Month-end close is one of those things everyone in accounting just accepts as painful. But that doesn’t mean it should be.
We recently asked senior finance leaders what actually slows them down during close, how confident they feel about the process, and what they’d do with that time if close was easier and faster. The responses paint a clear picture: most teams are still spending too much time chasing inputs, wrangling spreadsheets, and cleaning up after other departments.
Here’s what we heard and where there’s a path forward.
Where Close Breaks Down
When asked what makes close slow or stressful, the top answers weren’t surprising, but they were consistent.
- Too much manual work
- Journal entries
- Reconciliations
- Revenue schedules
Journal entries, revenue schedules, reconciliations, and spreadsheet wrangling are still taking up a huge chunk of time. Teams spend hours copying and pasting data into Excel and manually checking for errors. Even teams with solid systems in place said they rely on spreadsheets as a fallback, especially when automation doesn’t cover edge cases or non-standard contracts.
- System issues
- Laggy tools during high traffic
- No automation across systems
- Overreliance on Excel
It’s not just about having the right software. A few leaders flagged that during close, systems slow down or become less reliable due to heavy usage. This is especially true when pulling large data sets or syncing across multiple platforms. “The system lag during close week is real,” one finance manager said. “You waste so much time waiting for reports to load or having to rerun them.”
- Dependencies outside finance
- Waiting on data from Sales, R&D, and Ops
- Miscommunication or last-minute changes
This one came up a lot. Finance teams often find themselves waiting on information from Sales, R&D, or other departments, teams that may not fully understand the urgency or the requirements of close. Some mentioned last-minute changes to deals or invoices that throw off their timelines. When you’re trying to hit a five-day close and someone drops new data on day four, it’s hard not to feel the pressure.
“The manual processes and lag in extracting data due to system load eats up time we don’t have.”
— Financial Controller, SaaS Company
“Getting everyone on the same page is half the battle. Coordinating with Sales on invoicing, syncing across time zones—it’s a mess.”
— VP, Corporate Controller
The Cost of Manual Close
Manual effort isn’t just inefficient, it drains confidence. We asked respondents how much pressure they feel during a close on a 1–7 scale. The average came out to 4.5: not a crisis, but definitely not comfortable. More telling was how people talked about their confidence in the process. The average score there was 5.4 out of 7, suggesting that while most teams are getting things done, they’re not fully confident that everything is accurate and audit-ready.
Several leaders said they feel caught between getting things done quickly and making sure everything is right. That tension shows up in double-checking journal entries, manually reconciling data between systems, and chasing down answers to last-minute questions.
- Average pressure rating during close: 4.5 out of 7
- Average confidence in accuracy/compliance: 5.4 out of 7
“We rely heavily on Excel, and while it gets the job done, it’s slow and prone to errors. There’s no version control and everything needs to be triple-checked.”
“It’s the time vs. accuracy tradeoff,” one controller said. “We don’t always have the luxury of both.”
Too Many Tools, Not Enough Time
Most respondents listed 5–7 different systems they rely on during close. Some examples:
- Sage Intacct
- SAP
- NetSuite
- Salesforce
- FloQast
- Power BI
- Celigo
- Excel (almost always)
Most teams use anywhere from five to ten different systems during close. That includes ERP platforms like NetSuite or Sage Intacct, planning tools like Power BI or FloQast, CRM systems like Salesforce, and the ever-present Excel.
The problem isn’t the number of tools, it’s the fact that they don’t always work together. Many respondents said they still have to manually move data between systems or clean it before using it. One controller summed it up like this: “We have all the tools, but they don’t talk to each other. We spend more time prepping data than analyzing it.”
And while Excel came up in nearly every response, it wasn’t exactly praised. Most teams said it’s useful, but also a crutch. It’s where things end up when automation falls short or integrations don’t exist. One finance manager put it bluntly: “Excel’s great, but it’s also where mistakes happen.”
What Finance Leaders Wish They Could Automate
We asked: If you could automate one part of the process, what would it be?
Top answers included:
- Revenue recognition- It was mentioned repeatedly as the most complex, time-consuming part of close.
“It’s the most complex, most time-consuming—and the most important.” - Manual journal entries- Even in organizations with solid ERP systems, journal entries often require manual setup, validation, and review. One controller said they spend most of close week just posting and checking entries—work that could be automated but isn’t yet.
“They take the most time and offer the least value.” - Reconciliations- Specifically, reconciling to external documents like bank statements or billing schedules. Some teams are using tools like Celigo to help, but for many, it’s still a manual process tied back to spreadsheets.
“Tying accounts to support docs like bank statements still requires too much manual digging.” - R&D capitalization workflows- And then there’s R&D capitalization, an oddly specific but frequently cited pain point. Several leaders said that their teams rely on engineering data from systems like JIRA, but that data isn’t standardized or controlled. It leads to last-minute calls, data cleanup, and even restatements.
“We rely on JIRA data with no controls. It’s always a back-and-forth cleanup process.”
One person just said:
“Give me a centralized workbook where I can click a button and run all the reports.”
What a Better Close Would Unlock
We asked: If your close process were 50% faster and more reliable, what would that enable for you and your team?
One VP said it would bring back the trust of their leadership team, because they’d have more time for analysis and could confidently explain the numbers. Another said it would reduce burnout: “It’s not just about speed. It’s about stress. My team is exhausted at the end of every close.”
Others mentioned more practical gains: the ability to take on more clients, focus on long-term planning, or improve their audit experience.
One controller put it like this: “We’d finally have time to focus on what matters. Right now, we’re just surviving the process.”
- Spend more time on analysis and insights
- Improve cross-functional trust
- Free up time for audits and strategic planning
- Take on more clients or business initiatives
“It would bring back the trust of the execs—and we’d finally have time to dig into the results.”
“We’d feel actual relief. The team could finally stop burning out.”
How RightRev Helps
A lot of the pain shared in this survey traces back to revenue accounting. That’s where RightRev comes in.
RightRev automates the complex processes of revenue recognition and journal entry creation, significantly reducing manual workload and the risk of human error. By continuously tracking over 160 revenue metrics in real time as transactions are processed, the platform provides immediate visibility into financial data. This approach eliminates delays commonly experienced during month-end close, enabling organizations to access up-to-date insights without waiting for traditional reporting cycles.
Here’s a closer look at how RightRev expedites period close:
1. When your systems don’t talk to each other, RightRev connects the dots.
One of the biggest contributors to close delays is system fragmentation. RightRev makes it easy to integrate across your Quote-to-Cash stack—CRM, billing, ERP, you name it. Instead of manually pulling data or uploading files between systems, RightRev consolidates the information, performs revenue recognition, and pushes everything back to your ERP. We also invest heavily in building native integrations with common enterprise systems so your processes become more automated over time, not more manual.
2. Reporting that’s fast, accurate, and always available.
Many finance teams are forced to wait until month-end to see the full picture, then spend hours trying to load heavy reports. In some systems, just having multiple users run reports at once can grind everything to a halt. RightRev avoids that issue completely. Our reports are pre-summarized, and revenue data is calculated in near real time. That means you can run reports quickly, with no slowdown, even if your entire team is working in the system at once.
3. Reconciliations without the Excel chaos.
RightRev helps eliminate the reliance on spreadsheets by keeping data updated in near real-time. Any time data changes, it’s automatically recalculated and summarized, there is no need to wait for an overnight batch process. You can check your revenue position at any point during the month (even daily) and know you’re looking at the latest numbers. It gives your team the flexibility to review daily snapshots and stay ahead of close, rather than reacting to it.
The result? A faster, more confident close with fewer surprises at the finish line.
Whether you’re dealing with usage-based contracts, milestones, or complex bundles, RightRev helps you:
- Automate journal entries and post (summarized or detailed) to the general ledger (like NetSuite or Sage Intacct)
- Eliminate parallel tracking in Excel
- Recognize revenue in real-time, no need to pull and wait for reports from disparate sources at month-end
- Cut days off your close: Read about how RightRev customer Snowflake achieves 60% improved performance compared to previous solutions
One Last Thought
Close will probably never be effortless. But it should be manageable and accurate. If your team is stuck cleaning up after bad data, late inputs, or legacy tools, it’s time to rethink the process.
You can’t fix everything overnight, but automating revenue is a great place to start.
