Faster Quarter-End Closing Requires Smarter Automation

Quarter-end close is rarely a smooth process. When teams are stuck chasing down invoice approvals, double-checking allocations, and manually coding hundreds of line items, they often find themselves scrambling to meet deadlines with little room for error.

The root cause isn’t just volume. It’s process. And more specifically, it’s the lack of automation in that process.

Automation doesn’t just modernize operations; it creates the conditions to close books faster, more confidently, and with fewer fire drills.

Hidden Time Wasters

Inefficiencies exist everywhere. Regardless of how incredible your team is, or what policies you have in place, there are friction points that slow down quarter-end closing every time, and that’s not even accounting for unpredictable challenges that might disrupt operations, like severe weather or other emergencies. 

When these things happen, it’s critical that you have systems in place to automate what can be automated and avoid non-strategic, time-wasting tasks, such as: 

• Manually coding recurring invoices
• Relying on tribal knowledge to complete GL allocations
• Reviewing every invoice line-by-line for accuracy
• Waiting on email approvals that get lost in crowded inboxes

Each of these tasks are manual, tedious, and time consuming. They’re also avoidable with the right technology.

How Automation Speeds Things Up

Well-configured automation doesn’t just streamline operations. It eliminates all of those annoying tasks that hinder efficiency. 

• Predictive coding: Systems trained on historical invoice data can automatically apply GL codes, business units, and cost allocations, so there’s no need for spreadsheet lookups or guesswork.
• Confidence scoring: High-accuracy fields can be processed without review, while lower-confidence entries are flagged for human validation.
• Approval routing: Automated workflows send invoices directly to the appropriate approver, bypassing tedious email chains and reducing turnaround time.
• Digital intake: automated ingestion removes the need for manual entry entirely, accelerating the flow of invoices into the system.

This doesn’t mean stealing work from your existing employees; it means giving them the tools necessary to do their jobs better and to focus on tasks that actually matters (as opposed to boring, repetitive busywork). It also means ensuring that operations can continue regardless of whether someone calls out sick, takes a vacation, or experiences an emergency. Automation allows them to focus on what matters without fear of work pileup when they return

Take Biltmore, for example. Their finance team had a record-breaking quarter close, processing over 300 invoices in five days during a historic flood. How? They automated recurring invoice types, established a review threshold (manually reviewing only invoices over $1,000), and relied on AI to fill in any gaps. This enabled them to close faster than ever, without sacrificing accuracy, despite being short staffed as employees focused on their homes, families, and communities. 

How to Start Closing the Gap

There are a lot of things to consider when preparing for an AI implementation. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of companies promising that their solution can deliver the moon, and that can be overwhelming if you’re just getting started. 

The most important thing is that your team find a solution that is tailor-built to your needs and that knows your specific industry. 

And getting started doesn’t have to take years of expensive implementations. If your team is still relying heavily on manual processes, here are a few steps to modernize the quarter-end close quickly:

• Audit your current bottlenecks: Identify which tasks consume the most time and why.
• Automate recurring entries: Set rules for utilities, maintenance, landscaping, and other predictable spend categories.
• Set review thresholds: For example, only manually review invoices over a certain dollar amount.
• Measure and iterate: Use reporting to monitor which coding fields are most frequently changed post-submission and retrain your models accordingly.
• Shift approvals out of email: Use workflow tools that capture and route approvals within your AP platform for better tracking.

The faster your team can close the books, the faster leadership can act on those numbers. But speed shouldn’t come at the expense of accuracy (or your team’s sanity).

Automation helps finance teams do more than just work faster; it helps them work smarter, and with greater continuity. By offloading manual, repetitive tasks to systems designed to handle them, teams unlock the capacity and clarity needed to close the books with confidence.