Between the myriad of daily tasks, it’s no secret that the month-end and year-end closing processes can be tedious and time-consuming tasks for AP professionals. This is particularly true when your company requires multiple levels of sign-off for each account. To ensure an efficient close process, most companies leverage detailed checklists/processes for the various tasks that must be completed during the close period. But that is not enough.
Challenges in a Month-End Close Process
Key challenges finance and accounting teams encounter when performing a manual close process include:
- Inaccurate or incomplete data
- Scattered information across sources
- Processes that are not clearly defined
- Lack of standardization
- Discrepancies between numbers
- Delayed reconciliations due to errors
Moreover, extra time spent on the month-end or year-end close means less time spent on delivering value through data-driven analysis to the business partners. Optimizing the month-end and year-end close will get financial numbers into the hands of business leaders while they are still ripe to assist with timely analyses and smarter decision-making. Other reasons to optimize are better structure, improved controls, more visibility, and reduced fraud and risk.
AP automation can streamline many of these manual processes. With improved controls, timely approvals, and access to real-time and historical data, there are fewer surprises at the end of the month or year. With an automated AP system, all invoices, receipts, and other AP documents are stored in a centralized database so you can quickly reconcile, resolve any discrepancies, and deliver special request management reports as requested.
How Itemize Streamlines the Close Process
Itemize is a leading AP automation cloud platform helping companies of all sizes move to modern financial processes. Itemize offers a unified system to unlock data and visibility and automate repetitive data entry tasks so the AP teams can focus on business needs and deliver continuous real-time information to business partners.
With Itemize, you have 24×7 access to your invoice and payment data so that you can be proactive instead of reactive. AP teams can manage and track invoices in real-time, allowing them to track critical metrics like approval times, duplicate invoices, month-end accruals, and much more. And with one click, you’ll see what’s pending approval, how it’s coded, and any red flags in an easy-to-understand format.
Itemize enables modern accounting to be achievable. Itemize’s cloud solutions address the areas of financial close processes, and AP automation, allowing finance and accounting teams to shift their focus to new challenges, provide consistency and control, and work together from anywhere.
If a stressful ordeal can quickly become an organized, efficient process. Why not make it happen?
