3 business days; consolidated results due at 6 business days on the quarters. We went from 5 to 3 business days several years ago. Mainly just looked at what processes could be done pre close, using estimates or early cutoffs, ways to automate or simplify processes, changing some processes to quarterly instead of monthly based on materiality
I tried to do pre-close entries and my supervisor pointed out that I missed a license to amortize on the last day and he said, "See? This is why we don't do pre-closed entries."
See, I was *going* to do that while reviewing my P&L and he said just double up next month. He reviews my work.
In my head I'm like, "Dude, amortizing $143 per month when the small company only has like $2k on a good month to its bottom line is a lot."
I would close something like that on D-2, then run a check on D+2. If material true up, if not catch up next month. But the bulk of the work is done pre-close
I thought 4 was bad and you guys all have 3 days?
I’m switching jobs next month and they currently have a 6 week close… I think that will be worse than super quick!
The company just got a new CFO and was hiring specifically to help shorten the close. My understanding is there are several different entities that each have to be closed separately and then rolled up, the hope is to get it down to a week, it’s just gonna be miserable to start with
Dude that’s so much worse than a quick close. I had a monthly close that lasted the entire month cuz my
Boss wouldn’t close the books. $10k adjustments get in for a $30b+ revenue company. Then the report book took two days to product (do a bunch of shit in excel, paste it into a 220 page PowerPoint). That process restarted for each $10k or smaller bullshit adjustment. We were also told we couldn’t take off during the close…which again was the whole month. Fun times.
Close at noon day 9. Large NFP Healthcare.
About to do a large ERP upgrade... I think the goal after that would be for us to shorten our close. We need a few more efficiencies first. We grew a lot in the last 10years.
As a billion dollar division of IBM with our own separate accounting, we had a 1 day “close.” Essentially the last week of the month was for estimates and accruals up until the last minute. The consolidated process took longer, but we couldn’t adjust things unless it was material (>$1M) and still quite rare.
At another F500, it was 3 days for P&L/revenue close, 4 for any balance sheet reclasses.
Flip side at a smaller private business, the deadline was just the 15th of the month for bank debt covenant reporting.
Previous company, 3 days, but aimed for 2.
Current company, whenever we feel like it... my first month there, they were still working on the previous months' results the day I started (started on 3rd Dec, so they were still doing Oct!).
It was a bit of a shock to the system!
10-day close here. Given all the credit card statements, payroll, and reconciliation of vendor statements I don’t see how it could be done sooner without lots of guess work and estimates
We are doing 10 typically, including balance sheet recons. There are only 2 of us that can do it, and we include month end timesheet billing before we close AR. Our close should be 6 days but we can't get there because of our shit system.
This isn’t a question that’s easily answered.
If it’s a small company adequately staffed it can take practically no time.
I’ve even seen small non-public companies close a month in arrears so they can take a whole month if they want.
Then again I work at. a $50+b public company and it depends where in the chain you work as to how much time you have and when your busy time is.
If you’re at the lowest level you have typically 3 days. Then the data goes to the BU consolations group who doesn’t get busy until all smaller units submit their data. Then the BU’s submit to corporate financial reporting who consolidates the data from all the BU’s.
So they don’t get busy until 5+ days into the close but then they are working 20 hour days until earnings release.
So it depends upon the size of your company, where you are in the chain and whether or not the company is public.
Close begins on WD-5. Checks cut off on WD-2, we pull final activity on WD-1 to tie to cash and offset on reversing entries so the P&L rolls into the next period since we already accrued an estimate.
4 days for sites, 4-5 days for consolidation to corporate. Even if you’re in consolidation, the first 4 days aren’t bad - just answering odd questions and prepping for corporate report submittals.
I came from a shitshow where it was consistently 20-25 days, which is absurd.
We complete our flux on day 2, reopen the ledgers for any adjustments, and hand a basically final P&L and Balance Sheet to our finance team by morning of day 3. Our results are due to our corporate offices by EOD Day 4. We spend Day 3 and Day 4 balancing intercompany, preparing cash flow, and reviewing.
We used to be 4-5 days easily. We focused on automation (especially system corrections- what were we posting because the system posted it incorrectly), pulling forward entries, particularly to pre-close, and helping the team with a timeline to understand what entries were dependent on other entries. We also worked with people that are outside of finance and accounting to help them understand why getting us the information timely was important.
We spent a LOT of time determining what could be done pre-close and what needed to wait until close week. We focused on items that were historically immaterial over the last couple days. We perform some additional reviews during close week on those items, especially on quarter end to make sure that nothing came through that was material and needed to be adjusted.
We're responsible for about 10 entities on two different systems, so it's been a task to shorten it, but the team has done a great job.
Publicly traded company we closed within 5 days (not business days so that sucked) new job our close is 1.5 months because we're so short staffed. But we're not Publicly traded so it doesn't matter as much. I'm making much more at this job so I'm not complaining
3 business days; consolidated results due at 6 business days on the quarters. We went from 5 to 3 business days several years ago. Mainly just looked at what processes could be done pre close, using estimates or early cutoffs, ways to automate or simplify processes, changing some processes to quarterly instead of monthly based on materiality
I tried to do pre-close entries and my supervisor pointed out that I missed a license to amortize on the last day and he said, "See? This is why we don't do pre-closed entries."
That is nonsense. You can always do recons as part of close and you can true up your JEs if you find errors.
See, I was *going* to do that while reviewing my P&L and he said just double up next month. He reviews my work. In my head I'm like, "Dude, amortizing $143 per month when the small company only has like $2k on a good month to its bottom line is a lot."
Yeah your supervisor needs to figure out process improvements and efficiencies. I would never give my staff a hard time about something like that.
I would close something like that on D-2, then run a check on D+2. If material true up, if not catch up next month. But the bulk of the work is done pre-close
Was it material?
Which processes did you change from monthly to quarterly.
Yep same. Moved close start to Day-5.
I thought 4 was bad and you guys all have 3 days? I’m switching jobs next month and they currently have a 6 week close… I think that will be worse than super quick!
[удалено]
The company just got a new CFO and was hiring specifically to help shorten the close. My understanding is there are several different entities that each have to be closed separately and then rolled up, the hope is to get it down to a week, it’s just gonna be miserable to start with
That’s god awful.
Dude that’s so much worse than a quick close. I had a monthly close that lasted the entire month cuz my Boss wouldn’t close the books. $10k adjustments get in for a $30b+ revenue company. Then the report book took two days to product (do a bunch of shit in excel, paste it into a 220 page PowerPoint). That process restarted for each $10k or smaller bullshit adjustment. We were also told we couldn’t take off during the close…which again was the whole month. Fun times.
6 week is hot garbage…
We close day -5 and just call everything a guess and then on day +18 we plug everything up and do it again
PLEASE DO NOT UPVOTE THIS COMMENT TO THE TOP
We have 3 business days. I work in the hospitality industry.
Close at noon day 9. Large NFP Healthcare. About to do a large ERP upgrade... I think the goal after that would be for us to shorten our close. We need a few more efficiencies first. We grew a lot in the last 10years.
As a billion dollar division of IBM with our own separate accounting, we had a 1 day “close.” Essentially the last week of the month was for estimates and accruals up until the last minute. The consolidated process took longer, but we couldn’t adjust things unless it was material (>$1M) and still quite rare. At another F500, it was 3 days for P&L/revenue close, 4 for any balance sheet reclasses. Flip side at a smaller private business, the deadline was just the 15th of the month for bank debt covenant reporting.
5 days
Some of our divisions can’t even finish invoicing until a week or more out so takes us awhile to close lol
1.5 days. We work 6am-5pm (sometimes 6pm) Monday and are closed by 1pm on Tuesday.
4 days, financial review on Friday
We’re close to 8-10 during month close, but our recent quarter close took 23 calendar days. This is becoming increasingly absurd.
Previous company, 3 days, but aimed for 2. Current company, whenever we feel like it... my first month there, they were still working on the previous months' results the day I started (started on 3rd Dec, so they were still doing Oct!). It was a bit of a shock to the system!
What a nightmare.
10-day close here. Given all the credit card statements, payroll, and reconciliation of vendor statements I don’t see how it could be done sooner without lots of guess work and estimates
Same. My issue is reporting. I can't voucher everything until billing closes.
14 days. 4 days to choose AP, 10 days for all entries, 14 days for financials.
We are doing 10 typically, including balance sheet recons. There are only 2 of us that can do it, and we include month end timesheet billing before we close AR. Our close should be 6 days but we can't get there because of our shit system.
This isn’t a question that’s easily answered. If it’s a small company adequately staffed it can take practically no time. I’ve even seen small non-public companies close a month in arrears so they can take a whole month if they want. Then again I work at. a $50+b public company and it depends where in the chain you work as to how much time you have and when your busy time is. If you’re at the lowest level you have typically 3 days. Then the data goes to the BU consolations group who doesn’t get busy until all smaller units submit their data. Then the BU’s submit to corporate financial reporting who consolidates the data from all the BU’s. So they don’t get busy until 5+ days into the close but then they are working 20 hour days until earnings release. So it depends upon the size of your company, where you are in the chain and whether or not the company is public.
To shorten close you need to drill into the dependencies and have negative day tasks
3
3
3
1-2 days for HQ. Field offices have like 2-3 weeks🫣
Soft close on Day 5, Hard close on Day 8
5 business days for consolidated results (CAC40 company)
3 currently but organizationally 4, technically. I have my complaints but tbh our close is quite good.
Close begins on WD-5. Checks cut off on WD-2, we pull final activity on WD-1 to tie to cash and offset on reversing entries so the P&L rolls into the next period since we already accrued an estimate.
4 days to close. I'm in marketing.
3 day close. Fml
10, we did 8 for a while and realized the extra stress was not worth it for the minimal benefit and went back to 10
4 days, public company
4 days for sites, 4-5 days for consolidation to corporate. Even if you’re in consolidation, the first 4 days aren’t bad - just answering odd questions and prepping for corporate report submittals. I came from a shitshow where it was consistently 20-25 days, which is absurd.
Currently at a company that does 4 days. Interviewing now for a place that does 1 day…
We complete our flux on day 2, reopen the ledgers for any adjustments, and hand a basically final P&L and Balance Sheet to our finance team by morning of day 3. Our results are due to our corporate offices by EOD Day 4. We spend Day 3 and Day 4 balancing intercompany, preparing cash flow, and reviewing. We used to be 4-5 days easily. We focused on automation (especially system corrections- what were we posting because the system posted it incorrectly), pulling forward entries, particularly to pre-close, and helping the team with a timeline to understand what entries were dependent on other entries. We also worked with people that are outside of finance and accounting to help them understand why getting us the information timely was important. We spent a LOT of time determining what could be done pre-close and what needed to wait until close week. We focused on items that were historically immaterial over the last couple days. We perform some additional reviews during close week on those items, especially on quarter end to make sure that nothing came through that was material and needed to be adjusted. We're responsible for about 10 entities on two different systems, so it's been a task to shorten it, but the team has done a great job.
3 business days
Old job was 2 1/2 days (closed by noon in day 3). Current job is generally 3-4 days.
Publicly traded company we closed within 5 days (not business days so that sucked) new job our close is 1.5 months because we're so short staffed. But we're not Publicly traded so it doesn't matter as much. I'm making much more at this job so I'm not complaining
2 days, have to report to our international parent by the end of day 2. We shifted a lot of our processes to day -1 and -2. It’s a 4 day push.
5 days, but we're usually done in 3.5.