Executive summary
The month-end close remains one of the most time-intensive and operationally painful processes for finance teams. While automation and system integrations have come a long way, our latest benchmarks report shows that most teams still face fragmented data, manual processes, and dependencies across the business that drag out their close timeline.
Respondents to our survey included 100 finance professionals working at companies with 51-200 to over 10,000 employees, representing high-transaction industries including SaaS/technology, healthcare, and manufacturing.
This report explores how long the month-end close process actually takes, where teams are getting stuck, and what finance leaders can do to close faster without compromising on accuracy. We also dig into the state of cash reconciliation—a key bottleneck that often hides in plain sight.
Key themes:
- 50% of teams take 6+ business days to close
- Cash reconciliation is the #1 most time-consuming activity
- Excel remains a universal tool—and a universal pain point
- Most teams automate less than 40% of their close
- Dependencies, fragmented systems, and manual workflows are the biggest blockers
How long does the month-end close actually take?
Despite industry buzz about 3-day closes, that remains aspirational for most teams. Here's what finance professionals report:
- 1–3 business days: 18%
- 4–5 business days: 32%
- 6–7 business days: 23%
- More than 7 business days: 27%
Key takeaway: Half of finance teams take longer than five business days to close. That delay compounds: financial insights arrive late, business decisions are slower, and the finance team spends most of the month catching up instead of looking ahead.
Where do teams spend the most time?
Survey responses suggest a clear order of which activities consistently consume the most time during the monthly close. Based on frequency of mention, here’s how they stack up:
- Reconciling accounts (banks, credit cards, payment processors)
- Accruals and provisions
- Data hygiene (e.g., correcting entries, reallocations, reclasses)
- Variance and BvA analysis
- Departmental submissions and approvals
Key insight: It’s not the final reporting that slows teams down—it’s everything that happens before that: reconciling fragmented data, aligning upstream systems, and correcting manual errors.
“Cash reconciliation alone takes 30+ hours each month—and if even one source is delayed, it pushes back the entire close.”
— Finance manager, SaaS
Excel is still everywhere—and it’s slowing teams down
Spreadsheets remain a core part of the close process for nearly every team. But they’re also one of the biggest blockers:
- 94% of teams use Excel in their month-end close
- 50% cite it as a key reason their close is slow
Why is this a problem?
- Doesn’t scale with transaction volume
- Makes version control difficult
- Introduces manual error risk
- Forces teams to build and maintain complex, brittle workflows
“We’re still exporting data from three systems just to match it in Excel. It’s painful.”
— Senior accountant, healthcare
Excel isn't going anywhere—but high-performing teams are increasingly looking for ways to use it less, not more.
Cash reconciliation: the hidden bottleneck
Cash reconciliation came up again and again as a top source of effort and delay.
Survey responses show:
- Average time spent on cash reconciliation: 20–50 hours per month
- Most teams use 3–5 systems to complete it
- Common blockers: missing payment details, mismatched amounts, fragmented sources, and manual workarounds
For teams managing multiple entities, high transaction volumes, or multiple PSPs and banks, the complexity grows exponentially.
Key insight: Many finance teams still reconcile manually in spreadsheets—even when the systems involved (ERP, bank, card processor) have overlapping data. Reconciliation isn’t just tedious; it’s often the bottleneck that delays the rest of the close.
“We spend more time trying to explain the mismatches than actually fixing them.”
— Accounting lead, insuretech
What’s preventing faster closes?
We asked respondents to select all the blockers preventing them from closing faster. Here’s what stood out:
- 56% – Dependency on other departments and regions
- 50% – Managing everything in Excel
- 40% – Legacy systems that don’t integrate
- 39% – High transaction complexity (volume, multiple entities)
- 37% – Understaffing or capacity gaps
Key takeaway: The problem isn’t just technology—it’s operational. Finance teams are stuck juggling inputs from other teams, dealing with disconnected tools, and picking up the slack for upstream data issues.
What does “good” look like?
We asked finance professionals what they consider the gold standard for close timelines:
- 3–5 business days was the most common answer
- Some high performers aim for 2–3 days
- Many noted that speed is only valuable if accuracy isn’t compromised
“Three days keeps everyone accountable. No one wants to be the blocker.”
— Senior accountant, SaaS
“Five days gives you just enough time to be accurate without slowing down the business.”
— Director of finance, eCommerce
How to close faster and better
Based on the survey findings, here’s how teams can move toward a faster, more accurate close:
1. Automate manual processes
- Start with reconciliations, approvals, and journal entries
- Use real-time validation to reduce errors before they snowball
2. Reduce Excel dependence
- Identify where Excel is being used to stitch together data from multiple systems
- Replace recurring spreadsheet work with automated, source-connected processes
3. Strengthen the ERP as your source of truth
- Route reconciliations and adjustments back into the ERP
- Improve upstream integrations with banks, PSPs, and subledgers
- Ensure your ERP reflects reality in real time
4. Clarify deadlines and accountability
- Align cross-functional teams around timelines before the month starts
- Introduce pre-close routines to avoid last-minute fire drills
5. Invest in finance team enablement
- Document workflows to reduce reliance on tribal knowledge
- Cross-train team members to avoid single points of failure
The path forward
The gap between what finance teams aspire to—and what they’re currently able to deliver—is clear. Only 18% of teams close in 3 days or less. Half still take longer than a week.
But the path forward is also clear:
- Identify where you’re burning the most hours (reconciliation is a good place to start)
- Reduce manual work and spreadsheet sprawl
- Strengthen your core systems and processes
- Align the entire company around what a good close process looks like
As finance becomes more strategic, the close shouldn’t be the cost of doing business—it should be a moment of insight. Teams that can shorten the close while maintaining accuracy will gain valuable time back to plan, forecast, and drive the business forward.
