|
|
|
The financial and accounting close is marred by inefficiencies and delays with the average organization taking 12 days to close the books. Many companies have an interest in not only shortening the close process, but improving the quality of the data and dedicating additional time to analysis and forecasting.
In recent years, there has been an increased focus on the close cycle. Besides serving as a measuring stick to benchmark the closing process against other organizations, it has also become a lightening rod for criticism as companies are forced to supply more information to internal and external stakeholders in a compressed timeframe. Much has been written about the concept of a virtual close whereby companies close their books and produce financial reports at any time during the month with little more than the push of a button. Motorola and Cisco have popularized the virtual close and the technology sector, industry analysts, and consultants have hyped its benefits. The general concept of a virtual close may be attractive to CFOs; however, achieving and sustaining it carries a significant price tag and can be extremely time consuming to implement with little assurance of a return. Improving the record to report process puts less emphasis on the overall length of the closing cycle. Instead, the focus is on the quality of data, incremental process improvements and the utilization of the existing technical architecture.
Please login below to access
the full text of this paper. If you are not currently an online member or subscriber
sign-up today, it's free. For online membership, click
here.
|
|
|
|
