Eliminating the Shadow Close
Session presentation slides for SAP Connect for Finance Download the DocumentConnect for Finance
Pillar 1:
Eliminating the Shadow Close
Mark Barry
ANZ Head of Customer Advisory –
Cloud ERP
Pillar 1:
Eliminating the Shadow Close
Mark Barry
ANZ Head of Customer Advisory –
Cloud ERP
Connect for Finance
01
The Industry Reality
The hidden cost of manual
month-end close
02
How SAP Helps
Integrated close platform:
automation & control
04
Customer References
Real outcomes from SAP
customers
03
AI in Action
How Joule assists finance teams
at month-end
01
The Industry Reality
The hidden cost of manual
month-end close
02
How SAP Helps
Integrated close platform:
automation & control
04
Customer References
Real outcomes from SAP
customers
03
AI in Action
How Joule assists finance teams
at month-end
Connect for Finance
01
The Industry Reality
The hidden cost of manual month-end close
01
The Industry Reality
The hidden cost of manual month-end close
Connect for Finance
What is the "Shadow Close"?
The parallel, manual processes finance teams run outside core
systems during month-end — spreadsheets, emails, workarounds
— to bridge gaps that ERP systems don't fully automate.
• Spreadsheets with manual journal entries and reconciliations
• Email-based approval chains that delay the close
• Duplicate effort: the same data entered in multiple systems
• No visibility into task status or who is blocking progress
• Error-prone intercompany eliminations done offline
8.5 Average time to close
for mid-market companies
days
50% Of close tasks still rely
on manual spreadsheets
30% Finance capacity lost to
non-value-add close work
of time
Sources: Hackett Group Finance Benchmarking; PwC CFO Pulse 2024
What is the "Shadow Close"?
The parallel, manual processes finance teams run outside core
systems during month-end — spreadsheets, emails, workarounds
— to bridge gaps that ERP systems don't fully automate.
• Spreadsheets with manual journal entries and reconciliations
• Email-based approval chains that delay the close
• Duplicate effort: the same data entered in multiple systems
• No visibility into task status or who is blocking progress
• Error-prone intercompany eliminations done offline
8.5 Average time to close
for mid-market companies
days
50% Of close tasks still rely
on manual spreadsheets
30% Finance capacity lost to
non-value-add close work
of time
Sources: Hackett Group Finance Benchmarking; PwC CFO Pulse 2024
Connect for Finance
Four forces reshaping month-end close
Generative AI
at the desk
AI copilots now draft journal entries,
explain variances, and flag
anomalies in real time — reducing
review cycles by up to 40%.
Speed-to-insight
demands
Boards and investors expect sub-5-
day close windows. Finance teams
face mounting pressure to
compress cycle time without
adding headcount.
Regulatory &
reporting complexity
IFRS 17, ESG disclosures, and multi-
GAAP requirements add close
tasks. Manual methods cannot
scale to meet these obligations
reliably.
Automation as
business standard
RPA, workflow orchestration, and
smart matching now automate high-
volume, rule-based close tasks —
eliminating the shadow
spreadsheet.
Four forces reshaping month-end close
Generative AI
at the desk
AI copilots now draft journal entries,
explain variances, and flag
anomalies in real time — reducing
review cycles by up to 40%.
Speed-to-insight
demands
Boards and investors expect sub-5-
day close windows. Finance teams
face mounting pressure to
compress cycle time without
adding headcount.
Regulatory &
reporting complexity
IFRS 17, ESG disclosures, and multi-
GAAP requirements add close
tasks. Manual methods cannot
scale to meet these obligations
reliably.
Automation as
business standard
RPA, workflow orchestration, and
smart matching now automate high-
volume, rule-based close tasks —
eliminating the shadow
spreadsheet.