Close and reconciliation assistance
Illustrative use case, not a case study.
Reconciliation evidence is assembled, differences flagged and explained in draft, and exceptions routed to an accountant for review and posting.
The problem
Every close, the team pulls the same reports, lines them up in spreadsheets, and writes the same kinds of explanations for the same kinds of differences. The people best placed to judge an unusual item are busy doing the mechanical part.
How it works today
Accountants export subledger and general ledger balances, bank statements, and intercompany reports, then reconcile them in spreadsheets. Differences are investigated by searching transactions and emailing colleagues. Explanations are written into a workpaper, reviewed, and adjusting entries are keyed manually.
See the scenario
Illustrative workflow. Subtitled.
Transcript
- At close, differences between the subledger and the general ledger are found late, explained in spreadsheets, and chased by the accountants who should be reviewing.
- The assistant assembles evidence, flags differences, drafts explanations, and routes unusual items to an accountant. Conclusions and proposed entries go for review.
- An accountant reviews every conclusion and approves every posting. Explanations remain drafts until the reviewer signs off.
- Measured on unresolved exceptions and review effort. Illustrative use case. Let us discuss yours.
Proposed workflow
- Assemble the evidence for each reconciliation from the ERP and agreed external sources
- Flag differences and group them by likely cause using known patterns
- Draft an explanation for each difference with the transactions that support it
- Route unexplained or unusual items to the responsible accountant
- Present conclusions and any proposed adjusting entries for review before posting
Where a person stays in control
- An accountant reviews every conclusion and approves every posting
- Draft explanations are labelled as drafts until a reviewer signs off
- Known-pattern grouping is reviewed periodically so it does not hide new issues
Platform mappings indicate environments in which to assess this idea. Actual implementation depends on configuration, licenses, APIs, data, and permissions. Benefits are stated qualitatively; numeric claims require a documented baseline.