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Perspective:
Perspective
03 Nov 2025
7 minute read

Streamlining the Financial Close: Six Key Elements

Enhancing Efficiency for Finance Professionals

Achieving a highly efficient financial close, consolidation, and reporting process requires a strong controllership function. This guide identifies six key elements and best practices, along with practical tips and technological solutions for improvement.

High-performing finance teams share common approaches to transforming their financial close processes. But what constitutes exceptional performance in closing, consolidation, and reporting? This guide outlines six foundational elements and leading practices, enhanced by emerging technologies, to optimise and achieve peak financial close performance.

Single standardised source of truth

A standardised, unified data structure is fundamental to efficient financial management. Eliminating disparate data sources and manual reconciliation significantly improves access to real-time financial insights, enabling faster, more informed decision-making. This approach also enhances financial transparency and agility by ensuring data consistency and accuracy.

  • Adopting a global reporting and data standard: Implementing a consistent standard across the organisation ensures data integrity and simplifies reporting.
  • Automating reconciliations with machine learning: Leveraging automation and machine learning streamlines the reconciliation process, reducing manual effort and improving accuracy.
  • Real-time financial reporting with self-service capabilities: Providing management and operational teams with real-time access to financial data, through self-service tools, empowers them to make data-driven decisions.
  1. Document the current state: A thorough assessment of existing data structures and processes is crucial for effective planning.
  2. Consult with teams and end-users: Gathering feedback from stakeholders ensures the new system meets their needs and addresses any reporting challenges.
  3. Define current and future reporting requirements: Clearly defining the purpose and usage of reports helps to shape the design of the new data structure.
  4. Develop data definition and segmentation rules: Establishing clear rules for data definition and segmentation ensures data consistency and accuracy.

Simplified System Landscape

A streamlined technology ecosystem is crucial for operational efficiency and adaptability. Leading organisations invest in scalable platforms that integrate cutting-edge technologies while maintaining cost-effectiveness. Simplifying the technology architecture not only boosts efficiency but also better positions finance teams to support strategic growth.

  • Building a high-quality, harmonised data structure: Employing auto-mapping and derivation logic ensures data consistency and accuracy across the system. This approach allows for scalability and futureproofing, enabling adaptation to technological advancements.
  • Real-time connectivity: Real-time transaction capture provides continuous, up-to-date financial insights, supporting faster decision-making.
  1. Document the current technical architecture: A comprehensive understanding of the existing system is essential for effective planning.
  2. Assess current and future technology needs: Identifying current and potential future uses of technology helps to inform system design and ensure long-term suitability.
  3. Gather stakeholder perspectives: Collecting diverse viewpoints from end-users, report recipients, the CFO, and senior leadership ensures a holistic understanding of requirements and challenges. This collaborative approach helps to avoid potential pitfalls and ensures buy-in from key stakeholders.

Seamless Close Process

The financial close process is undergoing a significant transformation, moving from a manual, time-intensive task to an automated, continuous cycle. Leading organisations are adopting near-touchless close processes, significantly improving accuracy, compliance, and efficiency. This not only enhances reliability but also frees up finance teams to focus on higher-value activities such as analysis and strategic decision-making.

  • Streamlined processes and enhanced governance: Reducing complexity and implementing robust governance structures with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, including deadlines, is crucial.
  • Leveraging digital tools: Utilising applications and dashboards to monitor the close process and reduce reporting times improves efficiency and transparency.
  1. Identify current process challenges: A thorough assessment of the existing close process is necessary to pinpoint areas for improvement.
  2. Define standard close requirements: Clearly documenting the requirements for standard closes, including commentary requirements for the profit and loss (P&L) account and balance sheet (B/S), ensures consistency and accuracy.
  3. Benchmark process times: Measuring and documenting the time taken for each step in the process provides a baseline for evaluating improvements and identifying bottlenecks.

Process and Data Governance

As finance functions become increasingly reliant on data, robust governance is paramount to ensuring accuracy, compliance, and operational efficiency. Organisations with well-defined financial processes (including clear ownership, timelines, and deliverables) are better equipped to maintain high standards of control, strengthen financial integrity, mitigate risk, and foster accountability.

  • Comprehensive process documentation and training: Creating well-documented processes and providing comprehensive training with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, timelines, deliverables, and controls is essential.
  • Organisational support for data quality: Securing organisational support for training, governance initiatives, and data quality reporting is crucial for successful implementation.
  • Leveraging advanced data tools: Implementing advanced tools for data creation, storage, consolidation, and user access enhances efficiency and security.
  1. Develop a process documentation library: Creating a central repository for current process documentation provides a single source of truth and facilitates knowledge sharing.
  2. Gather stakeholder perspectives: Collecting diverse viewpoints from end-users and all levels of leadership, including the CFO, provides a comprehensive understanding of current processes and governance practices.
  3. Identify existing challenges: Documenting current challenges in processes and governance helps to prioritise areas for improvement and inform the development of solutions.

Flexible Analytics

Advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming financial insight generation. By implementing clearly defined metrics, real-time analytical tools, and AI-driven predictive modelling, organisations can gain on-demand business insights. This provides deeper visibility into financial performance and future trends to enhance decision-making. AI-powered tools can also help anticipate potential challenges, such as supply chain vulnerabilities or optimising financial planning scenarios, allowing for proactive action. This access to on-demand insights transforms finance teams from mere record-keepers into strategic partners driving business success.

  • Clearly Defined Metrics and Benchmarks: Establish clearly defined metrics with documented processes and benchmarks to ensure consistent measurement and accurate interpretation of results
  • Real-time Analytical Tools: Implement on-demand analytical tools to provide real-time insights, enabling agile responses to changing business conditions.
  1. Assess the Current Analytics Landscape: Document the organisation's current analytics capabilities, identifying strengths and weaknesses.
  2. Define Future Analytics Needs: Clearly articulate future analytics requirements, considering factors such as M&A strategy, speed of insight generation, and the need for deeper market analysis.

Platform for Growth

In today's rapidly changing business landscape, finance functions must build agile platforms capable of adapting to evolving needs, emerging business models, and new opportunities. A technology-driven approach to financial operations facilitates seamless integration with new business models, M&A activities, and evolving regulatory requirements. Organisations that design platforms for interoperability and flexible integration with new systems are best positioned for sustained growth and navigating the complexities of the future of finance.

  • Robust Technology Governance: Implement a robust technology governance framework that adheres to standard maintenance and upgrade schedules, ensuring system stability and security
  • Connectivity and Interoperability: Design the technology landscape to ensure seamless connectivity and interoperability with other technologies, promoting data sharing and efficient workflows
  • Flexible Integration Capabilities: Ensure the platform's flexibility to integrate with new technologies, including those acquired through M&A activity, to maintain adaptability and avoid integration challenges.
  1. Assess the Current Technology Landscape: Thoroughly understand the current technology landscape, identifying its strengths, weaknesses, and challenges.
  2. Review Technology Governance: Validate the governance of current maintenance cycles and asset upgrade schedules to ensure they are effective and aligned with business needs.
  3. Identify Future Technology Needs: List potential future technology needs and any gaps in the current technical landscape to inform strategic technology investments.

Key Findings from Attendees

To gain a broader understanding of current financial close practices, we conducted various polls among our audience during the webinar. The results offer valuable insights into common challenges and opportunities for improvement. Let's delve into the analysis of the findings:

Poll 1: What is the duration of your quarter-end close — the number of days from Workday 1 of the month to final consolidated P&L (GL close + consolidation)?

Poll 2: In the next 12 months, what is likely to be the greatest challenge to your organisation’s efforts to automate its financial close processes?

Poll 3: Which stage of your organisation’s financial close process do you believe could benefit the most from automation?

Poll 4: Which of the six leading practice themes for financial close optimisation are your highest priority for improvement?

Poll 5: Which record-to-report process area are you prioritising for AI deployment?

Get in touch

Simon Atherton

Simon Atherton

Director
+44 (0)16 1455 6083
Anjali Manuel

Anjali Manuel

Associate Director
+44 (0) 20 8071 0453

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