Efficient closing

The process of preparing annual financial statements ("closing") is one of the most complex and at the same time most important processes in the financial organization of companies. Especially with highly complex business models, such as in the automotive supplier or software industry, as well as with international company structures, which are common in large corporations, the preparation of individual financial statements and their reconciliation to the group's accounting standards (such as IFRS or US GAAP) as well as their consolidation is usually very time-consuming and cost-intensive. Fast close - preparing financial statements as quickly as possible - was a buzzword at the beginning of the new millennium. In the meantime, it has been recognized that speed cannot be the only objective. It is more important to be able to provide the right data in the right quality as quickly as possible. This is where we support you as part of an Efficient Closing project. Based on an analysis of existing structures, processes and systems, we design and implement optimization measures.

Our services in the area of efficient closing are particularly suitable for you in the following circumstances:

• Annual or consolidated financial statements are not prepared and audited until very late in the following year
• Preliminary and final results in the annual and consolidated financial statements are significantly different
• The financial organization is at its limit in terms of the workload involved in preparing and auditing the financial statements
• Incoming reporting packages from subsidiaries require extensive reworking
• Consolidation entries do not add up due to lack of reconciliation
• No or few measures to speed up the preparation of financial statements, such as materiality limits and bringing forward or automating activities

Our services in the area of efficient closing include in particular:

• Lessons learned workshop following the annual financial statements as an introduction
• Analysis of existing structures, processes and systems, covering individual financial statements, consolidation and consolidated financial statements, to identify short-, medium- and long-term optimization potentials
• Redesign of the financial statement preparation and auditing processes or the identified optimization potentials
• Implementation of the new concept or optimization potential in the closing processes
• Monitoring of closing processes to ensure process quality and to realize further optimizations
• Introduction of a closing cockpit for structured tracking of the closing process

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested or have any questions.