The continuous close: When accounts are closed daily instead of waiting until month end. The advantage of a continuous close is that it takes the pressure off the month-end close and keeps the books perfectly updated at all times for more informed decision making. It’s the optimal way to close – the proverbial Nirvana of accounting. And while any number cruncher would prefer to close continuously, the amount of speed and staff required made it seem more like fantasy than reality.

Until now. Sage Intacct makes the continuous close possible like never before. Never has more of the close run automatically, in real-time, and left so little to do at the end of the month. Sage Intacct transforms expectations around accounting; the close becomes a process that runs independently in the background instead of an all-consuming effort causing days of chaos at the end of every month.

If you thought the continuous close wasn’t possible, think again. Sage Intacct puts is well within reach.

The Continuous Close in Sage Intacct

How does Sage Intacct make the continuous close possible? First and foremost, by integrating all financial data and accounting activities onto a single cloud-based platform with extensive integrations to other business tools. Any data relevant to the close flows directly into Sage Intacct before automation takes over. In most cases, the various close processes run independently. Accountants have broad latitude to customize those processes, but they no longer need to be involved with actually moving, calculating, or keying in data. Sage Intacct does all that.

A good example is the Dynamic Allocations feature. It can automatically take data from source balances and assign it across dimensions (locations, team, project, etc.) based on whatever calculation methods accountants specify. Effectively, the funds allocate themselves. That saves the accounting team hours of work (and inevitable errors) that it takes to do allocations manually. And since the allocations happen immediately once new data becomes available, the financial record is always up-to-date and relevant.

Another example is the way Sage Intacct enables bank feeds with over 10,000 financial institutions. This means banking data, including credit card data, moves into Sage Intacct efficiently and entirely so that companies can perform a “soft close” on a daily basis. Having more banking data on hand also helps accountants fill in missing pieces – such as missing credit card transactions, which they can create from matching transactions or journal entries to auto-populate details. The massive amount of work spent to align banking records with the accounting system goes away thanks to the bank feeds in Sage Intacct.

One Step Closer to the Continous Close

The concept of the continuous close deserves a much bigger conversation, as does Sage Intacct. With this blog, we simply want to spread awareness that the continuous close isn’t mythical any longer. It’s something real companies are doing right now, and that’s all thanks to Sage Intacct.

Could the continuous close work for you too? Contact Dean Dorton to explore the answer.