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Financial close automation for a multi-entity close that ties out first.
We draw your close calendar as your team runs it, handoff by handoff. The quote follows, once we have seen which reconciliations a person still does by hand.
Financial close automation moves the close's routine steps from a checklist into the platform.
Financial close automation puts task scheduling, reconciliation matching, intercompany matching and journal posting into the platform, and a person reviews the exceptions. Constancia, an EPM consultancy, does that work for groups whose close runs across several ledgers and has a date it keeps missing.
The close ties out on 4 rungs: local currency, translated, eliminated and consolidated. Automation starts on the lowest rung that agrees to its ledger. A rung that disagrees is data work, and we price it as data work before anything is automated above it.
Where entity accountants email their trial balances on day 4, the group team spends days 5 and 6 loading the files by hand. The close then waits on whichever entity sent the wrong version of its file.
A close loses its days in the handoffs, the reconciliations and the sign-off, and the platform can carry all 3.
A handoff is 1 person sending a file to another person, and the survey counts every 1 of them.
01
The handoffs between entity and group are where the close calendar slips.
The platform pulls each trial balance from its ledger on the day the entity closes, and the calendar records the pull as a dated event. The entity accountant then confirms the load, and nobody emails a file.
- Each ledger loads on a schedule, with the load time and the loader recorded
- A task list per entity, so the group team sees on day 2 which entity is late
- 1 version of every trial balance, held in the platform
02
The routine reconciliations match themselves, and a person reviews the exceptions.
Bank, intercompany and sub-ledger reconciliations run on rules the group financial controller set, and the ones that agree within tolerance close without a person. Anything outside tolerance lands in 1 queue with the preparer's name on it.
- Account reconciliation software inside the platform, on the balances the close uses
- Tolerances set once by name and visible to the auditor
03
The sign-off names the person who stands behind each period's numbers.
Every task, reconciliation and journal in the close carries a preparer and a reviewer, and the period locks when the last reviewer signs. The record of who signed what, and when, is the audit trail the auditor asks for in week 1.
- A period that locks, so a late journal is a new dated entry
- The group financial controller signs the consolidated result, by name
- An auditor who reads the trail in the platform, without a sample request
- A reopened period recorded as a reopened period
5 stages take a close off its checklist, and the survey draws the calendar first.
- 01
Survey
We watch 1 close from day 1 to sign-off, and we draw every handoff, every reconciliation done by hand and every workbook on a calendar.
- 02
Price
The price covers the handoffs and reconciliations the calendar showed, and it holds when a ledger turns out harder to read than its documentation.
- 03
Design
The design sets the task list, the reconciliation rules, the tolerances and the sign-off route, each with a named owner in your team.
- 04
Build
The same consultants configure the task schedule, the matching rules and the journal posting on the platform your consolidation runs on.
- 05
Parallel run
Your team runs the automated close beside the manual one for a full period, and the automated close takes over when the 2 agree.
Nobody joins the programme after the survey, so the person who drew your calendar is the person who configures it.
4 signs in a group's close tell us automation will pay back.
- 01
A close that ends in 1 person's workbook
The last mile of the close runs in a spreadsheet, and the group total exists nowhere else until that person saves it.
Read about consolidation - 02
Reconciliations counted in hundreds
Bank, intercompany and sub-ledger reconciliations run into 3 figures a month, and a reviewer signs each 1 on paper or by email.
- 03
A date the close has to hit
An audit, a first quarterly report as a listed company or an integration has set the day the close has to reach.
Read about statutory reporting - 04
A platform the consolidation already runs on
OneStream (EPM software) or its CPM Express edition already holds the group numbers, and the close still runs around it by email.
Read about AI in the close
A single entity closing 1 ledger has a close its ERP already runs, and automation adds little to it.
The close automates on OneStream, and Abacum reads the closed actuals, so the structure decides which you need.
OneStream (EPM software)
The close, the reconciliations and the consolidation in 1 platform
- For a group with several ledgers, intercompany between them and a consolidation to run
- Task lists, matching and journal posting on the same balances the consolidation reads
- 1 sign-off route from the entity accountant to the group financial controller
Abacum (FP&A software)
The closed actuals, landing in the plan the day the period locks
- For a group whose consolidation is settled and whose close ends when FP&A receives the actuals
- Actuals loaded from the locked ledgers, so the variance commentary starts the day after close
- Abacum does not consolidate, and the close itself stays in the ERP or the EPM platform
Constancia is an official partner of OneStream and Abacum, and the survey says which of the 2 your close needs.
Finance teams ask these questions about close automation before they buy.
What is financial close in finance?
A financial close locks each entity's ledger for a period, with every account reconciled and every journal posted, so the balances can be reported. The group consolidation then reads those locked ledgers, and the board pack reads the consolidation.
What does financial automation mean?
Financial automation means a system performs a finance task on a rule and a person reviews the result. In the close the tasks are the ledger loads, the matching, the journal posting and the reminders, and the person reviews whatever fell outside tolerance.
How long should month end close take?
The length of a close depends on how many handoffs it contains, because each handoff costs a day while 1 person waits for another's file. A group closing 12 entities through 3 handoffs apiece has 36 places to lose a day, and automation removes that count.
How to shorten the month-end closing process?
Shorten the close by removing handoffs, and start with the loads: pull each ledger on a schedule so nobody emails a trial balance. Then put the routine reconciliations on rules and move the sign-off into the platform, in that order.
What is reconciliation automation?
Reconciliation automation is software matching 2 sets of balances on rules and passing the unmatched items to a person. The pairs are a bank statement and a cash ledger, or 1 entity's receivable and another's payable. The group financial controller owns the rules and tolerances, and the auditor can read them.
What is FMS in ERP?
FMS stands for financial management system, the module of an ERP that holds the general ledger, payables and receivables for 1 entity. A group with 3 ERPs has 3 FMS ledgers, and the close automation on this page sits above all 3.
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