Many finance teams are still spending days, sometimes even weeks, closing the books - despite advances in accounting software.
As organisations grow, the complexities around the month-end close process do the same with more entities, more transactions, and more reporting requirements. With that in mind, getting the month-end process done faster doesn’t mean that you’re rushing the job. A little adjustment to your processes, automation, and visibility can go a long way.
What's slowing your month-end process down?
Manual work
When your transaction volumes were lower, the processes you had in place worked, right? But now that those volumes are higher, your processes are likely more time consuming. Repetitive manual processes use up valuable time during month-end close, and the risk of inaccuracies is increased.
Delays in approval
Approval workflows can become a bottleneck. More often than not, delays are due to finance teams having no easy way to see what’s outstanding, who’s responsible and where action is needed, rather than the approval itself.
Disconnected systems
Finance teams spend valuable time consolidating data instead of analysing it when financial information is spread across multiple systems. Manual exports, imports and reconciliations add unnecessary complexities to every month-end close.
Reconciliations left to the last minute
Reconciliations, exception handling, and data quality checks being left until the final days of the month slow down the month-end close process drastically. Finance teams then face a growing backlog that takes longer to resolve under deadlines that are already tight enough.
Processes relying on individual knowledge
Consistency becomes harder to maintain when key parts of the close process rely on either the availability or experience of specific individuals. Manual workarounds, undocumented processes, and knowledge held by only a small number of people can cause delays and increase operational risk.
Reporting that requires manual consolidation
Preparing financial reports is supposed to be a sign of a successful month-end close, not one of the biggest challenges. Where reporting depends on manually consolidating data from multiple entities, systems or spreadsheets, finance teams often spend more time preparing information than analysing it. Extending the overall close process.
How to start closing month-end faster
Create repeatable month-end close processes
Maintaining a consistent close process will provide structure and clarity to your finance team. Clearly documenting responsibilities, timelines and key activities help reduce uncertainty, improve accuracy, ensuring a consistent close each month. It doesn’t stop there - it also becomes easier to notice opportunities for continuous improvement whilst your organisation grows.
Reduce manual effort wherever possible
Identifying opportunities that automate routine activities like invoice processing, reconciliations or recurring journal entries will help to reduce administrative workloads, minimise errors, and free up valuable time for your finance team.
Create clear, visible workflows
Efficient month-end processes don’t just rely on approvals - they rely on visibility. When teams can see what is complete, outstanding, or where action is needed, it’s so much easier to maintain a strong workflow and prevent small delays that could impact the wider month-end close process.
Connect your financial data
Bringing financial information together should not be such a time-consuming task when closing month-end. Keeping your data connected across different entities, systems, and departments helps to improve confidence in reporting, and gives finance teams easy access to information that they need to close the books efficiently.
Reduce the workload carried into month-end
Instead of allowing routine finance activities to be left until the last minute, make sure to maintain accurate financial records throughout the month. Regular reconciliations, transaction processing and reviews massively reduce the backlog of built-up work, and makes the close more predictable - with the aim of removing pressure.
Build reporting into your close, not after it
By improving the quality, consistency and accessibility of financial data throughout the month, finance teams can spend less time preparing reports and more time analysing the insights they provide.
The role of accounting software in a faster month-end process
Improving your month-end close is about more than just refining processes. As organisations grow, maintaining all of these improvements listed above, like consistency, visibility and control, will be hard to manage without the right technology by your side. Modern cloud accounting software gives you all the tools required for a more efficient close by reducing manual effort, connecting financial data and supporting streamlined processes.
Aqilla is designed to support exactly this. Its unified ledger, built-in workflows, AI-enhanced invoice automation, automatic bank reconciliation and real-time reporting help finance teams to streamline tasks, gain control over reporting, and speed up month-end close. Finance teams can now spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on delivering valuable insight by connecting data, processes and approvals within our cloud-native platform.
It is proven to be beneficial for businesses to combine better processes with the right technology for your team. Take Resource Justice Network (formerly Publish What You Pay) for example, a finance team who switched from Sage 50 to Aqilla, who have now reduced the time spent on month-end reporting by 50%. Now, the finance department can dedicate more time contributing to meaningful analysis with less administrative burdens to take on.
“Saving 50% of month-end reporting time with Aqilla means we can focus more on providing deeper analysis and insights to guide decisions, rather than just crunching numbers.” Rami Hassouna, Director of Finance at Resource Justice Network.
Frequently asked questions
How long should the month-end close process take?
This is completely dependent on the size of your organisation, transaction volumes, and complexity. Every business’ requirements are different. But based on a study Aqilla conducted with 100 finance professionals in 2025, some participants spend upwards of 10-15 days closing month-end. We’re proud to say that some of our own customers have confirmed that they close month-end in as little as 2 days.
How can you reduce the time it takes to close the month-end?
Begin with reviewing your month-end close process and identifying what time is really being spent on. Introducing automation for repetitive tasks, streamlining approval workflows, connected financial data and consistent reporting processes all play a part in reducing manual effort and in turn, improving efficiency. Combining this with modern cloud accounting software, these improvements will enable your team to close faster, while still maintaining accuracy and control.
Why does month-end take longer as businesses grow?
As businesses grow, finance teams tend to face higher transaction volumes, more entities, more reporting requirements, and an increased number of stakeholders. Managing all of this without the right technology adds complexities that your team could do without.
How can multi-entity accounting simplify month-end close?
If your business manages multiple entities, you’re more than likely faced with consolidating financial data, reconciling intercompany transactions and processing group-level reports. Multi-entity accounting software gives you a clear overview of this information in one platform, ensuring a smoother month-end close process.
Does invoice automation help reduce month-end workload?
Yes. Invoice automation reduces manual data entry by capturing and processing invoices automatically throughout the month. This minimises backlogs, and allows for a faster month-end process with improved accuracy.
Closing the books with confidence
A faster month-end doesn’t just mean getting the job done sooner. The aim is to create a finance function that is more efficient, more accurate, and better equipped to support decision-making. Refining your processes and supporting them with the right modern accounting software for your business makes month-end less of a challenge, and instead, an opportunity to deliver valuable insight.
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