Month end closings - Do Deadlines Matter More Than Accuracy?

Each month, my team and I gear up for what feels like a financial triathlon, ting ting...yup closing the accounts for our regional office. The timeline is tight, the stakes are high, and the expectation is simple: just get it done.

And we do. We put in the hours, chase down submissions, battle with an occasionally uncooperative system, and double-check every cent before we hit that "submit" button. Not because we're slow. Not because we're inefficient. But because we believe accuracy matters. Because in finance, a wrong figure isn't just a typo, it can spiral into a thousand questions at HQ level.

But here's the part most people don’t see: our timeline doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

We rely on other departments to submit their documentation on time. We rely on the system to function like it’s supposed to. We rely on basic operational flow to respect that account closing isn’t just a checkbox (let's tick a box ☑️?) it’s the final chapter of a very complicated book.

So when things are delayed maybe it's because forms arrive late or the system crashes and it sets off a chain reaction (queue the headache 🤯) . But we still do our job. And yes, sometimes that job finishes after the date HQ wants it done by.

This month, we faced just that. We finished. It was clean. But it was late.

We appealed. We explained. But the response? A cold “Tell us one time if your team can actually finish on time, I can't find any” ..cold huh, coupled with the assumption that extra part-timers in our department should have magically solved everything.

Here’s the truth: the part-timers weren’t working on month-end closing. They were assisting with other tasks. Closing accounts isn’t something you hand over to someone untrained like it’s grocery packing. It’s intricate. It needs experience. It needs focus.

And yet... there’s this ongoing narrative that makes it seem like we’re just dragging our feet. That if only we “tried harder” or “planned better,” we’d be early every month.

It’s frustrating. Not because we want applause or medals, but because we want understanding. We want recognition that proper financial reporting isn't a race against the clock; it's a responsibility to accuracy, integrity, and long-term accountability.

So for now, I’m choosing silence. I’m letting my team lead speak for us. But if the day comes when something doesn’t tally at the HQ level, I hope they’ll remember this moment not as an excuse, but as a reminder that we warned them.

We don’t miss deadlines because we want to. We miss them because we refuse to do our job half-baked.

And honestly? I’ll take being late over being wrong on any day

So the next time you wonder why your numbers don’t tally, don’t look at the calendar.

Look at the process.

And maybe, just maybe start listening before pointing fingers.

Because silence doesn’t mean we agree. It just means we’re too tired to keep justifying the obvious.