Fast Close: A Case of Financial Close Process Automation

Closing the book for the recent accounting period and issuing financial statements is one of the most common challenges for companies. This study examines a case of an automated financial close process and discusses issues related to its implementation. First, the study introduces the closing process of a case company including the purpose, improvement plan, and designing process. Second, the study discusses the impacts of the newly adopted system. Specifically, it reveals that under the new plan, close process automation has been maximized. It also shows that raw data validation has been improved so that past data errors can be categorized by their types and removed before the closing process begins. The order of the process has also been redefined saving closing time. Third and finally, difficulties and considerations for successful use of the system have been discussed. This study aims to provide useful information to companies which consider implementing more organized closing systems. We expect that this study will be helpful to small and medium enterprises which suffer from delayed closing but have little experience with automated BPM system.