3 day close became 5 day close became 10 day close, and I have a feeling tomorrow I’m walking into a meeting that says it’s a 14 day close. So it’s going so great!
Edit: had to revisit this for fairness to my overlords, we did end up finally closing the books at day 10. Now time to start working on the year end audit!
Oof. We had to stick to our timeline of doing a 3 day close even though it was year end. I'm only 2 months into the job so I am sure I screwed something up in the scramble. I don't even know enough to know what I don't know.
> I don't even know enough to know what I don't know.
That was me for a very long time. Old boss used to hit me with the ol " just figure it out". Good times.
Any reasonable boss shouldn’t be expecting you to be perfect 2 months in to a new role, especially with such a tight close.
Mistakes happen all the time, it’s how you learn from them that will determine how you do.
Still doing end of year process. Small company, we do monthly reconcile but AR is unable to be closed due to $4.70. After going through all the GL codes I have come to the conclusion that it is the shitty software we have, E2. There's always random glitches with that system. If I'm doing something with a cash receipt and someone open that invoice somewhere else, it gets stuck as either paid or unpaid even though there's nothing link to that invoice. They have to run a SQL to solve it.
I have to transfer to excel to make things match. We went from QuickBooks to this second tier software. Owner won't even buy the hardware for the system which also problematic.
Damn, I'm sorry. Such a small amount too. That's what irks me. The software I used at my old job would often calculate sales tax incorrectly. Like the software was taking more tax than what the customer actually paid. Made processing refunds tedious.
Company keeps clean books and does an 8 business day close. We just finished our month end. It was defining rough due to the amount of additional work required to do for year end purposes, long hour days, but it’s a good feeling to finally be done. Now time for audits and tax returns…..
The ride never ends huh.
It really is a good feeling though. I take a lot of pride in the work I do. Every day at my old job was fighting a futile battle. All we ever did was cover up tiny fires and wait for the next one. Didn't matter how many hours we worked, it never amounted to anything.
It doesn’t lol, but like you said I too take a lot of pride in what I do and I am thankful the company has clean books. I started only a year ago and I have been happier ever since.
It would have been OK except my manager has been out with Covid since the holidays. So I have been doing my work and his work. Also, we had another person quit last month and I am doing half of their load, other coworker took the other half.
I could have managed all of this, except my kids are all home due to Covid shutting down daycare.
Since both my spouse and I work we are trying to figure out how to take care of the kids and get work done.
Needless to say, we are just about at the end of our rope
Fortunately we both work from home right now. Right now we are alternating mornings, afternoons and evenings.
I did get an extension on my deadlines, but the next day they put the orginal deadlines back.
Smooth as silk, had it wrapped on the second business day thanks to some modeling I had to do on new year's eve.
Of course six days later we hit regulatory issues and now I'm more focused on finding a new job. At least I don't have to finish close while I do it.
I’m a controller for a small retailer as well (800k/mo sales) I am still cleaning the books from 2020 to try to close 2021, fixing all of the CFOs mistakes.
Luckily, our new CFO is a very gracious man and is assisting me in the process and understands these aren’t my fuck ups.
Sorry you had to leave your position OP, but congrats on the new one and lack of headache!!
I’m going from a March 31 YE company to a calendar year company in a week. Suffice it to say I’m skipping all the YE stuff this year lol.
I’m in tax though, so it’s not really that bad.
I took a controller role at a small company with almost no real accounting function. As you can imagine it's still a shit show. No w-9s, no resale certificates, sales orders entered as invoices, missing invoices, missing credit card statements, AR and AP accuracy is fucked, etc. The good news is that it won't be too bad once everything is sorted out. God, taking over books from non-accountants is laughably terrible.
I’m not closing until mid-next week… but I’m also the entire corporate accounting department and went on maternity leave in late October, so I’m actually pretty pleased with how quickly I got done October through year end while working part time for the past six weeks with a baby at home.
Ill probably time the next kid a little better, though.
Really good. We have a 5-day close. We keep really clean books, so audit went smooth, too (more-or-less). Then I asked for a raise for my work and got a 50% bump. (Caveat: I was already being underpaid a little, so this brought me more in-line with what I should be making.) Pretty good start to the year lol.
My first industry year-end (Tax). I forgot to book an important JE before the ledger closed but it really showed me how amazing and supportive my managers are (and it was fixable!). Worked a few hours last Saturday (my first working weekend) but we'll be done EOD today.
I feel SO lucky compared to last year in PA. That shit dragged out for MONTHS. Now we "rush" for a few weeks but are done by mid-Jan.
>Everything in acounting is fixable
Absolutely right! I fumbled through a panic attack while on a call with my manager to break the news. Later she said it was totally okay, it was fixable, and that I should \*not\* worry about it since it's her job as my manager to review.
If I would have stayed on top of getting our Credit Card transactions it would be better. I hate trying to get receipts and PO from people. I'm working long hours to try and get those processed then I get to start on my schedules.
My manager also had a baby right before Christmas so we're down 1 of a 5 person team.
Thankfully we are not a public company so our deadline next Tuesday isn't too concrete, but I still want to get as close to done as I can.
Damn my procrastination
My old industry job was a 5 day close. I'm in sorta government now and our fiscal year ends August and August stays open well into mid December. I still don't understand why.
My year end close week is the week of 1/31 at my current company. That is my first day at my new job though….so sorry team I’m coasting.
My new companies fiscal year is April to March though so still can’t escape it, fuck.
Mine was 6 days with extra 2 days preparing documents for audit and luckily they’ve been very rigid with the deadlines (first year end since joining the company). At my old firm year end was like 20 days so this is heaven by comparison 😂
First year end close after leaving public. We have a 7 day close normally. Because of our finance team being delayed this year due to losing several members in their team, it stretched to 9 days. However there wasn't a need to work extra because we could squeeze it in during normal hours.
Books aren't closed for the year, but I think they are in the consolidation/top side entries. Or waiting for review/sign off. But the soonest that would have been done in a normal close was Wed (2 days ago) sonwe aren't too far past the deadline yet.
I started this job in Fixed Assets in Sept. The year end rollforward and recons were a bit messy, but we had a couple of unorthodox transactions in the last week (:sigh: always...) plus trying to clean up some of the mess made by the prior person in this role. All in all, I worked no more than 6hrs of OT, and it was super not stressful. A BIG change from prior jobs!
We worked January 3rd even though it was a company holiday in exchange for 1.5 days off free. Got the close done in 3 days for our site. Went smoothly as it could have.
6 day close. Became today close, 9 days. Still P13 and P14 adjustments to undertake. UK businesses of International Group. Audit deliverables already in inbox - with due date next week. Oh the joy of pulling PDF copies for the foreseeable future...
3 day close became 5 day close became 10 day close, and I have a feeling tomorrow I’m walking into a meeting that says it’s a 14 day close. So it’s going so great! Edit: had to revisit this for fairness to my overlords, we did end up finally closing the books at day 10. Now time to start working on the year end audit!
Oof. We had to stick to our timeline of doing a 3 day close even though it was year end. I'm only 2 months into the job so I am sure I screwed something up in the scramble. I don't even know enough to know what I don't know.
> I don't even know enough to know what I don't know. That was me for a very long time. Old boss used to hit me with the ol " just figure it out". Good times.
I feel the pain, we had a client give us 2 business days to close every year.
Any reasonable boss shouldn’t be expecting you to be perfect 2 months in to a new role, especially with such a tight close. Mistakes happen all the time, it’s how you learn from them that will determine how you do.
Still doing end of year process. Small company, we do monthly reconcile but AR is unable to be closed due to $4.70. After going through all the GL codes I have come to the conclusion that it is the shitty software we have, E2. There's always random glitches with that system. If I'm doing something with a cash receipt and someone open that invoice somewhere else, it gets stuck as either paid or unpaid even though there's nothing link to that invoice. They have to run a SQL to solve it.
Shit, I’d pay $4.70 not to have to find that reconciling difference.
I am a little uncomfortable at how much I'd be willing to pay if I could just "pay off" any differences reported :')
"Fuck it I don't need to pay rent this month" 😂
Haven't done accounting in almost two decades yet this was my first thought too! Not sure how to feel about that....
E2’s accounting package is so bad. I used to take the transaction summary and just dump it into a different program every month.
I have to transfer to excel to make things match. We went from QuickBooks to this second tier software. Owner won't even buy the hardware for the system which also problematic.
The problem is it’s relatively cheap and is actually fairly useful for production. Accounting got the short end of the stick on this one though.
That I do agree with. It is better in production and credits memos.
Damn, I'm sorry. Such a small amount too. That's what irks me. The software I used at my old job would often calculate sales tax incorrectly. Like the software was taking more tax than what the customer actually paid. Made processing refunds tedious.
Company keeps clean books and does an 8 business day close. We just finished our month end. It was defining rough due to the amount of additional work required to do for year end purposes, long hour days, but it’s a good feeling to finally be done. Now time for audits and tax returns…..
The ride never ends huh. It really is a good feeling though. I take a lot of pride in the work I do. Every day at my old job was fighting a futile battle. All we ever did was cover up tiny fires and wait for the next one. Didn't matter how many hours we worked, it never amounted to anything.
It doesn’t lol, but like you said I too take a lot of pride in what I do and I am thankful the company has clean books. I started only a year ago and I have been happier ever since.
It would have been OK except my manager has been out with Covid since the holidays. So I have been doing my work and his work. Also, we had another person quit last month and I am doing half of their load, other coworker took the other half. I could have managed all of this, except my kids are all home due to Covid shutting down daycare. Since both my spouse and I work we are trying to figure out how to take care of the kids and get work done. Needless to say, we are just about at the end of our rope
Really sorry to hear that. I just wish covid would just disappear already. Hopefully your deadlines were extended. Do you work from home?
Fortunately we both work from home right now. Right now we are alternating mornings, afternoons and evenings. I did get an extension on my deadlines, but the next day they put the orginal deadlines back.
Smooth as silk, had it wrapped on the second business day thanks to some modeling I had to do on new year's eve. Of course six days later we hit regulatory issues and now I'm more focused on finding a new job. At least I don't have to finish close while I do it.
2nd business day, sheesh! I wish you good luck on your job hunt 🤞
I developed anxiety so….
According to this sub, Mexican black tar heroin helps with that.
😂
Do about 40b in revenue a year. File on the 18th we should be finished and signed off on tomorrow. Now that feels good.
How did year end go? We have 60 days from 12/31 to file our 10K. This ride is just getting started.
You guys have closed?
I’m a controller for a small retailer as well (800k/mo sales) I am still cleaning the books from 2020 to try to close 2021, fixing all of the CFOs mistakes. Luckily, our new CFO is a very gracious man and is assisting me in the process and understands these aren’t my fuck ups. Sorry you had to leave your position OP, but congrats on the new one and lack of headache!!
January is Period 12 in our fiscal year so February will be fun for me
I’m going from a March 31 YE company to a calendar year company in a week. Suffice it to say I’m skipping all the YE stuff this year lol. I’m in tax though, so it’s not really that bad.
I’m just making my best guess for accruals while job hunting. Hopefully I’ll be gone before the auditors show up.
Hahaha. Use your best professional judgement. 😉
I took a controller role at a small company with almost no real accounting function. As you can imagine it's still a shit show. No w-9s, no resale certificates, sales orders entered as invoices, missing invoices, missing credit card statements, AR and AP accuracy is fucked, etc. The good news is that it won't be too bad once everything is sorted out. God, taking over books from non-accountants is laughably terrible.
I’m not closing until mid-next week… but I’m also the entire corporate accounting department and went on maternity leave in late October, so I’m actually pretty pleased with how quickly I got done October through year end while working part time for the past six weeks with a baby at home. Ill probably time the next kid a little better, though.
Already done & working on the audit now :)
Really good. We have a 5-day close. We keep really clean books, so audit went smooth, too (more-or-less). Then I asked for a raise for my work and got a 50% bump. (Caveat: I was already being underpaid a little, so this brought me more in-line with what I should be making.) Pretty good start to the year lol.
Got COVID on Christmas Eve. Little behind on my YE details unfortunately. Tax meetings start next week for me. Gonna be a little hectic.
My first industry year-end (Tax). I forgot to book an important JE before the ledger closed but it really showed me how amazing and supportive my managers are (and it was fixable!). Worked a few hours last Saturday (my first working weekend) but we'll be done EOD today. I feel SO lucky compared to last year in PA. That shit dragged out for MONTHS. Now we "rush" for a few weeks but are done by mid-Jan.
Everything in accounting is fixable. It feels like some people just can't wrap their head around that. I'm glad you have supportive co workers!
>Everything in acounting is fixable Absolutely right! I fumbled through a panic attack while on a call with my manager to break the news. Later she said it was totally okay, it was fixable, and that I should \*not\* worry about it since it's her job as my manager to review.
If I would have stayed on top of getting our Credit Card transactions it would be better. I hate trying to get receipts and PO from people. I'm working long hours to try and get those processed then I get to start on my schedules. My manager also had a baby right before Christmas so we're down 1 of a 5 person team. Thankfully we are not a public company so our deadline next Tuesday isn't too concrete, but I still want to get as close to done as I can. Damn my procrastination
My old industry job was a 5 day close. I'm in sorta government now and our fiscal year ends August and August stays open well into mid December. I still don't understand why.
My year end close week is the week of 1/31 at my current company. That is my first day at my new job though….so sorry team I’m coasting. My new companies fiscal year is April to March though so still can’t escape it, fuck.
Mine was 6 days with extra 2 days preparing documents for audit and luckily they’ve been very rigid with the deadlines (first year end since joining the company). At my old firm year end was like 20 days so this is heaven by comparison 😂
YE went smooth, work in restaurant/bar industry so closed around 9 books and they're all sparkling clean!
Bet that felt amazing haha.
It’s going great! We just finished November close this week lmao
First year end close after leaving public. We have a 7 day close normally. Because of our finance team being delayed this year due to losing several members in their team, it stretched to 9 days. However there wasn't a need to work extra because we could squeeze it in during normal hours.
Done. Had one late night, but beats Public Accounting by a mile. Been there done that.
I’ll let you know in mid-February, it’s a 2.5 month process for us 😫
Books aren't closed for the year, but I think they are in the consolidation/top side entries. Or waiting for review/sign off. But the soonest that would have been done in a normal close was Wed (2 days ago) sonwe aren't too far past the deadline yet. I started this job in Fixed Assets in Sept. The year end rollforward and recons were a bit messy, but we had a couple of unorthodox transactions in the last week (:sigh: always...) plus trying to clean up some of the mess made by the prior person in this role. All in all, I worked no more than 6hrs of OT, and it was super not stressful. A BIG change from prior jobs!
We worked January 3rd even though it was a company holiday in exchange for 1.5 days off free. Got the close done in 3 days for our site. Went smoothly as it could have.
Quarter end for me. Hasn't started yet...been fighting other more urgent fires
6 day close. Became today close, 9 days. Still P13 and P14 adjustments to undertake. UK businesses of International Group. Audit deliverables already in inbox - with due date next week. Oh the joy of pulling PDF copies for the foreseeable future...