Month-End Close: Where the Hours Go

Contents

1. Measure two closes
2. Track five numbers
3. Fix it at the source
4. Questions for your next close review

1. Measure two closes

Close time is hard to see from where you sit, because it’s spread across the team and across the month. Give the team our month-end close checklist and ask them to log the time each task takes, for two closes. You’ll have a baseline in two months.

2. Track five numbers

Number	What it tells you
Working days to close	Your headline. Is it creeping up?
Hours spent chasing receipts, claims and approvals	Time lost to waiting on people outside finance
Invoice exceptions open at month-end	Matching problems pushed to the busiest week
Manual journals posted	Corrections that could have been caught earlier
Budget holder queries on variances	Spend nobody saw until the numbers came out

3. Fix it at the source

Most of the month-end hours start earlier in the month. The fix is catching the problem when the transaction happens.

Time sink	Usually caused by	What changes it
Chasing receipts and claims	Policy checked after submission	Webexpenses Expense Management*: policy applied as the claim is entered
Card reconciliation	Statements matched once a month	Card transactions matched to receipts as they come in
Invoice exceptions	No PO, no receipt, wrong price	Webexpenses Accounts Payable: invoices matched to order and receipt on arrival
Supplier statements	Missing invoices found late	Statements reconciled, missing invoices requested in one click
Late approvals	Approvals in email, approvers away	Approval routes with reminders and out-of-office cover
Budget surprises	Commitments invisible until invoiced	Webexpenses Budgets: committed spend counted when it’s raised

*Expense Management is available today as a standalone Webexpenses product. Full integration with the FinOps platform is coming soon.

4. Questions for your next close review

Which three tasks took longest, and were they the same as last month?
How much of the delay was waiting for someone outside finance?
Which exceptions could have been caught in week one?
Did any variance surprise a budget holder?
What one change would take a day off next month?

Want fewer variance surprises? Send budget holders our month-end checklist: 10 things finance will ask you.

Webexpenses catches month-end problems when the transaction happens: policy checked as claims are entered, invoices matched on arrival, and committed spend counted when it's raised.