Month-end close rarely overruns because of one huge problem. More often, it is a chain of small delays that build up across the finance team and the wider business.
An invoice sits in someone’s inbox waiting for approval. Finance has to chase a budget holder. Information needs to be pulled from another system. A spreadsheet has to be updated. Then the figures are checked, and checked again, because nobody is completely confident they are right.
Individually, none of these steps may seem too serious. Put them together, and the month-end close can take days longer than it should.
In this Finance Leaders Unplugged conversation, Inixion’s Jon Clarke and Gavin Roe discuss why month-end still takes so long for many finance teams. They both know the problem from the inside. Before becoming Sage Intacct consultants at Inixion, Jon was a Finance Director and Gavin a Financial Controller.
View the full video here, well worth approx 6 minutes of your time: https://youtu.be/5PJK_wqxM5g
A slow month-end close is usually a chain of small delays
As Gavin explains in the video, month-end is a chain. Every task depends on something else being completed first, often by somebody outside finance.
If an invoice has not been approved, it cannot be processed. If information has not arrived from another department, the accounts cannot be finalised. If data is held in several different systems, somebody has to collect and reconcile it before the team can move on.
The delay caused by each individual task may be small, but the cumulative effect is not. A close process also becomes difficult to manage when finance cannot easily see what is complete, what is outstanding and who owns the next action.
This is why simply asking the finance team to work faster rarely fixes the problem. The entire month-end close process needs to be considered, including the people, workflows and systems involved.
Waiting for approvals outside the finance team
Finance may own the month-end close, but it does not control every piece of information needed to complete it.
Managers and budget holders may need to review invoices, confirm expenditure or answer queries. When those approvals are managed through email, finance can spend a surprising amount of time checking inboxes, sending reminders and trying to establish who has or has not responded.
Why email-based approvals create bottlenecks
Email feels straightforward because everyone already uses it. The problems appear when an approval is time-sensitive or several people are involved.
Messages can be missed, forwarded or left unanswered. There is no single view of the process, and the finance team may not know whether an invoice is being reviewed or has simply been forgotten.
The result is more chasing, less control and a month-end timetable that depends heavily on individual inboxes.
Too many systems create more work at month-end close
Many finance teams have financial and operational information spread across their accounting software, spreadsheets, point-of-sale platforms, payroll tools, expense systems and other applications.
Each system may be doing a useful job, but problems arise when the information does not flow between them. Finance then becomes responsible for bringing it all together at the end of the month.
Gathering the data is only the beginning
Once the information has been collected, it still needs to be checked and reconciled. Data may have been entered differently in two systems or changed after it was exported. Figures may need to be copied into a spreadsheet or rekeyed into the finance system.
Every manual hand-off adds time and creates another opportunity for an error. If the process relies on one person knowing where a particular file is stored or how a spreadsheet works, it also creates a risk for the wider team.
A lack of trust leads to checking and rechecking
Jon and Gavin raise another important issue in the video: trust.
When finance leaders are not completely confident in the information they are receiving, they naturally check it. If the figures have passed through several systems and spreadsheets, they may check them again before sharing the results with the leadership team.
Those checks are not wasted effort if the underlying data is unreliable. The real problem is that the process has made them necessary.
A better month-end close should give the team confidence in where the data came from, what has changed and who approved it. Without that visibility, speeding up the close may feel like taking a risk with accuracy.
What does a better month-end close process look like?
Closing faster does not mean cutting corners. It means removing delays and unnecessary work while maintaining control over the numbers.
A more effective process will usually include:
- Clear ownership of each task
- Agreed deadlines across finance and the wider business
- Consistent approval workflows
- Visibility of outstanding actions
- Connected financial and operational systems
- Less rekeying and fewer spreadsheet-based workarounds
- Automation for repetitive processes
- Reliable, current reporting throughout the month
It is also worth reviewing the close process regularly. A workflow that suited the business two years ago may no longer work after growth, an acquisition, the creation of new entities or changes within the finance team.
How Sage Intacct helps finance teams close faster
Sage Intacct addresses many of the issues that make month-end slow. The exact configuration will depend on the organisation and the capabilities it needs, but the aim is the same: reduce manual work, improve visibility and give the finance team greater confidence in its information.
Keep invoice processing and approvals moving
Sage Intacct can replace approval trails managed through email and spreadsheets with structured workflows. Invoices and purchasing transactions can be routed to the appropriate people, helping the finance team see where an item is in the process rather than chasing it through individual inboxes.
Sage Intacct AP Automation can go further by capturing incoming bills, creating draft transactions, matching invoices to purchase orders and routing them for approval. This reduces manual entry and helps invoices enter the finance process earlier, rather than becoming a month-end backlog.
Connect financial and operational information
Sage Intacct can integrate with other business applications, reducing the need to export, rekey and reconcile information manually. Bringing financial and operational data together gives finance a more consistent view throughout the month, rather than forcing the team to assemble it only when the month end close begins.
The right integration design matters. Connecting systems without first understanding the process can simply move a problem somewhere else. This is why implementation should begin by mapping the current workflow, identifying the bottlenecks and agreeing what the improved process needs to achieve.
Report from current financial data
Real-time dashboards and dimensional reporting allow finance teams to review performance without rebuilding reports in Excel each month. Users can analyse financial and operational information by areas such as entity, department, location or project, depending on how Sage Intacct has been configured.
Having current information available during the month can also help the team spot discrepancies earlier. Problems found before the close are generally easier to resolve than a long list discovered on the final day.
Simplify multi-entity consolidation
For multi-entity organisations, consolidation can be one of the biggest month-end bottlenecks. Sage Intacct is designed to consolidate information across entities and can automate inter-entity transactions and eliminations.
This removes much of the spreadsheet work involved in bringing separate company accounts together and gives the group finance team a clearer consolidated view.
Add more structure to the close itself
Sage Intacct Close Automation is an additional AI-powered capability designed specifically for the month-end close. It uses shared checklists, task tracking and notifications to give the team real-time visibility of progress. It can also support reconciliations and variance analysis, helping potential issues surface earlier.
The Close agent helps track tasks, identify possible bottlenecks and guide users through the process. Importantly, finance remains in control: it does not post entries or make changes without approval.
Technology cannot make another department respond instantly, but it can make ownership clearer, automate reminders and show finance exactly where a delay is occurring.
Faster month-end means more time for analysis
The real prize is not simply saying that the accounts closed a day earlier.
When finance spends less time collecting data, chasing approvals and checking spreadsheets, the team has more time to understand what the numbers mean. Leaders receive useful information sooner, giving them more time to respond to changing performance, cash flow or costs.
That is where a faster month-end close becomes valuable to the whole organisation. Finance moves away from reporting what has already happened and has more time to help shape what happens next.
Is your finance system slowing down month-end?
If month-end takes too long, look at the whole chain rather than one isolated task. Where does the team wait? Which approvals need to be chased? Where is information rekeyed? Which figures are repeatedly checked because people do not trust the source?
These are often signs that the business has outgrown its current processes or finance system.
If you would like to explore whether Sage Intacct could help your team create a faster, more controlled month-end close, request a call back or get in touch with Inixion to continue the conversation.
