Account Reconciliation Automation
We have an old Audi A-4. A 225,651 mile, old Audi.
It’s a great car in the fact that it keeps taking what we give it. We like it for its five-speed manual transmission and its six-cylinder engine.
Admittedly, the pick up of those six cylinders is not the same as our new Audi’s. Oh, and did I mention that the check-engine light has been on for over a year now?
The check-engine light, at least when it first came on was due to a particular issue that the mechanic said to not worry about. Now though, it may be on for a multitude of other reasons.
Keeping the car, with all of its issues, allow us to maintain the status quo. It also means we live with a level of risk.
Maintaining the status quo within your month-end close process is very similar to driving around with the check-engine light on. You and your team keep taking what regulations, growth, and faster closes give you. You are not operating as efficiently as you were. Yet, you live with it. You live with risk.
Someday an auditor may dig deeper and make you face that little worry riding around on your shoulders. All those closes where you know you did not reconcile every account. All those times your accounting team had to work on the weekends.
You made the close deadline.
You’re confident in the numbers; at least in the ones you reconciled and reviewed.
Account reconciliation automation is a very easy way to improve your financial-close process. By its very nature, it builds in the checks and balances required of today’s top finance teams. Dashboards even allow you to see what is happening and alert you, similar to a check-engine light, to any variances.
Many mechanics call the check-engine light an idiot light. I see it as a reminder light. “Remember – you are choosing the status quo when everyone, even the idiot light, knows you should choose better.”