Financial Close Process Controls Questionnaire

What are financial close process controls?
The financial close process is important to a company as it is the function directly related to producing company financial results for each period end. Restricting access to accounting and reporting applications and establishing clear write-off and reserve policies are examples of financial close process controls. These controls can be preventive or detective in nature.

What is the objective of financial close process controls?
The objective of financial close process controls is to mitigate risks related reporting company financial results for a specific period of time.

Business Activity	Point of Focus/ Control Objective
Financial Close	Accounting policies exist, are kept current, and are communicated to the appropriate personnel.
Financial Close	Procedures are in place to ensure that all transactions are recorded in accordance with GAAP.
Financial Close	Close procedures, including due dates, responsibilities, disclosure updates, and account classifications are defined, communicated, and implemented.
Financial Close	The standard corporate reporting format is utilized.
Financial Close	Access to accounting and reporting applications is limited to the appropriate individuals.
Financial Close	Journal entry input is restricted to authorized personnel.
Financial Close	There is a checklist of the standard closing journal entries made at month-end, quarter-end, and year-end.
Financial Close	Pre-numbered vouchers are used to ensure that all non-recurring entries are processed only once in the system.
Financial Close	Manual journal entries have adequate supporting documentation and are approved by the appropriate level of management.
Financial Close	Standardized journal entries are used for recurring journal entries.
Financial Close	All non-recurring entries are supported by adequate documentation, reviewed before approval and the appropriate management is required to approve these entries.
Financial Close	Journal entries are supported and authorized before being posted.
Financial Close	Appropriate management is required to approve significant or unusual journal entries.
Financial Close	System logic prevents journal entries for which debits do not equal credits.
Financial Close	The system will not allow journal entries to be recorded to a closed accounting period.
Financial Close	System logic will not allow duplicate journal entry numbers.
Financial Close	A procedure detailing the calculation of specific accruals and recording rules exists and is consistently applied.
Financial Close	Write-offs and reserves are clearly defined, consistently applied, and monitored in accordance with company policy.
Financial Close	All account balances are reconciled prior to closing the books, including confirming that balances agree with related parties (including reconciling subsidiary balances to GL balances).
Financial Close	Significant variances in reconciliations are investigated and resolved timely.
Financial Close	Fluctuation analysis of actual to budget or prior periods is performed.
Financial Close	The financial reporting package is reviewed by management before submission to Corporate (the financial statements, or sections thereof, are reviewed by someone independent of the preparer).
Financial Close	Duties are appropriately segregated in the closing process.
Financial Close	Access/authorization controls are in place to maintain the integrity of the chart of accounts.
Financial Close	A procedure is in place to identify and communicate transactions/events that have significant financial accounting and/or reporting implications to the accounting department.
Financial Close	All of the critical financial data is captured as close as possible to the source, accurately processed and reported on a timely basis for analysis, evaluation, and use in financial reporting.
Financial Close	There are adequate controls over processing programs and transaction files.
Financial Close	Policies and procedures are in place for all critical processes.
Financial Close	There is ongoing monitoring in the normal course of operations by managers and process owners to assess the effectiveness of the financial reporting process.

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