Fast Close: A Guide to Closing the Books Quickly [Hardcover]

Steven M. Bragg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0470465018 | ISBN-13: 978-0470465011 | Publication Date: April 6, 2009 | Edition: 2

Praise for Fast Close: A Guide to Closing the Books Quickly

"Steve captures the essence of the problems affecting the financial close process within corporations of all sizes; from the period close of subledgers and general ledger through financial reporting, and the relationship and interdependencies of governance, people and technology. A must-read for the corporate controller."
—David Taylor, ACMA, MBA, VP Strategy, Trintech Inc.

"Fast Close: A Guide to Closing the Books Quickly, Second Edition is a must-read for today's busy controllers. Steven Bragg points out everything that can be done outside the close that you just never realized didn't actually have to be part of the month-end close process! Very commonsensical approach!"
—Kathleen Schneibel, mba, cpa, Controller/CFO for Hire, KMAS Consulting LLC

"A well-executed 'fast close' can bring many valuable benefits to any company, from improving organizational performance to transforming accounting executives from financial historians to trusted advisors. In Fast Close, Second Edition, Steve systematically breaks down the steps required to achieve a fast close in both public and private companies, providing financial executives with tips, checklists, and a cost-effective road map to implement fast close procedures in virtually any company."
—Matthew Posta, Esq., CPA, Vice President of Finance, Key Air, LLC

FROM THE FIRST EDITION

"This is an outstanding book in which Steve reveals his secrets to a fast close. Having personally experienced his (one-day) fast close for years and enjoyed the beneficial impact on my company, I highly recommend this book for all financial officers who desire to have a large, favorable impact on their company."
—Richard V. Souders, President and CEO, Kaba Workforce Solutions

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Closing the month-end books followed by the issuing of financial statements as fast as possible is one of the most common—and time-consuming—challenges controllers face. Depending on the company, the process can take anywhere from four days to as long as five weeks. Finally, help is here! Now fully revised and updated, Fast Close: A Guide to Closing the Books Quickly, Second Edition shrinks the closing interval down to just one day.

The new edition of this hands-on guide presents the successful, field-tested principles of accounting guru Steven Bragg—using the same techniques he has personally used for years to issue financial statements for multidivisional companies.

Filled with flowcharts and checklists to help professionals avoid delays and bring accounting department closing procedures up to date, Fast Close, Second Edition straightforwardly illustrates how companies can close their financials quickly enough to issue statements within Sarbanes-Oxley's rigid time frame.

The new edition features new coverage of:

• Closing Controls and Closing for the Public Company, with a new chapter for each

• How to close faster, with checklists

• Common areas of delay and how to overcome them

• Flowcharts for how to route closing tasks through the accounting department

• How to handle information roll-ups from subsidiaries

• Those closing steps that can wait and those that need to be accelerated into the pre-closing period

Offering a compelling case for ending slavery to the month-long closing process, this invaluable resource shows accountants how to get it done efficiently, with authoritative discussion of shifting the timing of closing activities out of the core closing period; reducing the contents of the financial statements; standardizing the chart of accounts; centralizing accounting functions; streamlining the commission calculation process; and much more.

From the Back Cover

Advance praise for Fast Close:

"This is an outstanding book in which Steve reveals his secrets to a fast close. Having personally experienced his (one-day) fast close for years and enjoyed the beneficial impact on my company, I highly recommend this book for all financial officers that desire to have a large, favorable impact on their company."
—Richard V. Souders President and CEO, Premier Data Services

"Fast Close is a superb book for all financial executives. It clearly articulates how a company can achieve rapid closes and obtain benefits that go along with it. This book is a must-read for financial executives."
—Janice M. Roehl-Anderson Principal, Deloitte Consulting, LLP

Written for controllers, CFOs, accounting managers, and business managers, Fast Close incorporates Steven Bragg's own personally tested guidelines to help professionals speed up the closing process, especially in response to Sarbanes-Oxley's more time-sensitive requirements. Bragg outlines numerous key improvements that, when gradually implemented together, are guaranteed to shrink the closing process down to as little as one day.

Chock-full of helpful flowcharts and checklists to help readers prevent delays and bring accounting department closing procedures up to date, Fast Close explores:

• Specific instructions for closing faster
• Common areas of delay and how to overcome them
• Flowcharts that explain how to route closing tasks through the accounting department
• How to handle information roll-ups from subsidiaries
• Closing steps: which ones to accelerate into the pre-closing period and which ones can be delayed
• Required controls to keep financials accurate despite the fast close
• And much more

Create financial statements faster . . . much faster . . . with the expert guidance found in Steven Bragg's Fast Close. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (April 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470465018
• ISBN-13: 978-0470465011
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,207 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > Business & Investing > Skills > Bookkeeping

More About the Author

The primary question I receive is, why would anyone write so many accounting books? The story began in the early 1990s, when my former boss, Jan Roehl-Anderson, asked me to assist in taking over a book called Controllership from Jim Willson (correct spelling), who had been maintaining the book since the early 1950s. I liked the experience, and even found it relaxing (I must have issues!).

So... I had an idea for another book, called Just-in-Time Accounting, which the publisher accepted, and which got me on the track of doing management accounting books. Most accounting books up to that point had primarily dealt with accounting principles and not how to management the department, so this was a rich area for new books.

The Accounting Best Practices book, which is one of the top-selling accounting books in the country, started when I was bouncing around ideas for new books with one of my editors, John DeRemigis. He suggested the accounting best practices idea, and I said, "nah, there's not enough material." Four editions later and over 400+ pages long, it appears that he was right and I was wrong.

Writing became more intense in 2005, when John Wiley & Sons recommended me to the authors of the Wiley GAAP Guide as a new co-author. This is a seriously technical high-end accounting principles guide, and so was nothing like what I had written before. My first assignment was adding a hundred or so new examples to the book, which was absolutely frantic -- imagine becoming an expert on a really far-out accounting topic in one day, writing an esoteric example, and then hurrying on to an entirely different example the next day.

I have just finished writing Accounting Controls Best Practices, which is chock-full of control points for the most common accounting systems, as well as for best practices upgrades to those systems. And now, it is time for a break, if only for a week.

So... I am heading to the Western Pacific for some serious diving off a live aboard dive boat.

Steve Bragg

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast Close, July 3, 2009

By 

Eric V. Schueler "EVSchueler" (Montesano, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fast Close: A Guide to Closing the Books Quickly (Hardcover)

Great book. I read it from cover to cover, took notes and then gave it to the Controller of our company to implement. We went from an 11 working day close to a 5 working day close. This book is filled with simple tips that you forget over time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Senior Accountant to Controller, June 26, 2011

By 

Chris N. Shumate - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fast Close: A Guide to Closing the Books Quickly (Hardcover)

From the Senior Accountant to the Controller, this book is an excellent guide to closing the financial statements. This book is a great read with in depth concepts, but is easy to understand. The bulk of the chapters revolve around inventory and manufacturing accounting. I read the book at the request of the company I previously worked for. Our CFO encourage each Senior Accountant to read it and work on improving the company's closing process. Within a few short months, the company went from a very soft close, to a firm close with accurate accruals and included financial analysis with fluctuation reporting. This books helped me take ownership of the financial statements I was releasing to the department vice presidents, company presidents, and banks. This book gave me the confidence in the statements released.

I did not read the edition above, but was unable to find edition 1 with the blue cover.