| Course | ACC 660 Controllership |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 2 |
| Paper type | graduate assignment redesigning the monthly close |
| Length | About 1,000 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Southern New Hampshire University |
| Program | MS Accounting |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for ACC 660 Module 2
Monthly Close Redesign: From Twelve Days to Five
[Student Name]
Southern New Hampshire University
ACC 660: Controllership
Module Two Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The organization, setting and figures below are a composite written as a model document. No real employer, client, colleague or patient is described.
Monthly Close Redesign: From Twelve Days to Five
Introduction
The company's monthly close takes 12 business days. Results reach the CFO around the 17th of the following month and the private equity sponsor around the 20th. The sponsor wants a flash of revenue and EBITDA by day three and full reporting by day five, and the term loan requires monthly financial statements within 30 days. The controller has been asked to deliver a five-day close within nine months without adding risk (Roehl-Anderson, 2013).
The Current Close
Current close by business day
| Days | Activity | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | Enter daily revenue summaries from 14 practice management systems | Staff accountants |
| 2 to 4 | Collect pharmacy counts from hospitals and compute cost of goods sold | Hospital managers, cost accountant |
| 3 to 6 | Build payroll, doctor production bonus and other accruals | Senior accountant |
| 5 to 7 | Record intercompany charges and management fee allocations | Senior accountant |
| 6 to 9 | Reconcile cash, receivables, inventory and accrual accounts | Staff accountants |
| 9 to 11 | Review, adjust and consolidate | Assistant controller |
| 11 to 12 | Prepare reporting package | Controller |
Bottlenecks
First, revenue from 14 practice management systems arrives as daily summaries that staff key into the ERP, about 420 entries a month, with errors found during reconciliation. Second, pharmacy inventory is counted at every hospital in the first days of the month, and counts arrive late and inconsistent. Third, accruals are rebuilt from scratch each month; the doctor production bonus alone takes a day because production reports must be pulled from each hospital system. Fourth, reconciliations start only after entries are posted, so errors found on day eight reopen work done on day two. Together these consume about seven of the twelve days.
The Redesigned Calendar
Redesigned close calendar
| Day | Activity |
|---|---|
| Minus 3 to minus 1 | Post recurring entries, preliminary accruals and intercompany charges; complete reconciliations for accounts through the 25th |
| 1 | Automated revenue feed loads; payroll and bonus accruals from templates |
| 2 | Pharmacy cost from perpetual records; reconcile cash and receivables |
| 3 | Flash report of revenue and EBITDA to the sponsor; review exceptions |
| 4 | Final adjustments; consolidation; balance sheet review |
| 5 | Reporting package to the CFO and sponsor |
The Changes
Revenue: an automated nightly feed from each practice management system to the ERP, with exception reports for days that do not balance to deposits, replaces manual entry. Pharmacy: perpetual inventory in the practice systems, already licensed but unused, with monthly cycle counts of high-value drugs and full counts quarterly, replaces monthly counts everywhere. Accruals: standard templates for payroll, bonuses, utilities and professional fees, with a materiality policy allowing estimates below $25,000 and requiring exact amounts above, replace rebuilding. Reconciliations: a reconciliation tool assigns accounts to owners and allows high-volume accounts to be reconciled weekly, so month end confirms rather than discovers.
Controls
Every change keeps a review. The revenue feed's exception report is reviewed daily by the revenue accountant, and deposits are matched to revenue weekly. Cycle counts are observed by a regional operations manager, not hospital staff. Accrual templates are reviewed by the assistant controller monthly and their estimates compared with actual invoices the following month; if the differences exceed $50,000 in total, the template is revised. Bryant-Kutcher et al. (2013) studied what happened to reporting when the SEC shortened annual filing deadlines, a reminder that speed and quality have to be managed together. Ettredge et al. (2006) linked weaker internal control to slower audit completion, a reminder that controls and speed support each other.
Staffing, Cost and Timeline
The changes require an integration project for the 14 systems, about $85,000; a reconciliation tool at about $36,000 a year; and one additional senior accountant at about $95,000 a year to own revenue and the feed. First-year cost is about $216,000. The work is phased: revenue feeds and templates in months one to three, perpetual pharmacy and the reconciliation tool in months four to six, and the five-day calendar from month seven, with a seven-day close as an interim target.
Change Management
The hospitals' managers are used to counting pharmacy every month and sending revenue summaries by email; the new process takes those tasks away from some and adds cycle count duties for others. The controller will explain the changes to the regional directors first, since hospital managers take their cue from them, and run two pilot hospitals for a month before rolling out to all 14. Accounting staff will be trained on the reconciliation tool before it goes live, and the close checklist will be rewritten so every task has a named owner and a due day. The sponsor will be told that the first two closes on the new calendar may slip by a day while teams adjust, so that an early miss is not read as failure.
Risks and Mitigations
Three risks stand out. The revenue feed may fail at one or more hospitals, especially those acquired recently with older systems; a manual fallback, with the old summary entry, will remain available for six months. Perpetual pharmacy records may prove inaccurate at first, so quarterly full counts continue for a year and the differences are tracked by hospital. And the materiality policy could let estimates drift; comparing each month's estimated accruals with actual invoices, and reporting the difference to the CFO, keeps that in check. If any of these risks occurs, the interim seven-day target holds until it is resolved.
Measures of Success
The controller will report four measures monthly: business days to close, the number and size of adjustments recorded after the package is issued, the share of reconciliations completed by day three and on-time delivery of the flash and package. The targets are a five-day close, no post-close adjustments above $25,000 and all reconciliations by day three, reached by the ninth month and held for three consecutive closes.
Conclusion
A five-day close is achievable by removing manual revenue entry, monthly counts and rebuilt accruals, and by reconciling before month end. The plan keeps every review and measures quality alongside speed, and it gives the sponsor what it asked for without asking the team to work longer hours.
References
Bryant-Kutcher, L., Peng, E. Y., & Weber, D. P. (2013). Regulating the timing of disclosure: Insights from the acceleration of 10-K filing deadlines. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 32(6), 475-494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2013.08.003
Ettredge, M. L., Li, C., & Sun, L. (2006). The impact of SOX Section 404 internal control quality assessment on audit delay in the SOX era. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 25(2), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.2308/aud.2006.25.2.1
Roehl-Anderson, J. M. (2013). Controllership: The work of the managerial accountant (9th ed.). Wiley.
What the ACC 660 Module 2 instructions ask for
The Module Two assignment in ACC 660 usually asks you to evaluate and improve a company's financial close. Plan to map the current process, identify the steps that drive its length, and propose changes such as moving work before month end, automating data feeds, standardizing accruals and reconciliations, setting materiality thresholds and assigning clear owners. Most versions ask you to keep controls intact while shortening the close and to estimate costs and benefits. Show the new calendar day by day and explain how each change affects quality as well as speed, since a faster close with more post-close adjustments is not an improvement. Costs and a phased timeline make the plan credible.
How this ACC 660 Module 2 close process assignment example is built
The paper maps a 12-day close and finds four bottlenecks: daily revenue from 14 practice management systems entered by hand, monthly pharmacy counts at every hospital, payroll and doctor bonus accruals built from scratch, and reconciliations done after the books close. It proposes an automated revenue feed, perpetual pharmacy inventory with cycle counts, standard accrual templates with a $25,000 materiality threshold and reconciliations completed throughout the month. The new calendar runs from three days before month end to day five, with a flash on day three. First-year costs are about $216,000, and success is measured by days to close, post-close adjustments and reconciliations finished on time. Pilots at two hospitals and a manual fallback reduce the risk of the rollout.
Where the ACC 660 Module 2 rubric puts the points
Rubrics for the close assignment typically score the analysis of the current process, identification of bottlenecks, the redesigned calendar, controls, use of technology, cost and benefit and measures of success. Top papers quantify where the days go, move work to before month end, explain how quality is protected and assign each task an owner. Graders also reward a realistic view of implementation, including training, change management and the risks of moving too fast. Common deductions include recommending software without explaining what it changes or who will run it, shortening the close by cutting reviews, ignoring the effect on controls and omitting how progress will be measured.
ACC 660 Module 2 help: the mistakes that cost points
Close redesign papers most often slip by treating speed as the goal and quality as an afterthought; a five-day close that needs adjustments in the following month has moved work, not removed it. A second weak spot is materiality: without a policy saying which accruals can be estimated and which must be exact, teams spend days chasing small invoices. If your case is a single-entity company, the same approach applies with fewer consolidation steps. Draw the current close as a day-by-day table first; the bottlenecks usually show themselves. Then attach a cost and an owner to every fix, and say how you would know the fix worked.
Get ACC 660 Module 2 written to your instructions
Send the ACC 660 Module 2 assignment and the company's close facts. The paper will map the current close, identify bottlenecks, design a new calendar with owners and controls, and cost the changes with measures of success. Turnaround is about two days, and your first one is free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Southern New Hampshire University document.
More ACC 660 papers and related MS Accounting samples
- ACC 660 Module 1 Discussion: The Controller Under a Private Equity Owner
- ACC 660 Module 3 Milestone One: A Driver-Based Budget for 14 Hospitals
- ACC 660 Module 4 Discussion: Which EBITDA Add-Backs Should a Controller Sign?
- ACC 620 Module 7 Discussion: Restatement or Revision for a Small Error?
- ACC 610 Module 1 Discussion: Who Writes the Rules, and How
- MBA 580 Module 7 Stage-Gate Process Presentation
- MBA 687 Module 6 Strategic Considerations Presentation
ACC 660 Module 2 questions, answered
Where can I find a free ACC 660 Module 2 Close Process sample?
This page includes a full ACC 660 Module 2 assignment redesigning a 12-day close to five days.
How can a company shorten its monthly close?
By moving work before month end, automating data feeds, standardizing accruals and reconciliations, setting materiality thresholds for estimates and assigning clear task owners.
What is a flash report?
A preliminary summary of key results, such as revenue and EBITDA, issued a few days after month end, before the full close is complete.
Does a faster close weaken controls?
Not if reviews are kept and work is moved earlier rather than skipped; measuring post-close adjustments shows whether quality is holding.
What measures show a close is improving?
Days to close, number and size of post-close adjustments, reconciliations completed on time and on-time delivery of reports.