NetSuite Close Management and Consolidation: How Experts Maximize Efficiency

 An Overview of NetSuite Close Management and Consolidation Services: Insight by Industry Experts. 

The financial close process can be among those incidentally and inherently tedious yet nevertheless integral business operations. For years, companies have depended on manual workflows and disparate systems, often met with inefficiencies, delays, and possible human errors. The problems have made closing a financial cycle a longer and costlier process, in complement with compliance requirements and ensuring accuracy.

At the same time, modern tools such as the NetSuite Close Management module have come into consideration to mitigate these conditions for businesses by modernizing their financial close processes. These tools allow organizations, by automating repetitive tasks, organizing data in a common repository, and embedding compliance procedures, to face the intricacies of financial administration with more confidence and efficiency. 

This blog outlines the main challenges posed by the conventional financial close process and the solutions offered by NetSuite Financial Close Management that have made it possible to tackle many of them. Along the way, we will share insights into best practices and strategies based on EPIQ’s experience with helping businesses systematically optimize financial operations. Let’s start by unpacking the most common pain points in financial close management. 

Additional Reading: Step-by-Step NetSuite AR Automation-Driving Cash Flow and Efficiency 

Some Problems Solved by NetSuite Financial Closing Management 

The traditional method of closing assignments in the finance department has lacked efficiency and has been fraught with inaccuracies since the primacy of manual labor for every little bit of bookkeeping. Let’s look at some of the bigger or specific pain points that solutions such as NetSuite Close Management have directly dealt with at some level and how that has improved the functionality: 

1) A Protracted Closing Procedure: 

Traditional close management is centered on manual work, eating away substantial time and resources. The clunky financial consolidation systems are hard to process. Updating takes longer as financial close management cannot apply a universal policy across closing cycles. 

Addressing the need for automated and seamless execution during the close cycle was also an urgent necessity to ensure financials could devote time to exception handling and reporting results. 

2) Manual consolidation of financial data: 

Manual consolidation of data across several entities or regions is prone to errors. Whereas NetSuite simply centralizes the entire process through transaction matching, data validation, and audit trails, thus guaranteeing accurate reporting and reducing manual process-related errors. 

3) Risk Control: 

Traditional close management is probably more likely to face security breaches, scams, or missing transactions, making the process quite obscure and suspect. The presence of NetSuite Close Management seems to solve that concern, too. 

NetSuite financial close management is built to record transactions with bank encryption and provide secure access controls, hence significantly reducing fraud or data loss. Its well-organized processes foster trust in financial reporting. 

4) Risk of Auditing and Compliance: 

Transparency is a must-have in financial close management, especially regarding audit compliance along with handling extra information. When it comes to traditional methodology, too many times does it come short on information interpretation or security of the information, thereafter, thereby increasing failure chances or non-compliance with regulations. 

NetSuite financial consolidation bridges these gaps by incorporating workflows that guarantee transparency and accountability, facilitate speedy audits, establish strict roles, and enable the tracking of source data behind each number. It also allows for supplemental data collection to keep all transaction documents, invoices, banking statements, and receipts in one area. 

What to Watch Out For: NetSuite Close Management Key Features 

With NetSuite Close Management and Consolidation, we now have one rich portal addressing all types of financial close processes for all types of businesses. It’s a closely integrated circuit, from internal processing to banking transactions and beyond, in prioritizing secured financial close management. 

Now that we know how NetSuite functions, let’s discuss its core features that make it a trusted partner to several organizations and businesses. 

• Close Process Checklist: In-built is a pre-determined checklist in NetSuite which guarantees that tasks of the closing will be performed in an appropriate sequence. This prevents delays in closing and tends to provide consistency for finance teams, allowing an instant snapshot of the closing cycle’s status. 
  
  

Tip from EPIQ: Make sure the checklist is up-to-date based on changes in regulations and business practices. 

• Bank Reconciliation: These consolidation tools are enhanced with banking integration features to provide decentralized workflows for normalizing transactions. NetSuite imports bank statement data, matches them with transaction records, creates an entry if no transactions match, and flags transactions for review by an accounting expert. 

• Transaction Matching: Delays in processing customer payments are reflected in the balance sheet immediately. NetSuite provides cross-account transaction matching, reconciliation for open invoices, and a seamless balance sheet update in real-time. This minimizes manual involvement immensely and guarantees efficiency and accuracy in financial processes. 

• Financial Consolidation: Consolidating finances and records across multiple subsidiaries can be difficult and tedious for big companies and organizations. NetSuite really acts as a one-stop solution since it automates literally every step from subsidiary-level accounts downwards. Hence, NetSuite Consolidation tools save a lot of hassle and time.  

Industry Insights: What Do the Experts Say? 

Financial close cycles are time- and resource-intensive and happen monthly. From real-time issues tracking to automation, the NetSuite Close Management system helps speed up and become more accurate in the whole closing process. Actions recommended include adopting best practices aligned to the close-cycle objective to improve efficiency and consistency. Dedicatedly focus on these practices and break through close cycles. 

• Multi-subsidiary Management: NetSuite provides improved support to different geographies.  

• Currency Management: NetSuite consolidation tools automate foreign currency translations and revaluations. 

• Compliance and Reporting: Built-in tools facilitate compliance to regulatory standards in the financial close management. 

• Advanced Analytics: Leverage real-time data and insights in order to make a better decision. 

CONCLUSION 

The right kind of financial close management can assure accuracy, compliance, and efficiency. Automation of workflows combined with the power of NetSuite financial consolidation allows these processes to take place in a much easier way while placing all data into real-time insights. Usage of such modern solutions can help organizations save on manual processes, achieve better accuracy in reporting, and build a stronger focus towards strategic decisions around finance. 

If you wish to learn more about how the platform may help streamline your financial processes, you have come to the right place. EPIQ offers specific solutions that are tailored to your needs. Book a discovery call or request a demo to find out how NetSuite can benefit your organization.