Without notice, your team is working in a different world. Closing the books with a remote workforce requires careful, but quick planning.
KPMG has devised a four-phased approach to maintain business continuity during the months’ end closing process. Even in these trying times, with careful planning and KPMG’s approach, your team can be ready for a virtual close.
Phase 1: Rapid on-boarding
Timing: 1 week
Assess the business need, skill-sets, and levels to identify and on-board resources
- Confirm scope around close activities
- Develop service delivery model
- Establish governance protocols
- Build close support roadmap and timeline
- On-board team members and grant access
- Global scale and service delivery protocols
Phase 2: Train and assimilate
Timing: 1-2 weeks
On-the-job training and rapid resource deployment – 100-percent shadowing of work hours and global support model across all regions and geographies
- Rapid shift to a 100-percent remote close process requires realignment of people and skill-sets
- Conduct a thorough evaluation of the financial close and reporting process
- Leverage expertise and clustering excellence, both internally as well as with external resources
- Communicate and align with your auditors to re-confirm key materiality and journal entry thresholds, to support process efficiency
Phase 3: Quality close
Timing: 3-12 weeks
Embed resources as a part of the Controllership teams, provide hands-on accounting, reporting, close, technical accounting, project management office, communication, and finance transformation support
- Begin migrating to a "hard" M1 and M2 close to support close process discipline throughout the year
- Deliberately focus on: Efficiency, Cycle Times, Quality and Accuracy of Data, Coordination and Timing Across the Globe, Business and Information Technology
Controls and Removing Complexity
Phase 4: Stabilize
Timing: 1-3 months
Monitor and confirm that services and quality have stabilized and operationalize close governance processes
- Operationalize new close governance processes and monitor to confirm that services and quality have stabilized
- Develop and communicate a “Remote Close Calendar”
- Define clear ownership of tasks based on the new “remote close calendar”
- Track the “Remote Financial Close Scorecard” with the focus on key metrics that are of critical importance in this new environment
