Closing Monthly and Year-End Accounts Course
Corporate Finance, Banking and Auditing

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Closing Monthly and Year-End Accounts Course
Course Overview:
The course entitled ‘Closing Monthly and Year End Accounts’ looks into how professionals can understand the importance of a fast close for decision making in the finance and operational processes of a business.
By the end of this coursent, participants will be able to automate and de donee h e monthly and year end closing activities, faster, and more precisely.
The course includes the closing best practices, strategies, and tools that could be applied in the closing process understating the closing problems and the solutions offered by IT and standardization. Also, it focuses on the challenge of establishing and improving relations with the users of internal and external financial information and the never-ending quest to make the closing process more efficient in order to improve the quality of reported financial results.
All presidents, accountants, financial statement preparers to finance management will benefit from this course in a practical way by being able to use the acceleration techniques of financial closing periods towards the improved performance of the organization.
Course Objectives:
At the end of this Closing Monthly and Year-End Accounts Course, learners will be able to do:
- Understand the importance of the fast close process on financial and operational decision-making within an organization
- Examine fast close processes, strategies, and best practices as well as consideration of organizational documentation policies and procedures
- Understand the importance of departmental requirements for financial reporting as well as the need for on-going improvements to the closing process
- Provide faster and more accurate data for monthly and year-end account closings with the goal of enhancing communication with internal and external financial statement users
Who Should Attend?
This course is beneficial for:
- Any professional involved in the preparation of financial statements, including financial controllers, finance managers, senior accountants, management accountants, general ledger accountants, and assistant accountants, and accounts receivable and accounts payable accountants and assistant accountants
- Operational professionals acting upon the financial decisions of others, who will gain an appreciation for the fast close process
- Financial systems analysts
- Financial and operational business re-engineering professionals
- Professionals who are held accountable for financial performance and the integrity
Course Outlines:
Introduction to Fast Close Concepts
- Different types and benefits
- Steps needed to achieve a fast close
- Analyzing and reviewing the current closing process
- Redesigning the closing cycle
- Finance function stakeholders, redesign and solutions
- Examining the needs of stakeholders
- Scope of problems for organizations
- Process improvement practices
- Process redesign tools and techniques
Developing a Fast Close Strategy
- Examining closing activities and requirements
- Best practices in attaining fast close, soft close, and virtual close
- Optimizing charts of accounts and journal entry requirements
- Organizing corporate resources to achieve fast close
- Identifying potential roadblocks
Managing Change and Utilizing Technology in Redesigning and Monitoring the Finance Function
- Standardization, customization, and centralization
- Reviewing paradigms and the difficulties of effecting changes
- Using technology to improve the organizational redesign
Operational Implementation of a Fast Close
- Examining the pre-close and fast close processes
- Adopting benchmark and other measurement standards, including key performance indicators
- Documenting fast close processes incorporating the utilization of checklists
Financial Reporting and On-Going Improvements to the Closing Process
- Design and implementation of controls needed for financial reporting
- Improving the closing process and adopting improvement measurements
- Identifying management reporting criteria
- Summary of the program