How to Clear Hidden Bottlenecks in Financial Consolidation and Close + Downloadable Checklist

Finance teams are closing the books faster than ever, but for many, the clock stops at the GL.

The latest research from Planful points to areas like account reconciliations, consolidation adjustments, and financial statement prep as the next big opportunities to save time and improve accuracy during financial close.

Read on to learn how to fix the hidden bottlenecks in the middle stages of financial consolidation and close. Plus, you’ll see how Planful customers have improved financial close from beginning to end, and claim your copy of our financial close checklist to find even more opportunities to streamline the process.

Planful’s 2025 Global Finance Survey found that the majority of finance teams complete each stage of the financial close process in less than five days.

That’s real progress. But not every phase runs as smoothly as the next. We found that teams are lagging in the middle stages of financial close:

• 37% say account reconciliations take more than six days.
• 37% need six or more days for consolidation adjustments.
• 40% spend six or more days on financial statement prep, the single slowest part of the close for most teams.

These middle stages tend to be slower and error-prone because they’re still heavily managed outside the ERP, in spreadsheets or legacy tools. Notice some overlap between these processes and the top consolidation pain points raised in the survey:

• 51% say integrating data from multiple ERPs or GLs was one of the biggest friction points impacting financial close and consolidation
• 47% list manual data entry and adjustments’
• 45% report data reconciliation issues
• 43% struggle with complex intercompany transactions and eliminations

It’s not surprising that these pain points surface during account reconciliation, consolidation, and financial statement preparation. They’re all symptoms of the same root problem: juggling spreadsheets and chasing numbers across disconnected systems.

That’s why more teams are turning to platforms like Planful that offer a centralized space for financial close management.

Let’s dive into proven strategies to help you tighten execution during reconciliations, consolidation adjustments, and financial statement preparation.

Reconciliations

Manual reconciliations are among the biggest drags on the financial close process. Automating this step—especially with certification workflows, variance thresholds, and exception tracking—reduces risk and frees teams to focus on analysis.

• Automate account ownership and certification workflows. Assign clear reconciliation owners and track sign-off digitally to eliminate confusion and missed deadlines.
• Segment high-risk accounts. Reconcile critical areas like cash, AR, accruals, and intercompany balances early, using smart thresholds to flag exceptions.
• Leverage a centralized platform. Use Planful to unify supporting documents, validation rules, and real-time status in one place, reducing review cycles and audit prep. Planful supports reconciliations with Adra Balancer, a Trintech solution integrated into the platform.
• Confirm all data sources are version-controlled. Avoid rework by establishing a single source of truth and managing cutoffs systemically.

Consolidation adjustments

Handle multi-entity rollups, FX translations, and intercompany eliminations in one centralized system. The best financial consolidation software eliminates the need to wrangle spreadsheets across entities and helps teams close faster with fewer adjustments.

• Standardize inputs from all entities and business units. Collect actuals from GLs, subledgers, payroll, leases, and tax systems consistently—ideally through pre-mapped integrations.
• Integrate consolidation logic into your system of record. Automate FX translation, minority interest, and eliminations instead of manually adjusting offline.
• Reconcile intercompany activity in advance. With Adra Matcher, another solution offered in partnership with Trintech, finance teams can use predefined matching rules and validation checks across entities to reduce end-of-close surprises.
• Maintain full audit traceability. Use Planful’s financial consolidation software to track every adjustment and ensure complete version control.
• Validate ownership structures and rollups. Confirm that parent-child relationships and investment eliminations are up to date, especially after M&A activity or reorgs.

Financial statement preparation

Generating consolidated financial statements directly from your consolidation environment minimizes version confusion and ensures reporting consistency. With Planful’s financial consolidation software, teams can create GAAP/IFRS-compliant reports using built-in templates and reduce back-and-forth with auditors and stakeholders.

• Create internal reports before external ones. Prep your management reports (e.g., P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, budget vs. actual) for internal use first, so executive teams have visibility while statutory reporting wraps.
• Use prebuilt statement templates to streamline output. Planful’s financial reporting templates reduce formatting time and drive consistency across GAAP, IFRS, and management views.
• Tie statements back to the data. Statements should reflect the same consolidated dataset used in reconciliations and journal entries—no offline copies.
• Automate disclosure and footnote creation. Build roll-forward schedules and add narrative commentary directly in the platform to reduce errors and rework.

ESL, a German esports company, moved from SAP S/4HANA and IBM Cognos to Planful to expedite its monthly financial close and consolidation. ESL previously delivered consolidated figures by working day nine. With Planful, they now report on day five.

“Creating the management reports we need then takes as little as one day for the balance sheet, P&L, cash flow statement, and statement in changes in equity. We can also do our monthly reporting in just one day,” said group accountant Julia Rausch.

Since implementing Planful, data transfers from SAP and NetSuite into Planful happen within minutes, enabling faster, more reliable consolidated reporting.

• The best opportunity for automation and process improvement lies in the middle of the financial close process, with over a third of finance teams spending 6+ days each completing reconciliations, consolidations, and financial statement prep.
• These stages are often handled outside the ERP, explaining the slowdown. Siloed systems, manual data entry, and reconciliation tasks grind the process to a halt.
• Teams using financial consolidation tools like Planful’s close the books faster, gain more visibility into their data sources, and eliminate late-cycle rework.

 

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Ready to close with confidence every time?

Download our Financial Close Checklist covering monthly, quarterly, and annual tasks to cut time and reduce errors.

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How can financial consolidation software improve the close process?

Financial close and consolidation software centralizes data, automates eliminations and FX translation, and reduces reliance on spreadsheets. This helps finance teams close faster with fewer errors.

How can finance teams speed up multi-entity consolidation?

To speed up multi-entity consolidation, finance teams should centralize data, automate intercompany eliminations and FX adjustments, and validate ownership structures using purpose-built financial consolidation software.

What’s the role of AI in financial close and consolidation?

AI is increasingly used to flag anomalies, suggest variance explanations, and automate repetitive close tasks. Over half of the leaders in Planful’s 2025 Global Finance Survey say AI will have the biggest impact on consolidation.