Want to know how you can deliver results fast, gaining maximum insights and drive business change all at a low cost and risk?

Follow this mini series of articles to find out how:

Chapter 1:

As a finance specialist, have you ever considered how delivering value and insights to management could help you develop your professional standing in your organisation? If not, taking on a project that is guaranteed to enhance and improve the way the finance function operates might be in your interest.

So, where do you start?

Well, you might want to consider your financial close process. How often do you open an Excel spreadsheet to manage your current process? Whether you manage the reconciliations of balance sheet accounts or the wider tasks associated with the periodic close, there is often too much of a reliance on Excel to organise and orchestrate the work and the people involved.  As well as the problems and risks associated with using Excel, i.e. it’s not in real-time, prone to error, difficult to share, not to mention the lack of end to end visibility. Often, it’s labour intensive, preventing you and your colleagues from doing what they should be doing – activities that add value.

Therefore, sponsoring and managing a project that streamlines and brings efficiency and visibility to the close period should get you noticed. It may also develop you into a leadership role, be it as the project sponsor or manager.

Did you know: “Top accounting and finance professionals are now expected to have (or at least to be developing) leadership experience, the ability to communicate with key stakeholders across the board and the ability to interpret and articulate findings from data.” Phil Sheridan, MD, Robert Half UK

The good news is that this is a low risk project. The technology to help you implement a seamless close process already exists, enabling you to achieve greater visibility, control and insights of the process whilst at the same time reducing risk and saving your company time and money.

Now surely that’s a good enough reason to give anyone a promotion?

Want to know more?

Then look out for the next editions of this blog series, where we’ll cover ‘How to start on transforming your close and be successful at it’ and ‘How to conclude on a project, identify what is next and get the all-important recognition’.

For now, why not simply observe and benchmark what happens during your next period end, see how much time is spent by management with emails and shared management spreadsheets, note the number of spreadsheets that are involved; 1, 2, 100? And how many balance sheet accounts go un-reconciled / unapproved? It may help you convince your team of ways to improve.

Read Chapter 2 here…