Overview
Client: Mid-sized technical services company serving federal, state & local government, and commercial customers. A newly installed CFO needed to streamline the monthly close and financial reporting cycles, which were taking 4+ weeks.
Situation
By the time Month 1 results were ready, Month 2 had already begun-leaving almost no time for analysis or problem resolution. Manual journal entries, reconciliations, and a paper-based time collection process slowed the close and introduced errors.
Objectives
- Reduce the close + reporting cycle from 4 weeks – 2 weeks.
- Automate journal entries and reconciliations; optimize the scheduling of events.
- Replace manual time collection with an integrated electronic system.
- Unify Actuals (ERP) and Budgets (Excel) into a single SQL reporting data mart.
Approach
- Process Redesign: Mapped the accounting cycle; established a critical path schedule to parallelize tasks.
- Automation: Excel VBA & Power Query to generate recurring JEs, reconcile subledgers, and manage dependencies.
- Time Collection: Implemented a third-party electronic time system and integrated it to the main accounting platform.
- Reporting Data Mart: Combined ERP Actuals and Excel Budgets into SQL,
generating BvA reports automatically.
4 wks → 2 wks
Close + reporting cycle
Automation
JEs & reconciliations
Insight Time
More analysis & actions
Tech stack: SQL (data mart), Excel (VBA, Power Query), third-party time system integration; automated BvA report generation.
