The first question I ask a new client has nothing to do with their numbers: who closes the books, and how long does it take?
The answer tells me more than the P&L will. A company that closes in five days has systems, clear ownership and someone who cares whether the number is right. A company that closes in twenty-five days, or can’t tell me, has a finance function held together by one person’s memory.
What a slow close hides
A client last year said their close took “about two weeks, usually.” It was closer to five. The bank hadn’t been reconciled in three months. The founder had been making hiring decisions off a P&L that was wrong by six figures, and had no idea, because nothing about the report looked wrong.
That’s the danger. A late close doesn’t just mean late numbers. It usually means numbers nobody has checked, and decisions being made on them anyway.
Fix the close before the model
We fixed the close before touching the model. There’s no point forecasting off numbers nobody can trust.
Close cadence is now the first diagnostic in every engagement I take: before the model, before the board deck, before the strategy conversation everyone wants to have first.
What a good close includes
A close isn’t just “the bookkeeper finished.” A real close means:
- Every bank and credit card account reconciled to the statement
- Revenue recognized correctly, not just invoiced
- Accruals and prepaid expenses booked, so costs land in the month they belong to
- Payroll, benefits and contractor costs matched to what was actually paid
- A short list of what moved and why, not just the statements
- One named owner, and a target day it’s done by
How to speed it up
Most slow closes aren’t slow because the work is hard. They’re slow because of waiting.
- Waiting on information: receipts, invoices and approvals arrive late. Set deadlines for the team and stick to them.
- Waiting on systems: bank feeds that break, tools that don’t talk to each other. Fix the connections once instead of working around them every month.
- Waiting on one person: if only one person knows how the close works, write it down. A close checklist with owners and dates is one of the cheapest fixes there is.
Automation helps too. A lot of the matching and categorizing that used to take days can now be done in hours, with a person reviewing and approving instead of typing.
Slow books are an early warning
A slow close isn’t an accounting problem. It’s a sign that nobody owns the numbers end to end, and that every decision downstream of them is on shaky ground.
Founders: how long does your close actually take? Do you know, or are you guessing?
Common questions
How long should a month-end close take?
For most early-stage and middle-market companies, five to ten business days is a reasonable target. Faster is possible with good systems and clear ownership.
Who should own the close?
One named person, usually a controller or senior accountant, with a written checklist. Shared ownership usually means no ownership.
Is a fast close worth paying for?
Yes. Every decision you make in a month is based on last month’s numbers. If those arrive three weeks late, you’re making decisions on stale or wrong data.
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