Financial Close

Your financial close process is tried, tested and true. Or maybe you always thought it was—until the world came face to face with a pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it’s brought to the working environment have shed new light on the monthly financial close process. By adding fresh pressures it revealed challenges that have always been there. And some teams have started stepping up as a result, to improve their month-end close and the processes that support it—Vena’s own team included. “It exposed a lot of inefficiencies in our process … things we thought we had down,” Vena’s Chief Finance Officer, Darrell Cox, admitted in Excel at More with Financial Close, part of Vena’s recent Financial Close Livestream—now available on demand to members of Vena’s Plan to Grow platform. “And maybe we weren't taking full advantage of the systems that we had.” At Vena, Darrell admits, the pandemic has permanently changed our financial close process. We’ve added new month-end close best practices and efficiencies that will continue to inform the process even as the workplace starts to return to normal.  And from what we’ve seen, we’re not the only ones.  Adding New Pressures  Remember the days when you’d look over your shoulder and shout a question out to your colleague, maybe asking about a specific transaction or a missing statement? It was probably just standard operating procedure—especially for smaller teams. That is, until workforces went remote and informal communications like these were no longer an option. With teams dispersed and everyone working from their separate homes, suddenly those ad hoc communications weren’t possible anymore. In this new remote financial close environment, teams had to find better ways to communicate. But that was just one new pressure that affected the month-end close schedule. “Proximity was over, distributing information and making decisions got harder and meetings got out of hand,” Darrell said of the new pandemic reality. In this new environment, the need for a more defined month-end close process was revealed—as were several obstacles getting in the way of that happening. And the realities of a remote work environment meant those obstacles suddenly couldn’t be ignored. Become a Plan To Grow Member Watch all the on-demand content from our recent Financial Close Livestream at Plan To Grow. Meeting the Challenges Head On Four common challenges have long been a reality of the financial close process. But the pandemic has inspired many finance teams to tackle them head on—introducing changes that promise to improve their financial close process now and in the future. 1. Poor Collaboration Let’s face it, those over-the-shoulder conversations probably weren’t the most efficient way of communicating with colleagues. They were still helping to facilitate collaboration throughout the financial close process, though. But as the pandemic progressed and companies embraced remote work they weren’t possible anymore—exposing holes in how teams collaborate around their financial close. Without true visibility into data, as well as team tasks and schedules, effective collaboration can be challenging, especially during a remote month-end close. What’s Changing While there was a lot of wasted time on unnecessary (and unwanted) meetings early on in the pandemic, more collaborative technology and processes that facilitate communication have been able to replace that for many organizations. When led by strong leadership that champions their usage across the board, common tools and processes with collaboration built in can help set a new standard and improve communication around the month-end close—whether you’re working remotely or not. In fact, with those in place this evolution promises a more transparent and collaborative financial close environment even once restrictions are lifted.   2. Lack of Automation Speed is essential in any financial close. You want to do a good job and avoid errors, of course, but you also need to get the month closed out as quickly as possible. To accomplish those goals, finance teams have relied on their own processes and shortcuts—and making changes to those has risked interfering with their month-end close timeline. Which means that teams, pre-pandemic, would have balked at any kind of change—even when that change comes in the form of automation that promises to add new efficiencies in the long run. Change has been impossible to avoid over the past two years, though—and keeping up with that change has meant embracing automation tools. What’s Changing The pandemic has revealed “deficiencies in automated processes” across finance—while making those processes especially critical. Not only do team members no longer see each other in person every day, but illness and the Great Resignation have left many teams short staffed, while the reality of living in a pandemic has meant the team members remaining are often overwhelmed. The organizations that have been able to streamline their financial close through automation have been able to remove some of that pressure. By focusing automation efforts on repetitive, overly manual or time-consuming tasks, you can make the entire monthly close process more efficient and begin to standardize it across the entire team. New technologies, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), can also help create fresh ways to improve your close process.  3. Disconnected Data Disconnected data is a problem for a lot of finance and operations teams, across all processes—including your financial close. Missing and poor quality data is a familiar issue, while tracking down the right data has long been a headache. A pandemic hasn’t made any of that easier, adding new pressures as dispersed teams working remotely try to get the data they need from different sources around the globe. This means it’s become more necessary than ever to get those data problems in order. What’s Changing The pandemic hasn’t solved our data problems. In fact, our 2021 Industry Benchmark Report shows that finance teams are still struggling with disconnected data and are missing a unified strategy on how they create, maintain, control and use data. But the need for remote processes, including a remote financial close, has added new urgency to the need for such a strategy, as well as processes that will ensure the right data is coming to you monthly—when and how you need it. 4. Disparate Systems and Processes If you have dispersed teams working around the world, it’s not uncommon for each of them to be using a different technology and/or processes to close their books. And that makes collaborating, consolidating data and introducing the automation you need even more difficult. All of that was true pre-pandemic, of course, but it became clearer when added to the other pressures that have come to light over the past couple of years. Without a common process and shared financial close software, communication and transparency become even more difficult to accomplish, adding pressure to the month-end close process—and, as a result, your team. What’s Changing The pandemic has forced many organizations to review their existing financial close software in order to improve communication and transparency in this new remote working environment. Implementing a common technology that’s easy to use no matter where you are provides a shared system that dispersed teams can collaborate within. And by working in a common system, an efficient and shared process that everyone can get behind becomes easier to achieve. Establishing a New Normal “Finance processes and communications aren't just about communications between us finance people,” Darrell pointed out in Excel at More with Financial Close. “It's about communication across the business. It's about supporting this process of running our business, delivering timely and accurate information and analysis, supporting and achieving business alignment and making great business decisions.” With the pandemic forcing them to evolve, teams are working together better than ever to achieve that. And the good news is that those processes aren’t going anywhere. Even as restrictions begin to lift, organizations are in a better place to continue working virtually, across disparate teams and in the office—with a stronger, more effective month-end close in place. Close Your Books With Confidence Learn how Vena can help you improve your financial close process.

Change is inevitable. Change is powerful. Change is hard. All of these things can be true at the same time—and often are. That’s true in life and it’s just as true when it comes to changes to the solutions you use to power your ongoing financial processes—including your financial close.  Your month-end close process is an integral part of your finance team’s ongoing workload, after all. And as such, your team is probably used to approaching it in a certain way. So while introducing new technology may improve things in the long run, don’t be surprised if the shift comes with resistance from your team—at least initially. Without team involvement, though, any changes you make will go nowhere—which makes their buy-in critical to any new financial close technology investment.  Introducing Change Your team is busy already. It’s no wonder, then, that some might see learning how to use new financial close software as just another item on their to-do list. “It’s tough to absorb the change when you’re running a million miles an hour and doing your day-to-day job of closing the books,” John Power, COO of Fluence Technologies, explained in Vena’s recent Financial Close Livestream, now available on demand to members of Plan To Grow. “If you’re doing a project like this, it’s probably taking a lot longer than you’d like [to complete your month-end close] and you’re working lots of hours. Now you’ve got this project layered on top.” Power was one of several finance experts who participated in The Modern Financial Close Panel, led by Vena Chief Solutions Officer Rishi Grover. During the event (now available on demand), panelists explored how to introduce new financial close software in a way that gets your whole team on board.  Choosing the right financial close software is a good place to start, Power suggested. An easy-to-use solution that doesn’t add too much pressure to the team will be more likely to be accepted than one that comes with a steep learning curve. “One of the things that’s important is having a solution and an approach that doesn’t tax the organization too heavily and presents a solution that’s easily adopted and used and leveraged by the finance organization without them having to learn new technologies and how to program and things like that,” he said. But of course, we all know that effectively introducing new technology into the workplace, especially one as integral as your financial close software, can be tricky no matter what. Which is where your change management process comes in. Three change management best practices can help. Become a Plan To Grow Member Learn more about how technology is making the financial close process faster and smarter. Watch our Financial Close Livestream on demand at Plan To Grow. 3 Best Practices To Get Team Buy-in So how do you go about adding new technology that will keep your team invested and adopting new software seamlessly? These three change management best practices can help you get the team buy-in you’re looking for: 1.  Ask Your Team for Their Opinions  If you’re bringing in new technology to power your financial close process, asking your month-end close team their opinions is a good place to start. Getting involvement right from the beginning will help you get them invested early—but more than that, it will help you identify any pushback that exists from the onset.  Is your team simply so stressed with their current workload that the idea of taking the time to learn how to use new software is anxiety inducing? Are they happy with the technology you have and don’t want to change? Or is it the specific solution you’re considering that they have an issue with? Knowing the answers to questions like these can help you address their concerns from the start. “Most and foremost would be the end user buy-in,” Modern Financial Close panelist Martin Nöel, SVP and CFO of Premier Tech, explained. “Involve them very early in the process, identify their pains so they can speak for themselves on the gains they would see. If they [see] gains in their activities, they will jump into it and support the senior management's undertakings of implementing such a tool.”   2. Plan Out Your Approach Dumping a new technology onto your team’s laps without any kind of change management plan in place isn’t usually the best way to introduce something that’s bound to affect their entire workflow—even if that change is positive in the end. And especially if your team is already stressed out with their monthly financial close workload.  Creating a plan for your approach, on the other hand—one that’s empathetic to everything your employees currently have on their plate and doesn’t over-tax them—can help ease the way. That plan may include training and the release of learning materials, as well as time for feedback from new users.  Panelist Christine Harms, Controller for the Arizona Cardinals, used her team’s adoption of Vena as an example. “I, from the very beginning, included our team members on the finance team throughout the entire process: reviewing Vena, going through Vena, making the determination of what we wanted to see going forward,” she said. “And at that point, once we chose Vena, we decided that we would have a core team that included all of our senior accountants, staff accountants, the ones that were going to use Vena for the most part to finish the close each month, in building and developing the workbooks that were going to be used.”  3. Get CFO and Senior Leadership Involvement Big changes benefit from strong leadership involvement—and since any changes to your financial close process are going to be disruptive by nature, it’s a good time to bring out the big guns. “Buy-in from the top is extremely important,” said panelist Brian Carlson, VP, Financial Planning for Otter Tail Corporation. “To have their support and to be involved in the process and to be that cheerleader on the sidelines.”  Getting your CFO and/or other senior leadership to champion your cause early on can help build momentum for the new technology you’re trying to put in place. And communicating that commitment and demonstrating leadership’s involvement to the whole team will get others excited about it too, Power added. “Making that visible so that people can see it and understand and buy in [is one of the most important things],” he said during the panel. “I think that creates the push that’s required to make these types of things successful.”  What Comes Next By employing change management best practices like these to get your team on board and invested, you put yourself in a better position to successfully implement the technology you need to better fuel your financial close—and get the right people actually using it.  But, Carlson warned, as with any change management process, don’t be surprised if it’s not all smooth sailing—even with a well-thought-out plan in place. “A lot of times things have to get uglier before they get better,” Carlson said in the Modern Financial Close Panel. “It’s a challenge and just keeping that communication open through the whole process is so very important.” One last piece of advice: Don’t be afraid of change yourself, even if your team is. They’ll need someone to champion it from start to finish, celebrating the benefits of the new technology and what it can mean going forward. Just like the panelists in our Modern Financial Close Panel, you can be that person—leading your organization into a more efficient, technology-driven month-end close. Accelerate Your Financial Close Learn how Vena's financial close management software can help power your month-end close.  

Is your financial close process slowing you down and leaving you feeling like it’s the same old problems, just a different month? Then it’s about time you learn how to close your books faster and with more confidence so you can get your time back. Join us at PlanToGrow.com for The Financial Close Livestream on November 16, 2021 from 12:00–3:30 PM where you’ll get to connect with industry leaders, Vena Experts and your peers and learn how to master financial close management. Plan to Grow Livestreams bring finance, operations and business leaders together throughout the year for a half-day, live and interactive digital experience specific to seasonal needs and challenges. At the Financial Close Livestream, you’ll get to: Learn best practices and methods for tackling year-end planning from industry experts See how to transform financial close management processes with the combined might of Vena and Excel Discover how leading organizations optimize their financial close process Learn, connect and grow with a community of finance and accounting peers Earn up to 3 CPE/CPD credits For the first part of the afternoon, Vena’s very own VP of FP&A Tom Seegmiller and VP of Finance Muneerah Kanji will kick things off in the keynote, Excel at More With Financial Close. You’ll learn how to close with confidence in a virtual world, from mapping workflows to building internal controls and other best practices that will help you scale with speed, accuracy and greater visibility. Following the keynote is the Modern Finance Financial Close Panel, where you’ll meet Vena’s Chief Solutions Architect and Co-founder Rishi Grover, John Power (Founder and COO, Fluence), Christine Harms (Controller, Arizona Cardinals) and Brian Carlson (VP Financial Planning, Otter Tail). During this discussion, you’ll find out how leading finance professionals are transforming their financial close process with automation, data integration, enhanced performance analysis and more, without abandoning Excel. In the second half of the afternoon, Michelle Canada (Director of Financial Planning, Tanger Outlets) will be joining Rishi and Tom for The Formula To Scale Your Financial Close. In this talk, you’ll discover how forward-thinking companies are leveraging Excel through the power of the Vena Growth Engine to accelerate account reconciliation, simplify complex financial consolidations, drive collaboration and save time with their financial close. Following this session and closing off the afternoon, we’ll be holding two Financial Close Interactive Demos, one exclusively for Vena customers, with Vena Experts. Experience Vena firsthand in these live demos as our Experts guide you through our financial close solution and answer all of your questions. To learn more about all of our speakers, click here. An afternoon of expert advice, industry best practices, the formula and technology to improve and scale your financial close process is all it will take to help you close your books confidently and in record time. Oh, and did we mention it’s free? All you have to do is save your spot. November 16 12:00–3:30 PM EST The Financial Close Livestream & Interactive Demo Close With Confidence

Has the time come to improve your financial closing processes? Are you done with the days (and weeks) of wasting time, stressing out and still coming up short? Nobody can tell you exactly how to improve financial closing processes at your company, but there are some steps anyone can take to get on the right track. Answer these questions before you do anything else: What does your current closing process entail? What has worked well for you and your company in the past? What’s costing you time? What’s leading to mistakes? Are you using any tools to streamline your financial closing processes? Now that you have answered these questions, you will have a clear idea of how to approach these five potential improvements: 1. Automate, Automate, Automate Without automation, you’re left to manage the entire process manually. That includes collecting information from employees, inputting data, calculating expenses and revenue—and that’s just the start. Automation driven by financial close management software allows you to move more quickly and efficiently, which saves you time and reduces the risk of errors. Can you automate financial closing processes from beginning to end? Probably not. There are times when manual input is required. But you can definitely automate to the point where you are undoubtedly saving time. To learn more, read our blog on overcoming the barriers to automated account reconciliations here. 2. Prioritize Account Reconciliation Accounting process improvement doesn’t necessarily mean you have to tear down and rebuild from scratch. Sometimes, it’s the small steps that help you reach big goals. Reconciliation is an important part of the closing process. It helps you identify errors and better understand the overall financial health of your business. But there’s a problem with this: Account reconciliation shouldn’t happen only once per month. Get into the habit of reconciling accounts throughout the month. Waiting until month end increases the risk of a minor mistake snowballing into something much more serious. It may feel like you’re spending unnecessary time reconciling accounts at the beginning and middle parts of the month, but it’ll actually save you in the end.  Automation (see above) is critical to reconciling your accounts more regularly. This allows you to get the job done with minimal effort. Here’s how Vena’s account reconciliation software works: Vena’s account reconciliation software streamlines data collection and integration with your source systems—such as your ERP/GL system and other subsystems—so you can quickly access relevant supporting documents. Vena also automates journal entries and simplifies reconciliation calculations so you can produce accurate financial statements on time. 3. Assign Tasks and Responsibilities If you manage every aspect of the financial closing processes for your company, you don’t have to worry about this. But if you’re like most people, you work with a team to complete this overarching task and the many responsibilities that go along with it. Once you have a clearly defined process in place, it’s time to assign tasks. The benefits of this approach include: No double work Everyone knows what they’re responsible for Less likely that one person will feel overwhelmed  Assign tasks, set deadlines and give your team everything they need to succeed. 4. Streamline Data Collection Efforts  One of the biggest challenges you face during financial closing is the ability to collect the necessary data in an efficient and timely manner. It’s critical to your long-term success (and sanity) to implement a streamlined and universal system for data collection. You don’t want one department submitting data via email, another via Slack and yet another via snail mail. That’s too much to manage. Implement a system that every employee and department head can use to submit the required data. And even more importantly, hold them to it. Make them submit the information in this fashion until it becomes second nature. You have enough on your plate so the last thing you need is to spend hours on end chasing down data.  5. Start Early  Even if you’re 100% comfortable with your company’s financial closing processes, it never (or rarely) makes sense to wait until the last minute. Let’s assume that you have until August 31st to complete the process. Is it easier to start on the 15th of the month or the 30th? Even if you think you only need a day or two at the most, don’t wait until the last minute. Roadblocks always come to light, such as departments that are late sharing expense data or missing loan statements. When you start early, you can set aside time every day to inch closer to your end goal. And that’s preferred to finding your back against the wall at the end of the month, quarter or year. Now that we've looked at how to streamline your financial closing processes, let's look at some of the common headaches you might still encounter along the way.   5 Common Headaches Businesses Face in the Financial Closing Process  If the financial close process continually challenges you, it’s time for a change. It’s time to pinpoint your concerns, implement a fine-tuned strategy, and put this stress-fest behind you once and for all. For many companies, the first step in taking action is understanding the most common headaches they face in the financial closure process. Let’s head down that path. 1. No Defined Process If your financial close process is often run by a loosely defined set of steps and the memory of those in charge, as opposed to a distinct set of well-thought-out protocols, you’re not setting yourself up for success. As a whole, a lack of a defined process is a giant headache. And when you break it down, you’ll run into smaller problems such as: Different people taking a different approach A long list of tasks that aren’t collated in the same place No timeline or benchmarks to measure progress Your financial closure process should be defined, documented and shared with the appropriate employees. This makes for a more efficient process that generates the desired results in a timely manner.  2. No (Or Inefficient) Automation Let’s face it: there’s no way to automate the entire financial close process. There will always be tasks and steps that require manual input. And that’s okay. Your goal is to automate as much as possible, without losing touch with the process itself. Automation lends benefits such as: Improved efficiency Faster closing process Protection against errors  Transparency across the company  With defined processes in place—such as those for collecting data—you can easily hand over tasks to your financial close software. 3. Problems That Carried Over From the Last Close Any problem, big or small, requires immediate attention. Letting an issue carry over from the last close will only cause more headaches and stress in the future. For example, your company may not have a defined system in place for collecting expense receipts from multiple departments. You’ve always made it work in the past so you continually put off the opportunity to implement a solution. But that’s no excuse to stand put. When you find a problem, address that problem as quickly as possible. And never let it carry over to the next financial close. As you solve the problems that have plagued you in the past, you can improve the financial close process in the future 4. No Access to Real-Time Data Do you continually wait until the end of the month, quarter or year to collect and upload data? Do you often find yourself chasing team members around for the data you need to finalize the financial close process? Waiting until financial close to collect data is a problem on two fronts: You don’t have a solid grasp of where things stand during the month, quarter or year It costs you time during the financial closure process The more data you can access in real-time, the easier it is for everyone to stay on the same page day after day. With technology driven by automation, you can gain access to real-time data that eliminates the stress of chasing it down when the time comes.  5. No Standardization Even if you’re solely responsible for the financial close process, it doesn’t mean you can do everything on your own. You still need help from others, such as retrieving data related to departmental spending. This is where a lack of standardization can bog you down. From product managers to PR professionals to sales and marketing teams, every department has something for you. While that’s expected, the last thing you need is everyone sending you data in a different manner. Product managers send you expense claims via Slack. Sales managers share receipts as email attachments. PR and advertising executives drop off paperwork in your office. Every person and every department wants to do things their own way. They want to do what they know and what is easiest for them. The problem with this is that you’re left to pick up the pieces. Don’t let this issue linger any longer. Implement a standardized system for collecting all the data you need. Some people may resist, but they’ll eventually realize that it’s best for the company as a whole. Final Thoughts Accounting process improvement is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Make decisions based on what’s best for you, your company and the issues you’ve run into in the past. Vena’s financial close management software makes it easy to close your books with confidence. From the ability to automate time-consuming financial close tasks to enterprise-level security for your peace of mind, you can simplify the processes that you’ve dreaded in the past.