Consolidations are especially challenging for companies in these scenarios:

• Enter data manually via spreadsheets
• Disparate ERP & Financial Systems
• Multiple Currencies
• Multiple Countries

1) Provide Business Insights to Management (or the Board)
Obviously data is valuable for disclosure, regulatory and budgeting reasons. But imagine if you had time once you closed the books to analyze data. You could then take your insights and provide them to management or board to impact the next period. If the books are not closed until the next period is largely completed, any issues or negative trends will continue over TWO period. A fast close enables the learnings from the recently closed period to be applied to the next period to improve results.

2) Cash Planning
Planning takes, well, time. The kind of time you get when you don’t close halfway, or most of the way, into the month.

3) Revenue Forecasting
Where is revenue coming from and not coming from? Where could it come from? Wouldn’t it be nice to have time to be able to not just ask these questions, but to answer them?

4) Risk Analysis
Where are the vulnerabilities in your business? Are you taking too many risks? Or are you not taking enough risks?

5) Budget Forecasting
How many other items do you have to get to before you get to budget forecasting. And, once it comes up on the list, how much time and energy will you have to dedicate to it?

6) Scenario Planning
Strategic Financial Planning – otherwise known as What if planning. What if we acquired X Company? Or, What if we merged with Y company? What if you had more time to ask ‘what if’?

7) Long Range Planning
Imagine if you had time to examine and improve upon your core business model. Take on new initiatives for the finance department.

8) Evolve Your Role
What if your role changed from disclosure and regulatory – to risk analysis, revenue analytics and long term strategic planning? Whether you’re a CFO or Controller, what if you could be a rain maker, instead of a bookkeeper?

9) Take a Personal Day
Maybe you would want to spend time on numbers one through eight. But what if you could attend your child’s soccer game or school play? Or any number of events you might ordinarily miss. So when you come back to work you come back refreshed.

OK, but how do you Close 9 Days Earlier? 
We’ve partnered with Unit4 to help show you how to close faster, so you can do more of the things you’d rather be doing. Click HERE to attend our free 30 minute webinar, How to Close the Books Faster.