Manufacturing · Finance
Reducing month-end reconciliation review time in a mid-market manufacturer
Three analysts cleared reconciliation exceptions manually across a five-day close. Exceptions arrived as a flat list with no ranking, so the hardest items were reached last, when the least time remained.
- Company shape
- ₹1,200 to ₹2,000 crore revenue, 2,000 to 4,000 employees
- Timebox
- 9 weeks
- Systems
- ERP, Bank statement feeds, Spreadsheet-based working papers
IllustrativeThis write-up is a composite drawn from work of this shape. It is labelled because presenting a composite as a single engagement would be a fabrication.
Before
The state we started from
Three analysts cleared reconciliation exceptions manually across a five-day close. Exceptions arrived as a flat list with no ranking, so the hardest items were reached last, when the least time remained.
The decision
What had to be decided first
The value map named review hours per close cycle as the metric, the Financial Controller as owner, and a parallel-run comparison across three cycles as the validation method. It passed the Target gate on measurability because the baseline already existed in the close timetable.
Built
What was actually built
An exception triage interface that clusters exceptions by root cause, proposes a matching rationale with the source records attached, and requires an analyst to accept, amend, or reject. Every decision is logged against the close cycle.
What changed
Review time per close cycle fell from 38 hours to 11 hours
- Measurement window
- Measured across three consecutive close cycles
- Methodology
- Parallel run against the prior three cycles, same team, same volume band. Time captured from the close timetable, not self-reported. Review time by the finance manager is included in the after figure.
What did not work
Automatic clearance of low-value exceptions was cut. The controller would not accept clearance without a named reviewer, and the fully loaded cost of the review made the automation worthless at that value band. It was removed rather than defended.
Systems involved
- ERP
- Bank statement feeds
- Spreadsheet-based working papers
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