Speeding up the Accounting CloseNovember 28, 2017 by Kim Haythornthwaite

Accounting Teams! Don’t be judged by your Close Times any longer  

Accounting teams are judged by close times. The ideal goal is to close under 3 days and a good close time is 7 days or less. Your goal should be a 3 day close time. However there may be several reasons why your accounting department may not be close to or able to reach that goal.

During a recent trip to Collaborate Canada, the user group event for Microsoft Dynamics GP users in Canada, I touched on several issues we see when speaking with accounting professionals and why that 3 day close time is so elusive.

Firstly, there is a reason why checklists are so handy. The checklist was created in the early years of flight when getting an aircraft into the air was nerve-racking and airplanes were becoming more complex to fly and several unnecessary deaths of pilots resulted. Major Hill from the US Army Air Corps’ Chief of Flight Testing created the first pilot’s checklist with step-by-step checks for takeoff, flight, landing and taxiing. Having a checklist saved many lives then and do today where they are used extensively throughout many industries.

That’s why should use them in your accounting department too. Not having a well-documented consistent close process or a great check list almost dooms you to failure.

Here are some additional issues that affect your close rate that you need to consider:

• Not fully understanding the close process in the accounting system or how to speed it up/where to focus
• Dealing with all the last minute exceptions and having to sort through what caused these exceptions in the first place
• Multi-Currency conversions and calculations slow you down
• Multi-company balancing and intercompany transactions
• Not having an easy way to handle recurring and reversing entries
• Poor integrations or lack of integration between other systems which cause delays
• Lost time trying to balance accounts such as credit card gateways and settlement reports.

Aside for taking simple steps, such as creating your close Checklist, other solutions are available for a faster close time:

• Find technology solutions that can help with your close.
• Have your accounting team continuously reconciling daily or weekly some of the more troublesome accounts like the bank account.

• Have a well-documented process which is consistently updated and includes all the steps necessary to close the books (that handy checklist!).
• Continually review your close process and identify technology to automate some of the tedious, repetitive tasks.
• Run interim reports to trouble shoot as you go.
• Change the frequency of reconciling some of your more troublesome accounts. Examples of these could be your bank reconciliation or intercompany accounts
• Spend some money on integration technology between other systems. This could be as simple as a live integration of currency conversions or building out integrations between your existing technology. 
• Find ways to easily auto post journal transactions, excel spreadsheets, credit card bills and bank statements into your general ledger
• Create reports that can help balance the systems on a daily or weekly basis
• The ability to do recurring entries helps speed up the close process. Enter it once, repeat 11 times to cover the remainder of the year, done.

At Nolan Business Solutions, we specialize in technology solutions that help shorten your close time whether you’re using Microsoft Dynamics GP or NetSuite.

Firstly, Nolan Advanced Bank Reconciliation for Microsoft Dynamics GP and NetSuite

In a simple-to-use and intuitive reconciliation window, ABR displays GL and bank statement transactions side-by-side.

Advanced Bank Reconciliation addresses the following close time issues:

• Creates a strong bank reconciliation close process
• Eliminates dealing with last minute exceptions
• Allows for an easy integration of cash transactions from 3^rd party systems
• Handles Multi-Currency easily
• Auto posts recurring transactions like bank fees and sweeps
• Speeds up reconciles through automation

Nolan Intercompany for Microsoft Dynamics GP

With Nolan Business Solutions’ InterCompany Postings, Microsoft Dynamics GP users are able to quickly and easily post transactions between different companies and different accounts with Dynamics GP. You’ll never again have to worry that an offsetting batch was deleted. With Nolan’s InterCompany Postings module, intercompany transactions are automatically carried through where needed and superior drill-down capability provides complete audit trail on those types of transactions.

Nolan Intercompany addresses the following close time issues:

• Posting are always balanced when posted
• Parent and child companies are always in balance
• No more lost time looking for stray transactions
• Multi-currency enabled which saves you from complex month end calculations
• We’ve created a series of videos that show you how these automation tools fills the functionality gaps in Dynamics GP.

Our team of consultants have created a number of video resources to show you how these tools work.

Microsoft Dynamics GP Advanced Bank Reconciliation: Watch Now

Microsoft Dynamics GP InterCompany Postings: Watch Now

If you’re interested in exploring any of these tools, please contact us at: ussales@nolanbusinesssolutions.com 

By Kim Haythornthwaite, General Manager, Nolan Business Solutions, an international solution provider of automation tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP to help Accounting Departments speed up their close.

 

 

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