The Controllership Series - The Financial Close Process
1.50 Credits
Member Price $59
Non-Member Price $79
Overview
A common challenge for the controller role is in closing the month-end and period-end books in preparation to issue financial statements. This duty requires precision, timing and efficiency.
In today’s digital world, many organizations have access to financial accounting software that will assist with the steps in the financial close. However, even with this aid it is critical the accountant understand the various steps for the close process and how they inter-relate to other accounting processes. This course gives you an insight into the inter-relationships between many processes that impact the financial close.
The closing process has traditionally been a slow one with many companies taking two weeks to close its subsidiary’s books and another two to three weeks to roll up and consolidated the results. With the introduction of technology much has been done to help accelerate that process with integrated enterprise resource planning systems and general ledger and consolidate software.
Within this segment we will discuss the elements of the financial close and also important concepts to assist the controller in accelerating their close timeline. This includes addressing all functional areas of the close including payroll, invoicing, payables, inventory, cash, and the general ledger. We will also discuss important concepts of ensuring your financial close is accurate by discussing bank reconciliations, overhead allocations, bad debt reserves, unpaid wages and accruals for vacation time, account reconciliations, deprecation and overall financial statement review.
Note: This course does not address utilizing technology in the financial close. Its focus is to understand the varied procedures involved in the financial close whether or not technology is utilized.
Highlights
- Accounting
- Finance
- Financial Statements
Prerequisites
None
Designed For
Controllers, Accountants, Finance Professionals, Auditors
Objectives
- Analysis of business transactions
- Creating journal entries
- Post to Ledger Accounts
- Prepare trial balance
- Make adjusting entrie
- Prepare adjusted trial balance
- Prepare financial statements
- Close accounts
- Prepare post-closing trial balance
Preparation
None
Leader(s):
Leader Bios
Lynn Fountain, Sole Proprietor
Lynn Fountain, CGMA, CRMA, MBA, has over 30 years of experience in the business profession, which includes public and industry accounting and over 20 years within internal and external auditing combined. She is a nationally recognized trainer and speaker and also a published author. She is a subject matter expert and specializes in Internal Audit, Sarbanes-Oxley, Enterprise Risk Management, Fraud, Governance and Compliance. Ms. Fountain has held two Chief Audit Executive positions for international companies. She has also been instrumental in the establishment of ERM, Sarbanes-Oxley and Governance frameworks.
Ms. Fountain has developed and delivered leading edge training sessions on the new COSO framework and has assisted companies in identifying risk gap analysis in their individual processes. She currently executes two highly recognized e-workshops for the Institute of Internal Auditors, one on Fraud and the second on Ethics. Both workshops have incorporate aspects of COSO 2013.
Ms. Fountain is in the process of authoring a publication for the IIA Research Foundation on aspects of fraud auditing. The publication is due out in 2015. In addition, she has performed as an adjunct instructor for the School of Business for Grantham University and the School of Business at the University of Kansas. Ms. Fountain obtained her BSBA from Pittsburg State University and her MBA from Washburn University in Kansas.
Non-Member Price $79
Member Price $59