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If month-end close feels like running a marathon with no finish line in sight—a grueling, stress-filled stretch of late nights and constant rework—you’re not alone.
For many accounting teams, it’s a familiar scene: toggling between 15 open spreadsheets, cross-referencing line items, and chasing approvals through endless email threads. Just when you think you’re done, another discrepancy pops up, dragging you back into the fray.
Traditional methods, like juggling multiple spreadsheets and waiting for approvals from other departments, may have gotten accounting teams by in the past, but modern accounting demands something faster, smarter, and more efficient.
By addressing these five outdated habits, you can speed up your month-end close, reduce errors, and reclaim valuable time for higher-impact work. Let’s dive in!
1. Relying on spreadsheets for bank reconciliations
Why it’s a problem: Spreadsheets may be familiar, but they’re far from efficient. Accounting teams often deal with version control issues, manual data entry, and the constant risk of human error. When multiple team members are working in separate copies of the same file, it’s a recipe for confusion and mistakes. Without real-time updates, controllers and CFOs have no clear visibility into the close progress.
What to do instead: Automate your reconciliations. Modern accounting solutions that are native to your enterprise resource planning platform (ERP) can automatically match transactions and flag discrepancies, allowing your team to resolve issues quickly. With real-time visibility and a single source of truth, your team can focus on analysis, not data entry.
Did you know? 88% of spreadsheets contain errors, and finance teams spend over 40% of their time managing them. Switching to an automated reconciliation system significantly reduces both errors and time spent.
2. Chasing down approvals and supporting documents
Why it’s a problem: Tracking down approvals and supporting documents from other departments is one of the biggest bottlenecks during month-end close. Accountants send emails, Slack messages, and follow-up reminders to get what they need from accounts payable, accounts receivable, and procurement teams. The result? Delays, miscommunications, and extra stress. It’s an inefficient process that no one enjoys. After all, most of us didn’t become accountants to spend our valuable time herding cats!
What to do instead: Use an approval workflow system that centralizes document requests and tracks their status in real time. Instead of chasing down approvals, you’ll be able to see exactly where each request stands and automatically remind stakeholders when action is needed.
Fast fact: Controllers report that 44% of month-end delays are caused by waiting for approvals from other departments (source: Deloitte's "Global Accounting Close Trends Report").
3. Waiting until the end of the month to start the close process
Why it’s a problem: Many teams treat the month-end close like a "big push" event at the end of the month. Instead of closing continuously throughout the month, they leave most of the heavy lifting for the final week. This creates a massive time crunch that leads to overtime, missed deadlines, and errors caused by rushing.
What to do instead: Shift to a continuous close approach. With the rise of open banking, accounting teams can now reconcile accounts and match transactions daily, rather than waiting for month-end. This shift enables real-time data feeds and automated transaction matching, significantly reducing the burden on accounting teams. Automated tools can identify and flag issues in real-time, giving your team a chance to resolve them before they snowball.
The impact: According to Ernst & Young's "2023 Global Financial Close Report," organizations that adopt process automation and real-time tracking reduce their financial close cycle by an average of 3.5 days.
4. Manually reviewing and validating journal entries
Why it’s a problem: Manual review and validation of journal entries is one of the most time-consuming parts of the close process. Controllers and senior accountants spend hours scanning entries for anomalies, and even a single mistake can require hours of rework. This process is repetitive and tedious, pulling leaders away from strategic work.
What to do instead: Use automated validation tools with AI-powered anomaly detection. These systems flag unusual entries, so you can focus your attention where it matters most. Rules-based validation ensures that only anomalies are flagged, which reduces the time spent on manual review.
Efficiency boost: AI-based validation tools reduce journal entry review time by 30% to 50%, allowing controllers to spend more time on analysis and strategy.
5. Tracking close progress via emails and meetings
Why it’s a problem: If you’re relying on daily check-ins and "status update" emails to track close progress, you’re wasting valuable time. For controllers, it’s especially frustrating to lack clear oversight of progress and to have no single source of truth. They spend hours piecing together updates from multiple team members, only to be met with vague responses like "we’re still waiting on this" or "we’re 80% done." Without a centralized, real-time view of the process, blind spots emerge, slowing down the entire team and leaving controllers in the dark.
What to do instead: Use a month-end close dashboard to track progress in real-time. These dashboards provide full visibility into task completion, approval status, and pending items—without the need for daily check-ins or manual to-do lists. Automated notifications let stakeholders know when it’s their turn to take action.
The result: Teams that switch to automated close management software reduce status update meetings by 60%, freeing up time for more productive work (source: Ernst & Young’s "Global Financial Close Benchmark Study").
How to break free from these habits
If your team is stuck in one or more of these outdated habits, you’re not alone. But breaking free doesn’t require a full overhaul. Here’s how to start:
- Audit your current process: Identify which of the five habits are affecting your team the most.
- Start small: Don’t try to change everything at once. Start by tackling just one habit, like moving bank reconciliations to an automated system.
- Get buy-in from leadership: Controllers and CFOs need to see the ROI of process improvements, from faster closes to error reduction. Show them how optimizing the process can help mature your accounting function.
- Invest in technology: Modern accounting software can automate reconciliations, streamline approvals, and give you real-time visibility into progress—all from a single platform.
Break free of old habits and build a better close process
Outdated habits are slowing down your month-end close, but it doesn’t have to be that way. By addressing these five key habits, you can speed up your close, reduce errors, and give your team more time to focus on strategic initiatives.
Modernizing your close process can cut your close time in half and save 8 hours per week per team member.
What if during your next close, your team weren’t buried in spreadsheets, chasing approvals, or attending endless status meetings? What if instead, they’re focusing on high-impact analysis, relying on real-time dashboards that show exactly where the close stands at any given moment. Don’t settle for the same old process. Break free from spreadsheets, manual reviews, and endless status meetings. There’s a smarter way to close, and it’s within reach. You just need the right close accounting solutions.
Want to see how modern accounting teams are reimagining month-end close? Schedule a personalized demo with Netgain to see how you can reduce your close time and reclaim your nights and weekends.
