Continuous Accounting: CFO’s Secret Weapon

Continuous accounting has more to do with the process and less with GL accounting systems that Companies use. If one relooks at the month-end close process and rejigs the same, one’s systems will follow that process easily. The issue that the author observed in his long professional career while working with various large multinational companies is more towards adopting a traditional approach of working on various items mentioned in the article; work on those only at month-end, which takes time and delays the entire month-end close process, internal reporting, decision making etc. Hence, using a continuous accounting approach, if one is able to change the process, the month-end close timeline can be reduced so that one can bring rigour to overall financial processes.

So, irrespective of system, tax regime, local regulation, or statutory compliance; if one tries to follow the concept mentioned in this article and change the process, one can reap plenty of benefits.

BACKGROUND

Today, Accounting is way beyond the act of bookkeeping- debits and credits. It's the language of business strategy and of all items which can be measured in monetary terms. Human sensory systems receive signals from both inside the body and outside the environment, and the human brain interprets them. Similarly, Accountants translate the complexi