reduces data silos, eliminates manual data entry, and ensures that information flows smoothly between systems, making the financial close process more efficient and accurate.

Look for User-Friendly Interface and Intuitive Design

Financial close automation software should empower your team, not overwhelm them. Choose a platform with an intuitive, user-friendly interface that makes it easy to navigate, set up automated workflows, and access data quickly. A well-designed dashboard can help your team monitor the close process, track progress, and address any bottlenecks in real time.

Prioritize Security and Compliance

Data security is paramount in financial management, so make sure your chosen software meets high standards for data protection, user permissions, and regulatory compliance. The software should offer features like role-based access control, audit trails, and compliance support to help your team follow internal policies and meet external regulatory requirements.

Choose a Scalable Solution for Future Growth

As your organization grows, your financial close process will likely become more complex. Opt for software that can scale with your business, accommodating increased transaction volumes, additional entities, and more complex reporting needs. The best financial close software will adapt to your needs, whether you’re managing a small business or a rapidly expanding enterprise.

Seek Out Excellent Customer Support and Training Resources

Implementing financial close automation & project cost management software is a major shift, so having reliable customer support and ample training resources can make all the difference. Look for a provider that offers strong customer support, comprehensive training materials, and a responsive support team to help you troubleshoot issues and maximize the software’s benefits.

Why Sage Intacct is the Right Choice for Financial Close Automation

When it comes to automating the financial close, Sage Intacct checks all the boxes above. With automation capabilities, real-time reporting, seamless multi-entity management, and scalable design, Sage Intacct is designed to help the financial close process from start to finish.

Its easy integration with ERP and other business applications, user-friendly interface, and top-tier security make it a standout choice for mid-market and growing businesses. By choosing Sage Intacct, finance teams can confidently manage every aspect of the close process, transforming month-end from a stressful rush to a smooth, efficient, and accurate workflow.

BCS ProSoft is an expert in Sage Intacct implementation and can help businesses of all sizes reap the benefits of financial close automation. With personalized support, training, and ongoing guidance, we help finance teams maximize their use of Sage Intacct. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business achieve a faster and more accurate financial close process with Sage Intacct.

Conclusion on Financial Close Automation

Imagine a financial close process that’s no longer a month-end marathon but a strategic, simplified sprint. With the right automation software, like Sage Intacct, your team can move past the late nights and endless spreadsheets to a close that’s efficient, accurate, and empowering.

By automating tedious tasks, gaining real-time insights, and managing complex consolidations with ease, Sage Intacct turns financial close into a smooth, reliable process that keeps your team focused on what matters most: driving your organization forward.

Key Takeaways

• Automating financial close processes like account reconciliation, expense management, and payroll can save time, reduce errors, and provide a single source of truth for all financial data.
• Sage Intacct offers a comprehensive suite of automation tools that cater to the needs of growing and multi-entity organizations, with features that streamline even the most complex closing tasks.
• Real-time reporting and analytics allow finance teams to monitor performance, track trends, and make proactive adjustments throughout the close, enhancing transparency and decision-making.
• Easy integrations with ERP and other systems reduce manual data entry, enable data consistency, and support a unified view of financial data, making Sage Intacct a powerful ally for finance teams.
• Scalability and security make Sage Intacct an ideal choice for businesses seeking a solution that will adapt to their growth while meeting stringent compliance and security requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions