Reconciliation and the close
Reconciliation done by hand is the slowest, most error-prone part of the close. And nobody can say which accounts are finished without asking around.
15 of 55
buyer companies named manual consolidation and the month-end close burden as a pain. Reconciliation is usually where that burden sits.
Source: 55 buyer companies quoted in MCC sales conversations, 2026.
Already running clean, fast reconciliations? Then you don't need this page. Consolidation or forecasting is probably the better read.
It's usually the same growth pressure as consolidation: more entities and more accounts to reconcile, and no extra days in the month to do it. The close stretches a little every quarter until someone notices how long it has become.
| The old way | The new way |
|---|---|
| Every reconciliation is a spreadsheet, prepared by hand, one account at a time. | An automated reconciliation flow that matches what it can and flags what it can't. |
| Nobody can see which accounts are done until someone asks. | Status by account, preparer and reviewer, visible to the whole team. |
| Audit season means digging for sign-offs. | Every reconciliation carries its preparer, reviewer, date and support. |
The sharpest number on this site came from a controller who automated this:
Monthly financial statements went from 3 to 5 days of evenings and weekends to about 20 minutes, ready the day the books close.
“Last year, we worked with Charlie and MCC to automate our IFRS financial statements and monthly reporting in Vena. Previously, generating statements took 3-5 days with late nights and weekends. Now, it runs in under 20 minutes - saving time, reducing errors, and ensuring consistency. We also automated our reporting package, allowing earlier insights and better review before close. Charlie and his team supported us every step of the way.”
Sarah Delehanty
Controller, Touch Bistro
Monthly reporting moved out of manual Excel and into Vena, and now it flags when someone changes a closed period in NetSuite.
“I found inconsistencies from how I was doing things before, and now this forces a level of consistency. And frankly it better highlights when I find things that we have gone back and changed in NetSuite in closed periods. All of a sudden, wait a minute, this looks different than how I reported last month. So it helps me catch things that we shouldn't have done.”
Jim Jenkins
CFO, Essex Finishing
A project expected to be complicated turned out smooth
“The project that we thought was going to be really complicated turned out to be a very smooth project, and I’m very happy with the results. We were able not just to bring the data we needed for seamless reporting, but also to upgrade and improve our capabilities. The greatest part was the communication and flexibility - having open communication and feeling comfortable asking questions was definitely the key to the success of everything.”
Luiz Carvalho
Director of FP&A, Beck
A complex revenue model and SaaS metrics, built cleanly in the platform
“We were really impressed with Charlie and the Monte Carlos team for their expertise as finance practitioners. They were able to execute quickly and understand our complex revenue model, various customer segments, and key SaaS metrics. Their help in building models and calculations in a clean and efficient way within our platform was greatly appreciated.”
Matt Blagden
FP&A Manager, Activeprospect
The month-end close broken down, with the real bottlenecks found
“Charlie and the MCC team helped us break down our month-end close process and quickly identify the real bottlenecks. Even though the solution was upstream of their tooling, the conversation gave us clear next steps to improve the workflow.”
David Maxwell
Director, La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries
At minimum cash and bank, receivables, payables, prepaids, accruals, intercompany balances, fixed assets, payroll liabilities, debt, and anything material or prone to error. Lower-risk accounts can be reconciled less often if your policy says so. The point is a documented, risk-based list, not every account every month out of habit.
Load balances and transactions from the ERP and the bank automatically, let rules match what matches, and send only the exceptions to a person. The team can keep working in an Excel interface while preparer, reviewer and status are tracked centrally, so automating the work doesn't mean retraining everyone who does it.
Evidence that each reconciliation was prepared and reviewed by different people, on time, with reconciling items explained and supported, and that the reconciled balance agrees to the general ledger. Missing sign-offs, stale reconciling items and unexplained differences are what turn into audit questions, and later into audit findings.
Record it in the same place the reconciliation lives. Each account carries its preparer, reviewer, dates and status, with support attached. Then the close checklist is a live view rather than a spreadsheet someone remembers to update, and an audit request becomes a filter instead of a week of digging through folders.
The close regularly runs long because reconciliations eat the first days of the month, senior people are still ticking and tying, the same reconciling items roll forward month after month, and nobody can say which accounts are done without asking around. Two of those together usually means it's time to change.
Last updated
Reconciliation flows get built on the foundation and proven in the first real close, next to the way you do it today, so you can see the new flow agree with the old one before you switch.
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