Paul Sparkes, Chief Product Officer at iplicit
Why are month-end accounts still taking so long for mid-market finance teams, and what can be done about it?
There’s a scene in every finance professional’s life that’s all too familiar – month-end. The clock is ticking, spreadsheets are multiplying, and somehow it feels like Everest has grown another 1,000 feet since last month. If this resonates, you’re not alone.
Our latest report confirms what many of us have long suspected. Month-end is taking longer than ever, which should be raising eyebrows, and questions! Let’s break it down.
Over half of UK finance leaders admit it now takes more than a week to prepare and submit month-end accounts – a significant 55% compared to 39% just a year ago, when we last surveyed UK finance leaders.
Worse still, almost a third say it drags on for over two weeks, and 1 in 10 brave souls are slogging through this for over three weeks. Three weeks! By the time last month’s accounts are done, you’re well on the way to the next quarter.
Why so slow?
The main culprits? Well, the research points a finger squarely at:
- Multiple software systems – nothing says inefficiency like toggling between platforms and trying to piece together the financial puzzle.
- Spreadsheet reliance – the trusty spreadsheet. Great for many things, but a nightmare when it becomes your primary data-wrangling tool.
- Intercompany transactions – having to independently process transactions in separate copies of the same finance system across a group of entities can be a major time sink.
- Consolidation – reconciling accounts for multiple legal entities can be the most complex work of the finance team, if done the old-fashioned way
- Lack of automation – manual processes are still clinging on in many finance departments, causing delays that simply shouldn’t exist!
Why does this matter?
Month-end isn’t just a necessary evil, it’s a key opportunity to take the pulse of your business. If you’re finalising numbers for September halfway through October, you’re already behind.
Decisions made on outdated data can be at best irrelevant and at worst downright harmful. Think about it, every extra day spent on month-end is a day not spent analysing trends, strategising, or driving growth. Finance departments should be operating as the heartbeat of their organisations, not stuck in a time warp.
There’s a danger of spending so much time producing the numbers that there’s no time to analyse the numbers – which, in the end, is the most valuable part of management accounting.
Automation to the rescue
So, what’s the fix? It’s simpler than you might think. Modern, cloud-based accounting software. This isn’t just about shaving hours off the process (although that’s a huge win). It’s about transforming how finance teams operate.
With automation, those time-consuming manual tasks — adjustments, allocations, and reconciliations — become a thing of the past.
No more triple-checking formulas in sprawling spreadsheets or migrating data between clunky systems. Instead, you’re left with clean, accurate numbers that you can trust at the push of a button.
Adopting new tech isn’t the daunting, months-long ordeal it used to be. Cloud systems be up and running in days, with ROI measured in months. They’re intuitive, scalable and built for the pace of modern business.
The cost of doing nothing
Of course, you might think, our system works well enough, we’ve coped this long. But the reality is, ‘coping’ isn’t good enough anymore. Businesses today need to be agile and responsive, and that means ditching outdated tools in favour of solutions that empower your team and support the overall business.
Hanging onto old systems doesn’t just cost time, it costs opportunities. The longer you wait to modernise, the harder it becomes to keep up with competitors who’ve already streamlined their operations.
Time to write the next chapter
Ultimately, finance teams deserve better than a monthly marathon of frustration. Modern tools exist to make your job easier, not harder. By embracing automation and cloud technologies, you can stop wasting time on the grunt work and focus on what really matters – driving your business forward.
So, isn’t it time to stop surviving month-end and start thriving through it? Let’s leave the spreadsheets (and the stress) behind and start writing the next chapter of your success story. Because finance shouldn’t just be about closing the books – it should be about opening new opportunities.
It’s almost 2025 and automation and cloud technologies are available now that can be implemented quickly and start providing a return on investment within months. The technology that exists now is far more intuitive, making it much easier and quicker for finance teams to get to grips with a new system!
Today’s organisations need to be more agile and reduce operational risk and modern, cloud-first systems provide the features to deliver on these ambitions now, not in five years or three years, or even one year. The time is now!
