Introduction
Over a decade of month-end close projects, I’ve seen the same issues repeat across every controllership team. You either have a capacity problem (not enough headcount) or a process/system problem (poorly integrated tech creating faulty data, broken workflows, or both). And sitting at the center of those problems are reconciliations.
Doesn’t matter if the company is 50 people or 5,000… there are always a handful of reconciliations that cause headaches. Sometimes it’s a legacy process that never got updated. Sometimes it’s a subledger that doesn’t tie cleanly to the ERP. Sometimes it’s just a senior accountant buried under dozens of accounts with no chance of keeping up. Of course, there are external, uncontrollable factors that can play into it (tight close deadlines from parent co’s, weak reporting infrastructure from data dependent subs,
That’s why close can feels broken. Everything piles up at once and the work turns into a fire drill.
Rolling Recons could be a solution that we should start considering as we look to level of our BP infrastructure.
Rolling reconciliations spread the work across the month so Day 0 isn’t where everything comes crashing down.
Why Traditional Recons Slow You Down
Reconciliations should be predictable. Black and white, rules + conditions-based. But the norm is to leave them all for close week, the predictable can become unmanageable.
Process gaps: Subledgers don’t sync cleanly with the GL, so you’re waiting on manual exports and tie-outs
System limitations: Legacy tools make exception tracking clunky, so exceptions linger until the last minute
Capacity constraints: You may have 200 recons, but only enough staff to touch a handful a day.
The 80/20 dynamic: Most recons close quickly. A small subset are messy, and they eat most of the time
Even the easy reconciliations stall because they get stuck behind the complex ones. Controllers lose days, reviewers bottleneck, and staff work overtime just to clear the queue.
What Rolling Recons Look Like
Rolling reconciliations are basically just a shift in occurrence and timing. Instead of saving everything for close, you reconcile continuously:
High-volume accounts (cash, AP, AR, payroll) get reconciled weekly (potentially daily depending on the level of issues that occur)
Problem accounts (intercompany, suspense, clearing) get touched multiple times a month so issues don’t snowball
Day 0 becomes a checkpoint validating what’s already been maintained instead of starting fresh
At smaller companies this might mean a senior manually reconciling cash every Friday. At larger companies it often means workflows pulling subledger data on a schedule, reconciling to the GL automatically, and logging exceptions for staff review.
How to Get Started
(No company is the same, so take this with a grain of salt)
Step 1: Manual.
Pick 5–10 key accounts and reconcile them weekly. Document exceptions as they happen. On Day 0, focus only on exceptions, not a full rebuild. Even this small shift can save one to two days.
Step 2: Add Workflows.
As volume grows, let automation take the first pass. The setup will look different depending on tech stack:
Cloud ERPs (NetSuite, Sage, Xero, Quickbooks): APIs can pull trial balance and subledger data weekly and check tie-outs automatically
Legacy ERPs (Oracle EBS, SAP ECC): similar vibe, but you might need to lean on scheduled reports into a data warehouse or shared drive
Hybrid environments: Google Sheets or Excel trackers still work, but use scripts or connectors to automate the data pulls
Core steps stay the same:
Pull trial balance or subledger data weekly
Run automated checks for tie-outs
Log exceptions into a tracker (workflow tool, ticketing system, or even a shared sheet)
Route flagged accounts for review
👉 Demo video placeholder (COMING VERY SOON!)
The results may vary, but the logic is there. The video showcases an example of how this could work on a schedule.
Layers of Control and Scale
Rolling reconciliations aren’t just for small teams looking to save a day or two. The same approach works whether your team is five people or five hundred.
What matters is how you architect the workflows.
A simple demo might show one account reconciled weekly with exceptions routed to a controller. But the underlying design is headless…an agentic orchestration of workflows that can be agile across any controllership function.
If the account is straightforward (cash, payroll), the workflow handles the tie-out and routes exceptions for quick review
If the account is complex (intercompany, clearing accounts, high risk areas), the same orchestration adapts: approvals layer in, exceptions branch to multiple reviewers, and evidence logs automatically for audit.
The goal is to build a series of workflows/agents (buzzword: Agentic orchestration) that can handle the simplest and the messiest reconciliations without changing the core design. Agile enough to work in a five-person team, structured enough to fit into a global control environment.
Change Management
Adoption has to be the most important variable here: Accountants default to Excel. Anything new can feel like “extra work.” The positioning matters. Rolling reconciliations reduce stress:
Staff don’t have to clear 30 accounts in a two-day sprint
Controllers avoid late surprises
Auditors see a documented, continuous exception trail instead of a pile of month-end evidence
The playbook is simple. Start with one account, like cash. Run it weekly. Track the hours saved. Share the result. Expansion comes when people see the benefit, not when you promise it.
Conclusion
Reconciliations aren’t going away. But they don’t have to dictate the pace of close. Rolling reconciliations shift them from a month-end crunch into a continuous control.
The real unlock isn’t just spreading work across the month. It’s designing the workflows so they can flex. A simple demo might show one account reconciled weekly. But the same orchestration can scale to handle hundreds of accounts, with layered approvals, exception routing, and audit evidence built in.
That’s the power of keeping it headless by design. The architecture works for a five-person accounting team and it works for a global controllership function. One framework, agile enough to adapt to any business scenario.
Start small. Prove the value. Then let the orchestration expand to fit the size and complexity of your business. That’s how you cut days off your close without rebuilding the process every time you grow.
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