How Savvy Accounting Strategies Accelerate the Financial Close

For finance leaders, not many responsibilities are as stressful (or as important) as closing the books. The financial close aims to make sure statements are accurate, compliant, and ready for reporting. For many organizations, however, this task can stretch on for weeks, drain resources, and leave little time for thoughtful analysis or planning.

Why the Financial Close Is So Challenging

The financial close is anything but simple. Accounting teams have to record all transactions, reconcile internal records with financial statements, adjust entries for accruals and deferrals, consolidate statements from several departments, and finalize reports.

“Collecting and booking invoices from vendors is typically one of the hardest processes. Most companies have 25 to 100 or more vendors a month, and gathering, booking, and analyzing all that data is hugely time-consuming,” according to John Gronen, CFO at Yooz in a ResourcefulFinancePro webinar, “From Weeks to Days: Accelerating the Financial Close with Smart AP Strategies”.

Manual AP processes exacerbate delays, introduce errors, and create a lack of real-time visibility. That leaves CFOs and finance teams essentially guessing during the financial close. In fact, research shows:

• 25% of finance leaders lack confidence in the accuracy of their financial data each month
• 22% say their data isn’t accurate enough to support informed decision-making
• 31% admit they don’t have access to all the historical data within their AP systems.

These sorts of gaps result in longer financial close cycles, inefficient cash flow management, and greater compliance risks.

Growing Complexity Demands Smarter Solutions

The move to more remote work options, evolving accounting standards, and increasing audit demands have made the close even more complicated. For growing businesses, this complexity can get overwhelming in no time flat.

“At $20 or $30 million in revenue, you can get away with simpler processes,” Gronen noted. “But as you scale, complexity balloons. Automation lets you stay ahead without having to continually add headcount.”

Mergers and acquisitions add another layer of difficulty to already complex processes. Different systems, policies, and tools need to be merged, which often leads to inconsistencies in data. A strategic approach to automation and integration enables CFOs to centralize processes while keeping disruption to a minimum.

Four Best Practices for a Faster Close

Gronen and Mark Brousseau, President of Brousseau & Associates, outlined four strategies finance leaders can use to cut the close cycle from weeks to days:

1. Optimize Processes

• Identify bottlenecks in AP and finance workflows.
• Standardize and document procedures across all departments.
• Aim for consistent review in order to adapt processes as the business evolves.

2. Automate Procure-to-Pay (P2P)

• Use AI and machine learning to capture invoice data automatically.
• Route invoices intelligently and resolve exceptions quickly.
• Flag duplicate or fraudulent invoices before they slip through the cracks.

As Gronen emphasized, “Automation buys back time for employees without needing to scale up headcount. That’s a huge cost advantage.”

3. Ensure Seamless Integration

• Choose AP solutions that connect with your ERP or accounting system.
• Maintain real-time data flow for accuracy and visibility.
• Enable collaborative tools that reduce endless email back and forth.

4. Invest in Training and Analytics

• Provide ongoing training so staff stay current on processes and policies.
• Utilize analytics to monitor KPIs, cash flow, and spending patterns.
• Track financial close metrics to shorten cycle times on a routine basis.

Making It Happen: Your First 90 Days

Knowing you need to change is one thing; actually doing it is another. Instead of trying to boil the ocean, you can get real results by breaking down the work into a few focused sprints.

First Month: Map Your Pain Points

Before you can fix the financial close process, you have to know where it’s actually broken. Grab the people who live this work every day – your AP clerks, staff accountants, and Controller – and get them in a room. Map out every single step of your current process, from the moment a purchase order is requested to when the payment goes out the door. Your goal is to find the snags. Ask:

• Is it time wasted chasing down managers for approvals?
• Is it the soul-crushing manual data entry from PDFs?

Put a number on it. Figure out how many hours are lost to these tasks. That data is what you’ll use to get the buy-in you need for the right solution.

Second Month: Run a Smart Pilot

Don’t try to fix everything at once. Pick your biggest headache from the mapping session and run a pilot program to solve it. For most finance teams, that’s getting invoices into the system and routed for approval. As you look at automation tools, make sure they check three non-negotiable boxes:

• they must plug seamlessly into your ERP
• use smart AI to read invoices automatically, and
• have flexible workflows you can actually customize.

Test the software with a single, tech-friendly department or a handful of your highest-volume vendors. A successful pilot proves the concept, shows a clear return, and creates supporters who will help you champion a wider rollout.

Third Month & Beyond: Scale and Elevate Your Team

Once your pilot is a clear win, it’s time to go wide. This phase is less about the technology and all about empowering your people. This is the moment your team transitions from being data-entry focused to becoming true financial analysts. Train them to use the new system’s dashboards to monitor cash flow, track accruals in real time, and spot spending anomalies. Start tracking the metrics that really matter, like:

• your all-in cost per invoice, or
• how many days you’ve shaved off the close.

This is how the financial close stops being a backward-looking chore and becomes a forward-looking strategic advantage.

The Role Emerging Tech Plays

Advances in AI and cloud-based solutions are taking the way finance teams work to another level. Today’s tools reduce errors and improve visibility, from automatic reconciliation to real-time fraud detection.

Cloud platforms also enable collaboration across remote or distributed teams to ensure everyone works from the same source of truth.

Automation is no longer just for large enterprises. Flexible, invoice-based pricing means companies of all sizes can access the same capabilities once reserved for Fortune 500 firms.

Financial Close in Days, Not Weeks

When finance teams stick to spreadsheets and manual inputs, the close can stretch to 20 to 30 days. Best-in-class organizations, on the other hand, tend to close within 3 to 10 days. That benchmark is increasingly achievable with the right AP automation processes.

A faster financial close also means:

• More time for analysis and forecasting
• Greater stakeholder confidence
• Stronger compliance and audit readiness
• Improved agility in uncertain markets

“The financial close is not a set-it-and-forget-it process,” according to Brousseau. “It’s a continuous cycle of improvement. With the right AP strategies, you can eliminate friction, reduce errors, and get started on the right foot every period.”