In some situations, and especially recently, many organizations will send their employees home to work remotely in the face of health concerns. But the need to work remotely isn’t new. In fact, 43% of employed Americans work from home, and the role of the accountant places in the top ten most common remote jobs in the U. S.¹

However, working remotely can present a set of complicated hurdles for the office of finance, namely with their financial close process.

Working Remotely: The Challenge

When accountants are spread out among different locations, the likelihood that their close will be completed in a timely and accurate manner significantly decreases. This is due primarily to the tools used to complete the process. While spreadsheets are the most common means to complete the process, they provide very little visibility into the close cycle. Spreadsheet usage causes unnecessary complexity and problems—such as bottlenecks, uneven task distribution, and repetitive tasks. This is true when accountants are sitting side-by-side in an office and exacerbated when they are working remotely.

And whether uncontrollable, external circumstances force employees to work from home—or if accountants choose to work remotely—spreadsheet usage only increases the difficulty and intricacy of the financial close process. When limited to this tool, accountants will find themselves constantly stuck in status update conferences or confused about an entry that was made and unable to get clarification. This leads to more time spent emailing to compare versions, meetings via phone, and re-entering data. Throughout this lengthy process, data can be entered incorrectly opening the door for fraud and restatement expenses.

The lack of ability to communicate while working remotely tacks even more time onto the close process—time that finance teams simply can’t afford.

A Better Automated Solution

Accounting teams need a tool that is flexible enough to accommodate their changing set of circumstances. A tool that allows CFOs and Controllers to track what their accountants are working on, what the completion status of those tasks are, and have access to documentation and commentary during the entire close cycle.

Trintech’s cloud-based solutions not only allows accountants to work together in a standardized, organized procedure, but grants CFOs and Controllers a set of controls and visibility into the close process through the convenience of simple dashboards. The dashboards can be accessed by a computer and a mobile device, so that, whether working in an office or working remotely, the office of finance can distribute tasks evenly and efficiently and keep the entire close progress on track.

To learn more about how financial close management software can grant you better visibility and control, speak with our experts today.

Written by: Ashton Mathai

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[1] Hess, A. (2018). These are the 14 most common remote jobs— here’s how much they pay. Retrieved March 12, 2020.

[2] Leung, S. (2014, September 15). Sorry, Your Spreadsheet Has Errors (Almost 90% Do). Retrieved March 12, 2020.