Abstract
The monthly accounting close is not just an accounting process, but also a business process. It involves not just finance, but also the business (such as cost center owners working on their accruals and managers making business decisions that will affect the accounting results, etc). An overall understanding of the close process, main tasks, and due dates will help make your participation in the monthly close more effective.
Deadlines before last Friday of fiscal month - the second last Friday before close is the last day to send IDCM request forms - Last Wednesday of month - final day to send for sending inter Europe IDCM's, Balance sheet FX published by Corporate - Final Thursday is the last day for sending out of Europe IDCM's
Last Friday of fiscal month (day x) - Last day to book sales revenue in the distribution system. Any revenue adjustments (see accruals) can be performed the following week - Any change in the People soft system NO later than Friday. This is important for complement reporting.
Monday (x +1) - Last day to book customer payments (cash)
Tuesday (x + 2) - Most accruals should be booked (countries and FSSC) - FSSC run the first allocations.
Natural expense reports are send out to the countries as a first look at the numbers - Final day for booking inter-company transactions - Corporate load the product database in GFS (local currency only for Revenue) from Phoenix system - Corporate load US COGS in $ in GFS (Phoenix system) - Inventory and sales unit detail are loaded into the product database in GFS
Wednesday (x + 3) - 10 AM is final deadline to submit or post journal entries, including any accruals - FSSC run final allocations and send final natural expense detail to the countries - Final cash posting (usually cash in transit) - Submit GFS at 4 pm.
No further changes can be made to Europe numbers - Corporate load the GFS system with each entity accounting data, the automated profit/elimination entries for COG, product-related OPC expense, and inventory (Phoenix system), and translate and roll up GFS financial data – Corporate process the data so that LC is translated into US$ actual FX rates for current year data, plan FX rates for plan, & last year FX for prior year. Corporate run allocations for select “business incurred” accounts within GFS.
Thursday (x + 4) - European countries required to forward narratives on month results - Corporate complete all manual profit elimination entries including adjustments to all classes of inventory and inventory reserves, and all product related OPC expenses - Preliminary numbers reviewed by Europe and consolidation team (such as margins, OPC, inventory COGs, etc)
Friday (x + 5) - European teleconference meeting to review results and discuss issues raised by the close results (includes HQ, FSSC, and Corporate consolidation group)
Dates monthly financial results are available – PeopleSoft complement reporting available first Monday of the following month - The preliminary monthly financials available first Friday of the following month; final results available following Monday. At qtr end, the final results available the second Friday of the following month.
Let's move on and look at the systems that we use for the close.
