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Benchmark 06 · AI workflows

Financial close speed benchmark

How many days does your team need to close the books, and why? We map your month-end and year-end close step by step and place your cycle time against APQC's cross-industry quartiles.

Get your free snapshot Industry report · $199
The market reference

What the market looks like.

≤ 4.8 daysMonthly close at top-performing organisations (APQC)1
6.4 daysMedian monthly close; the bottom quartile needs 10 days or more1
55%Share of finance functions targeting a touchless close (Gartner survey)2
KPIMarket referenceTop performers / noteSource
Monthly close — top quartile4.8 calendar days or less—1
Monthly close — median6.4 calendar days—1
Monthly close — bottom quartile10+ calendar days—1
Finance leaders wanting a faster, real-time close86%68% want a cheaper close2

A slow close delays every decision that depends on the numbers. In a Gartner survey, 86% of finance leaders said they want a faster, real-time close, 68% a cheaper one and 55% target a touchless close2.

Who it’s for

Is this benchmark for you?

Industries

Manufacturing · Wholesale & distribution · Financial services & insurance · Professional services · Retail & e-commerce

Buyer

CFO & finance

Company profile

Multi-entity or 50+ employees

You need it if…

  • Month-end close takes more than a week
  • Reconciliations live in spreadsheets
  • Management gets the numbers too late to act
Why it pays · by team size and role

What the report is worth to your business and your role.

The report prices every close day in accountant time and shows what moving up a quartile frees. Figures below are taken from the report (chapters 14, 37 and 38).

Accountants on the closeYearly cost of the close at the medianBottom quartile to medianMedian to top quartile
3$120,000$67,500$30,000
6$240,000$135,000$60,000
12$480,000$270,000$120,000
25$1,000,000$562,000$250,000

Market research model · based on published benchmarks. Days to close from APQC (2,300 organisations, published 2018): median 6.4 days, top quartile 4.8, bottom quartile 10.0. Cost = accountants × close days × 12 closes × $521 a person-day, i.e. $65.09 an hour: the mean US accountant wage of $45.56 (BLS OEWS 2025) divided by the wage share of total compensation (BLS ECEC, 70%). It assumes everyone works on the close full time every close day, so it is an upper bound, and freed days are capacity, not cash.

For the CFO: cost you can take to the budget

  • Each close day costs $521 per accountant in loaded labour
  • A team of 6 moving from the bottom quartile to the median frees capacity worth up to $135,000 a year
  • Reference grids of the yearly cost of the close and of what each day saved is worth
  • A buyer’s checklist for close software and questions for vendors
  • A business case template to take the saving to the budget

For the COO: productivity you can run

  • A close calendar with its critical path
  • A reconciliation register and a journal-entry inventory
  • A close time study and a log of close issues and late adjustments
  • NEWMIND analysis of 2025 SEC filings: median 10-K filed at 53, 65 and 86 days against 60-, 75- and 90-day deadlines; in a 2026 FloQast survey, 57% of close cycles took seven days or more; FloQast sells close software (vendor claim)
  • A first-90-days plan, a twelve-month roadmap and a KPI tracker
The benchmark

What we measure. What you get.

What we measure

  • Close calendar: every task, owner and dependency
  • Days to close, monthly and annual
  • Reconciliations done manually vs automated
  • Journal entries, adjustments and late corrections
  • Spreadsheet hand-offs between systems

What you receive

  • Your close speed vs APQC quartiles
  • Critical path and the three tasks that add the most days
  • Reconciliation and matching steps ready for automation
  • Target close calendar with the days you can remove
Typical turnaround: 2–3 weeksService: AI workflowsFree snapshot: available
Industry report · Edition 1 · $199

Financial Close Benchmark 2026.

The full study behind this page: days to close and days to file, what each close day costs, SEC deadlines and filer status, nine playbooks and the worksheets to price your own gap.

What’s included

95pages
51chapters
38cited sources
12tools & templates

Tools you can use straight away

  • KPI sheet and scoring worksheet
  • Reference grids: yearly cost of the close by role, what each day saved is worth
  • Buyer’s checklist for close software
  • Close calendar and critical path
  • Reconciliation register
  • Journal-entry inventory
  • Close time study
  • Close issues and late adjustments
  • Questions for vendors
  • Business case
  • Roles and ownership
  • Twelve-month KPI tracker and action plan

About this edition: built from published research and NEWMIND models. It does not yet include our own survey; Edition 2 adds survey data from decision-makers, free for Edition 1 buyers.

Reserve your copy · $199 Online checkout opens soon. Reserve now and we email you the payment link; nothing is charged today.

Contents

  1. 01About this editionp. 4
  2. 02Executive summaryp. 6
  3. 03Market context: the close and the people who run itp. 8
  4. 04Definitions: what ‘days to close’ meansp. 10
  5. 05Days to close: the published benchmarksp. 12
  6. 06The evidence base: who measured whatp. 14
  7. 07Close effort: who does the work and what an hour costsp. 16
  8. 08Reconciliations and journal entries: the manual corep. 18
  9. 09AI in the close: ambition and realityp. 20
  10. 10Days to file: a public proxy for close speedp. 22
  11. 11Speed by filer status: how close to the deadline companies filep. 24
  12. 12Speed by sector: where filing takes longestp. 26
  13. 13Ten years of filing speedp. 30
  14. 14What close days cost: the NEWMIND modelp. 33
  15. 15SEC filing deadlines: the clock every listed close runs againstp. 35
  16. 16Filer status: which deadline applies to youp. 37
  17. 17When the close runs late: Form 12b-25 and its limitsp. 39
  18. 18Internal control over the closep. 41
  19. 19Twenty years of faster deadlinesp. 43
  20. 20The audit after the closep. 45
  21. 21Tagging the numbers: Inline XBRLp. 47
  22. 22Proposed rules: semiannual reporting and simpler filer statusp. 48
  23. 23Playbook: account reconciliationsp. 50
  24. 24Playbook: journal entriesp. 52
  25. 25Playbook: intercompanyp. 54
  26. 26Playbook: accruals and cut-offp. 56
  27. 27Playbook: the close calendar and critical pathp. 58
  28. 28Playbook: close controls and evidencep. 60
  29. 29Playbook: chart of accounts and data qualityp. 62
  30. 30Playbook: an AI-assisted closep. 64
  31. 31Playbook: reporting and flux analysisp. 66
  32. 32Choosing close software: a buyer's checklistp. 68
  33. 33The first 90 daysp. 70
  34. 34The 12-month roadmapp. 71
  35. 35Self-assessment: KPI sheetp. 72
  36. 36Self-assessment: scoring worksheetp. 73
  37. 37Reference grid: yearly cost of the close by rolep. 74
  38. 38Reference grid: what each day saved is worthp. 76
  39. 39Worksheet: close calendar and critical pathp. 78
  40. 40Worksheet: reconciliation registerp. 80
  41. 41Worksheet: journal-entry inventoryp. 81
  42. 42Worksheet: close time studyp. 82
  43. 43Worksheet: close issues and late adjustmentsp. 84
  44. 44Worksheet: questions for vendorsp. 85
  45. 45Worksheet: business casep. 86
  46. 46Worksheet: roles and ownershipp. 87
  47. 47Worksheet: twelve-month KPI trackerp. 88
  48. 48Worksheet: action planp. 89
  49. 49Method and limitsp. 90
  50. 50Glossaryp. 92
  51. 51Sourcesp. 93
Look inside · click a page to enlarge
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Page 95
Free sample · 16 pages

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Next step

Turn this benchmark into your custom workflow.

The benchmark shows where financial close stands against the market. NEWMIND PARTNERS designs, builds and runs the workflow that closes your gap, built around the systems you already use.

01

Feasibility audit

We measure your workflow on your data (read-only), then compare every solution on the market, off-the-shelf or custom.

02

Design

The workflow that fits your systems, suppliers and approval rules, with a human checkpoint on every decision that matters.

03

Build and run

Senior engineers build it, connect it to the tools you already use and run it in production with an audit trail.

04

Prove it

Baseline on day one, then the change in cost, hours and cash, reported every month.

Start with a feasibility audit

Find out what your workflow really costs, which solution fits best, and the business case to back it. No commitment.

How it works

Four steps. No disruption.

01

Intake call

30 minutes with a senior engineer to agree scope, KPIs and the data we need.

02

Data, read-only

Exports or read-only access to the systems involved. Nothing is changed.

03

Analysis

Your numbers placed against the published market references, KPI by KPI.

04

Readout

Your position, the cost gap in dollars and a costed roadmap to close it.

Reports & custom benchmarks

Questions or a custom benchmark?

Ask the team about the financial close report, or request a custom benchmark on your own data.

  • Your close speed vs APQC quartiles
  • Critical path and the three tasks that add the most days
  • Reconciliation and matching steps ready for automation
Your details are used only to prepare your benchmark. A senior engineer replies, not a sales rep.
Thank you. We have your request and will be in touch by email.

Sources

  1. 1
    CFO.com (APQC, 2,300 organisations), “Metric of the Month: Cycle Time for Monthly Close”. cfo.com/news/metric-of-the-month-cycle-time-for-monthly-close/659297/
  2. 2
    Gartner press release, “55% of Functions Aiming for a Touchless Close by 2025” (22 Sep 2022). gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2022-09-22-gartner-finance-survey-shows-55-percent-of-functions-aiming-for-a-touchless-close-by-2022