Closing the books and the holiday season: the big difference between CFOs and treasurers
For the average person, the end-of-year heat stroke is generally offered by a family meal with a lot of alcohol and closed as it should be by the tasty butter cream of a Christmas log eaten by the fireplace…
But for CFOs and treasurers, beyond the alcoholic hot flashes, it is also and above all a question of managing the closing of the past accounting year with cool heads!
A pivotal period
Increased workload, tight deadlines, high stakes… the closing of the accounts is in itself a delicate appointment that CFOs and treasurers cannot miss. But add to that the vacations, and for this year again, the distancing measures, and the equation becomes particularly difficult.
And for good reason: if the accounting closing was already difficult to manage when it was still possible to go to one’s workstation and chat informally with colleagues during the coffee break, it is even more difficult in the current situation. Even more so when the company does not have specialized cloud solutions to centralize, control and process the data!
Unless you have superhuman work capabilities, the annual closing is not a time for CFOs and treasurers to rest. Under high stress and torn between work and personal life during the holiday season, these professionals have learned to rely on technology to keep them from cracking and to find some comfort and serenity by the fireplace.
Read also: The Treasurer, a modern day MacGyver?
Year-end surprises
In 2021, you thought you had handled your operations methodically throughout the year and were finally looking forward to the quietest closing of your career, but again this year, a few last-minute surprises have come to play spoilsport.
You were sure that you had already taken care of this precise point last February…
However, 10 months later, you have to admit that it is not really solved and that you will have to play the archeologist, try to go back in time and lose precious time in this matter.
You thought that the slight shift observed each month on your exchange rate cover was due to Excel’s rounding…
But all things considered, these repeated approximations are starting to get in the way, and force you to run your VBA macros again… if you have any…
The bugs follow one another, the working versions multiply, the spreadsheet lines undulate more and more violently under your tired eyes and a black spot appears in the center of your screen. You take the AMD test, but there is not a single sign of age-related macular degeneration. The diagnosis is clear: you just need the right tool!
To avoid being buried under an avalanche of more or less time-consuming tasks in the middle of your winter sports vacation, why not equip yourself with a specialized SaaS software?
Read also: Treasurers, preparations to make the most of your summer vacation
With a solution such as DeftHedge, the workflow set up at the beginning of the year allows you to process and track your transactions as they happen. This saves precious time during closing periods and is undoubtedly the best way to avoid last-minute pitfalls (Excel typo, absent colleague, computer bug, etc.).
If 46% of CFOs and treasurers declare that they still have difficulties in setting up and monitoring their foreign exchange operations, the lack of adequate tools and workflows is often the cause. However, with the development of specialized solutions, this figure should improve significantly over the next few years.
In short, after the excesses of the holiday season, consider DeftHedge SaaS software to be to your accounting closing what betaine citrate is to a heavy meal: a welcome remedy to regain serenity!