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Post-mortem for virtual close Accounting and reporting impacts • What were the technical accounting or disclosure impacts of the current crisis? How might they change in future periods? • Which elements of the financial statements did we need to have increased focus on, for example, receivables or MD&A? • Was there adequate time and information allowed for management reviews at all levels? • Where do we feel there is more limited transparency into the results and underlying drivers? • Were there any new focus areas for the external audit this period or places where the auditors spent additional time? Timeline • What were the visible or hidden impacts to our timeline, even if we managed to work around them? • How did our close and reporting KPIs compare to prior periods? What does this tell us about the close? • What new items came onto the critical closing path this past close? • Should we adjust the timeline or expectations for future periods? Close and task management • How well were we able to centrally manage and control the close and reporting tasks? • Were there any changes to the nature or extent of our journal entries compared to prior periods? • Which closing tasks were difficult to perform remotely and what were the reasons for the difficulty? • Which tasks were completed late and what were the reasons? • Do we need to shift tasks between individuals to meet the closing timetable? Does working virtually provide opportunities to redistribute? • Do we need to rework or reorder our closing tasks? Are there tasks we should execute during the month? • Are there tasks we are performing that are simply not material to our reporting? Governance and compliance • Were we able to execute our standard controls effectively remotely? • Are there additional risks introduced in the process that we need to better manage? • Are there computer-based controls that we need to consider redesigning? • Were there adjustments that we had to make to our segregation of duties or approvals? • Are there any new controls that we should consider implementing against higher risk items? Resourcing • Are we tracking individuals’ workloads to understand who was overloaded and where capacity might exist? • Is there additional training we need to provide to equip our people for a remote close? • Do we need to consider additional resources to manage spikes in workloads during the monthly or quarterly close? • Should we reorganize roles and/or tasks to better group them (e.g., financial line item) and promote clear ownership? The illustrative self-assessment questions below are designed to help facilitate a post-mortem review and critical analysis of the close and external financial reporting process. The questions have been updated to reflect the current environment of needing to close the books at a distance. Use this tool to help assess what worked and what didn't, identify ways to improve the next virtual close, and gather insights into processes to better thrive with a remote workforce.
