Fast Closing and Monthly and Year End Accounts Course

Course Overview:

This Fast Closing and Monthly/Year-End Accounts Training is intended to prepare the practitioner on how to accelerate the financial closing exercise.

Those attending the session will focus on fast closing strategies such as the relevance of fast closing in decision making and how and when to report efficiently and accurately.

This includes how to formulate a fast close plan, handle change, and apply technology to make the process better. It focuses also on stakeholder engagement, process improvement and measurement in closing cycle performance to ensure forward movement.

This is suitable to professionals in the finance department who prepare reports, analyze systems, or involve in business process combinations, all in the quest to optimize operational activities and interactions with both internal and external actors.

Course Objectives:

At the end of this Fast Closing and 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 training course is suitable for a wide range of professionals but will greatly benefit:

• 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

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 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

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