Month End Reporting: Experts Guide & Improvement Tips

When running a business, there are a few times in every month that you plan ahead for, such as pay days and the month end close. Month end reporting makes sure that you cross off all the checkboxes on your to-do list to make sure that your month-end closing process has been properly executed.

Since month-end closing accounting has a lot of moving pieces, automation solutions can help to streamline the entire process and minimise any amount of stress that comes along with it. We’re going to look at what month end reporting entails, and how you can automate your monthly reconciliation report.

Coming Up

What is Month End Reporting?

What are the Benefits of Month End Reporting?

Who Creates and Reads Month End Reports?

What is Included in Month End Reports?

What are the Challenges of Month End Reporting?

What are the Steps to Complete Month End Reporting?

What are Best Practices to Improve Month End Reporting?

The Bottom Line

What is Month End Reporting?

The end of every month comes along with its crucial closing period. Companies perform month end reporting to make sure that all transactions are recorded correctly and without any accounting errors.

When you produce month end reporting, you can rest assured knowing that your statements are all properly up-to-date and your documentation is ready to move into the next accounting period.

The month end reporting entails:

• Reconciling accounts
• Accounting for inventory
• Reviewing petty cash funds
• Reports incoming cash
• Updates accounts payable
• Review of expenses and revenue

What are the Benefits of Month End Reporting?

Business decisions are always made by taking into account your financial situation and health. Without performing due diligence and conducting month end closing processes regularly, your accounts may reflect figures that are not up-to-date, thereby causing ill-informed choices.

Alternatively, when you are on top of month end reporting, you can work towards reaching business goals with confidence. Your earnings and costs will be taken into consideration at the right time.

Furthermore, you’ll be able to remain compliant and adhere to all regulations and financial standards, both internally and externally. With month end reporting, you can spot trends and patterns to better be able to analyse and forecast.

Last but not least, month end reporting helps to spot any fraud or accounting mistakes in a timely manner.

Who Creates and Reads Month End Reports?

Finance and accounting department are responsible for creating month end reports, and CFOs play a grand role in the process. You’re probably thinking, “What else can we add to our list of responsibilities in a day?” And, that thought is justified because there’s a lot to already consider and manage.

However, these reports are crucial for the executive team to understand how the business is faring and make choices to move forward in the best possible ways. The management team doesn’t have time to dig through all the details, so a concise and top-line report is a must-have.

With finance automation software like what SolveXia offers, you can streamline report generation and customise reports (and dashboards) to show high-level and real time information that’s tailored and on demand for any relevant stakeholder!

What is Included in Month End Reports?

Month end reports consist of a slew of useful data that can be transformed into valuable insights.

They can be set up however you deem fitting for your organisation’s needs. With that being said, they tend to consist of operational data, dashboards, and metrics that are all used for decision-making.

Month end reports may include:

• Balance sheet
• Income statement
• Cash flow statement
• Bank account details
• Gross margin analysis
• Inventory turnover
• Debt/EBITDA ratio
• Working capital analysis
• Total revenues
• Financial statements
• General ledger data
• Petty cash fund levels

SolveXia makes it seamless to automate month end reporting and any type of regulatory reporting that your business must fulfill.

The no-code system is fast to deploy, easy to learn, and provides you a way to visually transform data into analytics and reports.

You can connect SolveXia with your existing software and automate hundreds of company processes, including: rebate management, expense reporting, account reconciliation, and more.

What are the Challenges of Month End Reporting?

Despite the known benefits of conducting month end reporting consistently (as in monthly, like the name implies), many businesses have trouble doing so because it can feel like a pain-staking experience. This is true when you conduct it manually and don’t have the right solutions in place to aid.

For example, when dealing with month end reporting (without automation), you may find that you struggle with:

1. Inaccurate Data

Without accurate and up-to-date data, the reporting won’t be able to provide value. Data changes in an instant, so it’s crucial to always be checking for the latest.

Moreover, if data is stored across disparate systems, or on a more concerning note, spreadsheets, then there’s neither version control nor centralisation. It can be particularly troublesome if you have high volume of transactions across multiple payment providers.

2. Messy Processes

If you don’t have a defined process in place with deadlines and assigned responsibilities, then month end reporting will get extra convoluted. On the other hand, when the process is neatly defined and outlined, the routine becomes clear to everyone involved and can be standardised across the board.

3. Missed Deadlines

Piggybacking on the latter, if you have no defined process and are left scrambling at the end of the month to pull everything you need together, then you’re likely going to miss key deadlines. This will not only mess up the current month end reporting, but it will also set you back for the next month.

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With automation software like SolveXia implemented within your organisation, you will no longer have to worry about these challenges. This is because you can design your month end reporting process and its related processes to automatically be handled by the easy-to-use software.

You can create workflows with a library of predefined actions and triggers using a drag-and-drop functionality to generate the reporting you need, on a timely basis and with immense accuracy.

This leaves you more time to provide greater insights to the business rather than worrying about data cleansing, matching, reconciling and errors.

What are the Steps to Complete Month End Reporting?

Your month end reporting process may vary slightly, but the steps required to complete the necessary process will involve:

1. Aligning Weekly Reports with Monthly Reports

If you’re creating daily or weekly reports as it is, then you should cross-check them against your month end reports to ensure that they are formatted in the same way. Along with formatting, you can reference the daily and weekly reports to double-check for errors.

2. Use a Checklist

If you’re handling the month end reporting by hand, then make sure you have a checklist by your side and allocate enough time at the end of the month to handle each step. You’ll want to include what you need from each department and assign responsibilities to each significant party.

3. Anticipate Mistakes

No matter how talented or experienced your team is, mistakes happen. Give yourself enough time for employees and departments to review all the reports and check for errors. Of course, if you choose to deploy SolveXia (or another tool to help), then you don’t have to worry about this step at all.

4. Analyse and Add Up

When you’ve confirmed that the figures are right, you can use formulas and charts to finalise your calculations and balances. Then, you can review the reporting and conduct analysis.

What are Best Practices to Improve Month End Reporting?

It’s clear that there’s immense value derived from month end reporting, especially when it’s done with efficiency. In order to maximise your team’s time and get the most out of your reports, be sure to:

1. Focus on Data Quality

Start by making sure that your data is clean, accurate, and up-to-date. You can use software (i.e. SolveXia) to help with data collection and data cleansing.

2. Set Timelines

Have a timeline in place for when you need to start the process and mark your deadlines. Communicate this to everyone involved so that there are no excuses to miss any deadlines.

3. Define Benchmarks

Make use of industry benchmarks and key performance indicators (KPIs) to track and analyse how your business is functioning.

4. Use Automation Software

You can take care of all of these best practices by utilising technology. With the aid of a solution like SolveXia, you can automatically maximise your team’s productivity and reduce stress surrounding the month-end close and month end reporting required.

The Bottom Line

If you’ve ever experienced an out-of-control month end reporting experience or have been dreaming of making your business processes more efficient, then you’re in the right place.

A reconciliation automation tool like SolveXia is here to help you optimise your business’ functioning by automating the mundane, repetitive, and necessary tasks that your team is otherwise stuck performing.

By freeing up your team’s time, reducing key person dependencies, and streamlining workflows (including all month-end requirements), you’ll be able to get more value, while doing less tedious work. Try SolveXia today by scheduling a demo with one of our team’s specialists!