The reason quarters take so long to close is because the numbers are being fiddled with. There's no reason someone shouldn't be able to close a quarter and report the numbers with the automation we have today in technology, meaning without some magic AI/LLM, other than people are constantly trying to reclassify expenses or income in a way that saves the quarter

Why, after 30-40 years of modern computing in accounting does it still take a month to close the books? I worked at a public company that was $100m revenue yearly and it took a whole month to close the books. Absolute insanity. Even AT&T or Verizon or GM should be able to report at least weekly.

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jandrewrogers 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This is a naive view of what reporting entails and the difficulty of coalescing a report that meets the requirements of the audience the report is for. It isn't a numbers dump from a database, it requires substantial interpretation of things that the database does not and cannot contain. It isn't fiddling with the numbers, it is that the numbers can't contain things relevant to their representation for external parties as a legal matter.

When I have been in positions where reporting was a necessary part of my job, reporting related activity probably consumed 1/3 of my time. Even in highly optimized contexts, it consumes a stupid amount of time and the impact on the consumers of those reports is often quite low. It is almost a total waste of time.

There should be some reporting but the current cadence and requirements is way too high for many large companies. Reporting doesn't have infinite ROI.

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davorak 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> it requires substantial interpretation of things that the database does not and cannot contain.

Do you have examples? This seems like something that is a solvable problem, and from the outside it can seem like it is only about not being willing to switch to a new paradigm. That unwilling ness can come from avoiding real consequences like loosing a competitive edge due to allocation of resources to the switchover.

	▲	CSMastermind 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		When people think of automation I'm assuming their thinking of the financial statements (balance sheet, income, cash flows, equity). Reporting also contains narrative explanations by management of: the company's financial health, updates on any new or existing market risks and the company's strategy to deal with them, any changes to controls or accounting procedures, updates on any new or existing litigation, and more. These reports need to be certified for truth by the CEO, CFO, and relevant officers under penalty of 10+ years in jail and millions of dollars in fines personally. It's also common to do a press release, earnings call, and investor presentation but those aren't required.

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Dylan16807 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Why can't that interpretation be done earlier in the process and then put into the database?

Isn't it the same amount of transactions to be interpreted no matter what the reporting period is?

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jandrewrogers 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Do you understand that as a legal matter these must be good faith representations of the current state to the best of your knowledge? You can’t serve up intentionally stale information without inviting legal repercussions. The preparation process takes weeks. This is a very serious legal matter.

These are being revised and updated right up until the point they are released to provide the most accurate reporting possible.

You gravely underestimate the legal seriousness of these reports.

	▲	davorak 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> You can’t serve up intentionally stale information without inviting legal repercussions. > These are being revised and updated right up until the point they are released to provide the most accurate reporting possible. > You gravely underestimate the legal seriousness of these reports. All of these seem look like an argument for additional automation.
	▲	Dylan16807 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The category changes over time? So let's try to think of solutions instead of giving up. A law that requires daily disclosure can change how the reporting works so you don't need to update those category decisions 200 times.

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FireBeyond 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

My fiancee is the accounting manager at a university. Why? Because people don't submit expenses on time, invoices are delayed or some still done manually, and all manner of things. Even for them it can take a couple of weeks.

While there may be some "hijinks" (in their case, institutional advancement likes to steadily rearrange endowments or donations to take advantage of offers to match donations, etc., but that's not really a delay, as accounting basically says things like "No, that gift has already been spent"). Even with things like Concur or Expensify, expenses aren't classified on time, submitted for reimbursement, etc.