The timeline for closing the month and issuing financial reports to management has dramatically decreased to as little as 1 week or 10 days for many companies when using NetSuite.
Some of the standard month-end bottlenecks can be addressed before month-end to reduce the time needed for review.
NetSuite's Month- End Close Features
NetSuite provides several features that assist with month-end close:
- Employee expense reporting: Aids in recording and tracking receipts for credit card purchases.
- Bank Feeds or Bank Statement import: Allows bank transactions to be imported into NetSuite and automates the reconciliation process.
- Memorized Journal Entries: Saves time in creating recurring monthly entries.
- Prepaid Expense Amortization: Automates the amortization of prepaid expenses.
- Allocations: Allows you to automate the allocation of expenses based on sales or headcount.
- Customizable Financial Reports: Create one or multiple versions of income statements, balance sheets, or cash flow formats that can be printed directly without manipulation in Excel.
- Drill-down reporting: Easily drill down from NetSuite reports to the transaction that created the entry.
- Automated intercompany elimination: Eliminates intercompany revenue for consolidated reporting.
- Integration points from other systems: Connects through APIs or CSV imports.
- Fixed Asset Module: Calculates and records depreciation.
- Advanced Revenue Recognition: Used to record deferred revenue and earned revenue each month.
- Bill capture: Records vendor bills faster.
- ACH bill payments: Reduces check writing, speeding up vendor payments and simplifying bank reconciliation.
- Credit card imports and reconciliations
- Period Close Checklist: System tasks needed to close the month
- Web-Based System: Allows outside accountants to log in and review financial reports.
- Scheduled reports: Emails key reports automatically on a schedule for month-end review.
- Commissions Module: Assists in calculating paid-when-paid commissions.
Month-end close does still require some manual review.
- Use a comparative income statement (this month vs. last month) for a quick reasonableness check. Some accounts (rent, utilities, payroll) should be relatively consistent every month. This can help you quickly identify missing bills.
- With bank feeds or bank statement import, some accountants reconcile the bank account daily or weekly.
- Review income statements weekly. Drill down into transaction details when questioning the validity of an account balance. Miscoding can be found and fixed quickly.
- Have a manual checklist of month-end tasks in addition to the NetSuite period close list. The NetSuite list won't capture manual entries or imports you need to perform. Keep track of these on a separate checklist.
NetSuite is a forgiving system.
- An incorrectly coded vendor bill can be fixed.
- A new item coded to the wrong general ledger (GL) account can be changed, and all related transactions will be fixed.
- If you find a significant correction needed after closing the month, you can reopen the period and make the correction, provided you haven't issued the financial reports to third parties.
If you're looking to unlock the full potential of NetSuite saved searches, Luxent can help. Our NetSuite consulting experts can provide guidance, training, and support tailored to your specific needs. Contact us today to learn how we can elevate your NetSuite experience.
