Top 5 Financial Close Software for 2024: How to Choose the Best Solution

Financial close software makes it simple to perform financial close activities in a streamlined fashion. These tools are able to integrate with your existing systems to pull data, perform tasks, and generate reports on an as-needed basis.

Here, we'll explore the top 5 financial close software for 2024 and help you choose the best solution for your business.

Coming Up

1. What is Financial Close Software?

2. What are the Top 5 Financial Close Tools?

3. Why Use Financial Close Software?

4. Who Uses Financial Close Tools?

5. Common Features of Financial Close Tools

7. Factors to Consider When Comparing Financial Close Software

8. Closing Thoughts

What is Financial Close Software?

Financial close software, also known as accounting close software, consists of tools and technology that aid in the execution of the financial close process. This software is essential for streamlining the month-end close process, which typically involves zeroing out account balances (i.e., revenues and expenses) and updating the Retained Earnings account in the ledger to match the end-of-period balance.

Understanding Financial Close Management Software

Financial close management software provides a comprehensive suite of features designed to simplify and automate various aspects of the financial close process. These systems enable accountants to:

1. Reconcile accounts efficiently
2. Approve expenses
3. Fulfill bill payments
4. Prepare accounts for the next month of transactions
5. Consolidate financial data from multiple sources
6. Generate accurate financial reports

By leveraging these tools, finance teams can significantly reduce the time and effort required for their monthly, quarterly, and annual closures.

Benefits of Financial Close Systems

Implementing financial close software offers numerous advantages to organizations:

1. Increased accuracy: Automated processes reduce human error in financial calculations and data entry.
2. Time savings: By automating repetitive tasks, accountants can complete the close process faster.
3. Improved compliance: Many systems include built-in controls to ensure adherence to accounting standards and regulations.
4. Enhanced visibility: Real-time dashboards and reporting features provide better insights into the financial close process.
5. Streamlined collaboration: Cloud-based solutions facilitate easier communication and data sharing among team members.

Automation platforms such as SolveXia and other leading financial consolidation software solutions alleviate the manual duties of accountants, freeing up their time to focus on more analytical and strategic activities. This shift allows finance professionals to add greater value to their organizations by providing insights and contributing to strategic decision-making.

As businesses continue to seek ways to optimize their financial operations, automated financial close solutions are becoming increasingly essential. The best financial close software integrates seamlessly with existing financial reporting software, creating a comprehensive ecosystem for managing all aspects of the financial close process.

What are the Top 5 Financial Close Tools?

There are different platforms on the market that provide end-to-end finance automation, including those that are specifically tailored to manage financial close.

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular and widely used options:

1. SolveXia

SolveXia is a finance automation platform that specializes in financial close, reconciliations, and accounting services. With the cloud-based solution, your finance team and accountants can maximize productivity and efficiency.

The solution is able to perform end-to-end automation, which streamlines workflows and removes bottlenecks. With governance by design, you can utilize the software to manage all your accounting close processes while also leveraging real-time reports.

The data is always up-to-date, centralized, and secure, which allows your organization to remain agile and adaptive to evolving needs and goals.

Features:

• End-to-end automation of financial close processes
• Real-time reporting and data visualization
• Advanced reconciliation capabilities
• Workflow automation and management
• Integration with existing ERP and accounting systems
• Cloud-based solution with high security standards
• AI and machine learning capabilities for predictive insights
• Audit trails and compliance management

Benefits:

✓ Automates repetitive tasks, allowing finance teams to focus on strategic activities.

✓ Streamlines and automates the entire financial close process, ensuring smooth and efficient operations.

✓ Real-time data updates and centralized data management provide accurate and accessible information at all times.

✓ Allows organizations to quickly adapt to changing financial needs and goals.

✓ Seamlessly integrates with existing systems, enhancing data flow and reducing manual input.

✓ Maintains compliance with audit trails, governance and full visibility over processes, reducing the risk of non-compliance fines.

2. BlackLine

BlackLine is a market leader in finance and accounting automation. The software provides the ability to automate accounting activities, streamline reporting, and centralize data. BlackLine can help with important processes, like: account reconciliations, journal entry, task management, variance analysis, transaction matching, and more.

Features:

• Automated accounting activities
• Streamlined reporting
• Centralized data management
• Supports account reconciliations, journal entry, task management, variance analysis, transaction matching

Benefits:

✓ Increases efficiency by automating repetitive tasks

✓ Improves accuracy and reduces manual errors

✓ Provides comprehensive financial insights

✓ Enhances data transparency and auditability

3. Workiva

Workiva is a popular software used by enterprises globally to aid with compliance and reporting. The financial close management software provides many services, such as: board reporting, investor relations, SEDAR reporting, government reporting, internal controls, SEC reporting, stress tests, enterprise risk management, internal audit management, and more.

Features:

• Compliance and reporting tools
• Services including board reporting, investor relations, government reporting, internal controls, SEC reporting, and more
• Enterprise risk management
• Internal audit management

Benefits:

✓ Ensures compliance with various regulatory requirements

✓ Facilitates comprehensive and accurate reporting

✓ Enhances risk management and internal controls

✓ Streamlines complex reporting processes

4. Oracle

Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close is a cloud-based platform that minimizes risk, increases accuracy, and makes it easy to track the progress of financial close. The solution is a subscription based option offered by Oracle Cloud. Some of its features are: automated cash flow, dashboard and analysis, process task management, and supplemental schedule data management.

Features:

• Automated cash flow management
• Dashboard and analysis tools
• Process task management
• Supplemental schedule data management
• Subscription-based cloud solution

Benefits:

✓ Reduces risk and increases accuracy

✓ Simplifies tracking of financial close progress

✓ Provides real-time financial insights

✓ Enhances efficiency with automated processes

5. Redwood

Redwood Finance Automation is designed to support four main functions of finance teams and financial close, namely: record to report, order to cash, procure to pay and asset accounting. The system not only removes the need to manually manage processes, but it also takes advantage of data to create corporate reports.

Features:

• Supports record to report, order to cash, procure to pay, and asset accounting
• Data-driven corporate reporting
• Cloud-based automation

Benefits:

✓ Eliminates manual management of financial processes

✓ Leverages data to provide valuable insights

✓ Improves process efficiency and accuracy

✓ Enhances overall financial management and reporting

Why Use Financial Close Software?

Using financial close software removes the hassle from performing financial close on a regular basis. This technology offers numerous benefits that streamline the process and improve overall financial management.

Improved Accuracy and Efficiency

• Automated account reconciliation can be performed in seconds rather than days.
• The software carries out processes accurately and quickly, reducing human error.
• Less time is spent on financial close processes, freeing up the team's time for higher-level tasks.
• Standardized and easily replicable processes ensure consistency in each financial close cycle.
• Cost reduction due to increased efficiency.

Enhanced Compliance and Reporting

• Better compliance is achieved through automated checks and balances.
• Access to advanced analytics helps in fraud detection and resource allocation.
• Transparency is increased, as authorized individuals can review accounts and receive automated reports.
• The risk of costly fines or sanctions due to accidental misreporting is significantly reduced.
• Improved preparation for future financial planning.

With financial close automation, instead of relying on an individual or team to source data, match transactions, investigate discrepancies, and update accounts, the software handles these tasks with precision and speed. This not only improves accuracy but also allows finance professionals to focus on strategic activities.

Using an automation software like SolveXia ensures that all finance functions are customized to your needs, then standardized and repeatable, making the financial close process more manageable and consistent over time.

Who Uses Financial Close Tools?

Financial close software is utilized by a wide range of professionals involved in the financial close process. While the original user base remains relevant, we can expand on the types of users and their specific needs:

• Accountants: From junior accountants to senior CPAs, these professionals use the software daily to streamline reconciliations, journal entries, and financial statement preparation.
• Finance Teams: Entire finance departments leverage these tools to collaborate effectively, especially in larger organizations with complex financial structures.
• Controllers: As guardians of financial accuracy, controllers rely on financial close software to oversee the entire close process and ensure compliance with accounting standards.
• CFOs and Financial Directors: These executives use the software's reporting and analytics capabilities to gain strategic insights and make informed decisions.
• Auditors: Both internal and external auditors benefit from the audit trails and documentation features of financial close tools.
• Treasury Teams: For cash flow management and forecasting, treasury professionals utilize these systems to gather accurate, up-to-date financial data.
• Financial Analysts: These professionals use the software to extract data for in-depth financial analysis and modeling.
• Compliance Officers: In regulated industries, compliance teams use these tools to ensure adherence to financial regulations and reporting requirements.

From individual freelancers managing their own books to enterprise teams coordinating global financial operations, financial close software makes accounting simpler, more efficient, and more accurate. The scalability of modern solutions means that businesses of all sizes can find a tool that fits their needs and grows with them.

Common Features of Financial Close Tools

Financial close consists of several different business processes that must be performed with utmost precision and care. The common features that these automation tools provide are:

• Consolidation: Regardless of size, most organizations have financial information across systems and within different departments, or sometimes even subsidiary companies. Automation software can pull data from multiple systems to centralize all the information you need to complete workflows.
  

• Workflows: Speaking of workflows, you can design custom workflows in these systems to automation processes. This not only helps to assign responsibility and boost ownership, but it also makes it easy for CFOs and leadership to oversee the progress of important workflows.
  

• Reconciliation: Account reconciliation is imperative to ensure that your organization’s financial situation is as it shows up on internal ledgers. By matching transactions with external sources, it’s possible to monitor improper spending, detect fraud, and ensure that account balances are right.
  

• Records Management: Along with regulatory compliance, it’s best to choose a software that allows for records management, which means it can withhold documents and checklists so that every team member has access to your organization’s standards and protocols.

• Financial Insights: It’s safe to say that virtually every business decision involves the review of finances. As such, you want to make sure that financial data is always up-to-date and accurate. Then, you can utilize software’s ability to perform analytics so you can glean insights to inform your decisions.

• Integration: When you choose to use a tool like SolveXia, you can easily integrate the automation platform with your existing software and legacy systems, without risking losing any data.

• ‍Review: Since every period’s finances rely on the last, the financial close processes must be reviewed and approved. However, it’s always a risk that human error will occur or there will be a delay. With an automation solution, the accuracy of the system is spot on, and the workflow moves through until approval is completed.
  

Factors to Consider When Comparing Financial Close Software

When choosing the right financial close software for your organization, it’s good to keep in mind the following features and capabilities:

1. Scope:  Do you want a financial close software that is solely focused on financial close or do you want a platform that can do that and more?

2. Integrations: What other financial systems are already in place in the organization, and can the new software tool integrate well?

3. Scalability: If your business grows, is the software able to manage a high influx of data and still process information at quick speeds?

4. ‍Ease-of-use: Does your team need advanced technical knowledge to work within the system or is there a graphical interface that makes it simple?

5. Automation Capabilities: Extent to which the software can automate repetitive tasks, reduce manual entry, and streamline workflows. Does the software facilitate automated reconciliations, journal entries, and report generation?

6. Real-Time Reporting and Analytics: Does the solution provide dashboards and visualization tools that help track performance and identify trends?

7. Security and Compliance: What security measures does the financial close software have in place to protect sensitive financial data? Consider features such as audit trails, user permissions, and data encryption.

8. Customizability: Flexibility to customize workflows, reports, and dashboards to meet specific business needs. To what extent does the software allow you to customize automation rules and processes?

9. Support and Training: Onboarding support and availability and quality of customer support, including technical assistance and training resources. 

Closing Thoughts

Financial close software will elevate your organization. Along with easing the workload of your finance team and/or accountant, you’ll be able to connect all your systems and improve transparency within your entire organization.

Given the importance of finances and financial close, every department can benefit from the addition of a financial close software. There’s no better time than now to get started– book a demo today and see how financial close software can improve your organization.