Role
Financial controller
At what point are the month's numbers certain? If it is the day before the report goes out, the variance analysis is written overnight - and that is the part of the work you are paid for.
Intro call
Four questions we would start with
In most companies the close is a race in which analysis loses to assembling. The questions below are there to establish where the days go.
At what point are the numbers certain?
If it is the day before the reporting deadline, there are a few hours left for the conclusions. Moving that point two days earlier changes the character of the whole role.
What do you not know about the result until every input has arrived?
Usually: whether what you see during the month makes any sense at all. You work on a picture that can still shift to the very end - and by how much is unknown.
Who notices first that something is wrong this month?
If it is the controller at the close, the response comes a month late. If it is nobody, it surfaces at the audit.
What do you put off first when the pack is due tomorrow?
Usually the commentary on variances and the conversations with cost owners - the only parts of this work that actually change anyone's decisions.
We take over the assembling, you keep the judgement
Collecting the inputs, reconciling balances, catching discrepancies and assembling the reporting pack can be taken off the desk. Judging what the numbers mean and what to do about them stays with the controller.
- Nothing is adjusted automatically. - The system points out a discrepancy and its size. The decision to adjust carries accountability and stays with a person.
- Every number in the pack has a path to its source. - That is the thing which, at a question from an auditor or the board, settles the matter without going back to the source spreadsheets.
- The variance is calculated, the cause described by a person. - The system shows what else changed in the same period. Why is said by someone who knows the context.
Scope
What can be taken off a controller's desk
Twenty example tasks. Each one has a human approval point. Below is a selection, and the scope we fit to your process.
The sources of the numbers in the pack
- The path from a line in the pack to the source document
- Detecting an input that arrived in a different form than usual
- Marking the lines based on an estimate rather than on a document
- The history of a number's changes between versions of the pack
- A summary of the adjustments made after the first version
Reconciliations and discrepancies
- Reconciling balances between systems with the amount of the difference
- Pointing out entries unusual against the account's history (assessment: the controller)
- Detecting postings in the wrong period
- A summary of the lines needing a decision on an adjustment (decision: the controller)
- Checking the completeness of provisions and accruals
Variance analysis
- Actuals against plan and against the previous period
- Breaking a variance into its components
- Pointing out events from the same period that might explain the difference (cause: the controller)
- A list of lines that are outliers against their own history
- Material for a conversation with the cost owner
The reporting pack and the questions after the close
- The pack in a fixed form, ready on the agreed day (commentary: the controller)
- The path from a number in the report to the source document
- Ready answers to the questions that come back after every close
- Preparing the material for the auditor
- The history of changes to the report between versions
A day's work
Today
- The first days after the period go on chasing departments for missing inputs
- You look for discrepancies by going through accounts line by line
- The variance analysis gets written at the end, when there is least time
- You answer "where does this number come from" after an hour of searching
- You assemble the reporting pack by hand, the same way every time
- At the audit you reconstruct what happened six months ago
With AI assistance
- You can see which inputs have arrived and which have not, without asking
- The discrepancies and unusual entries are waiting, pointed out, with the amount of the difference
- There is time for analysis, because assembling stopped taking it
- The path from a number to a document is one click
- The pack is ready on the agreed day, you write the commentary
- The material for the auditor comes from recorded history, not from memory
- Time to close
the result is certain earlier
assembling the inputs stops being manual work
- Detecting errors
an unusual entry surfaces at the close, not at the audit
the check compares every period against history rather than a sample
- Independence from who is on duty
the close looks the same whoever runs it
the schedule and the list of inputs are a process, not the controller's knowledge
- Trust in a number
a question about where a number comes from has an answer on the spot
the path to the source document is recorded with every line
We start with one close that has already happened.
- Step 1
We go from a number to its source
We take a few lines from the last pack and check how many steps separate them from a document. That usually shows which numbers you can defend on the spot and which need a trip back to a spreadsheet.
- Step 2
Reconciliations and discrepancies
Reconciliation summaries and the differences pointed out with their size. A change with an immediate effect, because it removes the searching.
- Step 3
Reconciliations and checks
Automatic balance comparisons and detection of unusual entries. Every rule that generates false alarms is fixed or switched off.
- Step 4
The pack and the path to the source
Assembling the report and linking the numbers to documents. This is the stage most visible at the first question from the board or the auditor.
Common questions
Questions that come up at the first meeting
Will a controller still be needed if the pack assembles itself?
A pack never assembles itself - it is made of numbers somebody has to defend. Today a controller spends most of the time collecting and reconciling, and is left with the last day to explain a variance. When collecting stops being their work, what remains is what they were hired for: the conversation with the business about why the number looks the way it does.
Does this fall under the AI Act?
Supporting the close is not a high-risk use. More relevant are the requirements on the books and internal control: the audit trail, segregation of duties, the ability to reconstruct an entry. All three are easier to demonstrate after the change than when working in spreadsheets.
Still have a question that is not here? Book a call
Next step
How many days after the close does your board get numbers it can rely on?
We will show you what a close looks like when assembling the inputs stops eating the days meant for analysis.