IE Business School and everis present the report ‘Fast Close:
Efficiency in Obtaining Financial Information’ on financial close processes 
  

On average, companies dedicate
20 days to the annual financial close      
 

On average, Spanish companies dedicate 20 workdays to the financial close process, as reflected in the report “Fast Close: Efficiency in Obtaining Financial Information”, prepared by the Information Observatory of the Board of Directors of IE Business School and everis. In this manner, 30% of the interviewed companies state that they require more than 15 days to complete the annual consolidated close process, 60% between 15 and 5 days and only 14% of the companies state they are capable of completing the process in less than 5 days.


In order to carry out the study, IE Business School and everis experts interviewed the financial directors of 30 large companies from the most representative sectors of the Spanish economy, with the objective of obtaining the best practices in the financial close process. The project, which studies each phase of the financial close process, provides a detailed view, necessary for organisations to achieve greater data integrity, shorten the preparation cycle and reduce obtainment costs.

Among the main conclusions reached, the report reveals three key factors for optimising the financial close process. In this regard, 54% of the interviewed companies consider that improving the financial systems is a fundamental factor for reducing times, followed by 23% which state that a greater number of professionals within the financial close team would help optimise the process. On the other hand, 15% advocate an improvement in data generation systems.

The analysis also reveals that those companies which use a greater number of standardised accounting policies and procedures to carry out the financial close dedicate 11.2 days on average, while in the remaining cases this average increases to 23.5 days. In this manner, the companies that obtain the best practices in terms of efficiency and times stand out for following a single accounting procedure and insisting on the review of financial statement data quality.
Finally, the report shows that the companies with best practices have automated close to 80% of their annual close process. Thus, with respect to the technology used, the study states that the best-positioned companies in terms of time and efficiency use integrated information systems that centralise the data and eliminate risks and duplicities. Therefore, those companies with higher-than-average automation take 13.7 days to complete the financial close process, while in the remaining cases, the average is 39.5 days.

This initiative is the result of companies’ demand for economic and financial information, organisation and control, thereby converting the corporate reporting process into a critical phase for any company and, ultimately, for the Board of Directors, which needs this information to make timely decisions and to suitably inform the markets.

everis and IE Business School have created the Information Observatory for the Board of Directors with the objective of analysing Board Meeting information-related topics, both that used by the directors to efficiently perform their duties and that made available to the markets and interested parties or stakeholders.