Almadar A finance team in Al Olaya taking two weeks to close the books is handing management decisions based on numbers that are already three weeks stale by the time anyone in KAFD sees them.
This usually follows a finance function assessment that's already identified the close as a specific pain point, though it can also be commissioned as a focused exercise on its own when the close timeline is the most visible symptom of a broader problem.
Where the time actually goes
Waiting for manual reconciliations that could run in parallel with other tasks but don't, journal entries that could be automated but are still keyed manually, approval bottlenecks where one person's availability holds up the entire close regardless of everyone else's readiness, and data that has to be re-entered between systems that don't talk to each other directly.
A realistic target, not a fantasy one
Most companies can realistically move from fifteen working days to five to seven with focused process redesign alone, without replacing any system. A true fast close under five days is achievable but usually requires system-level automation, not just better discipline around the existing manual process.
Where this connects to specific process fixes
This sits inside the broader record-to-report process, and often surfaces specific bottlenecks worth addressing on their own, fixed asset accounting is a particularly common one for asset-heavy Riyadh industrial companies, where depreciation schedules and capital additions frequently hold up the broader close.
What we deliver
A close calendar redesign showing exactly what can run in parallel rather than sequentially, specific automation opportunities identified and prioritized by effort versus impact, and a realistic phased timeline to get there, since an unrealistic target set in month one tends to collapse under real pressure by month two.
Groups with a Riyadh head office and operating entities in Riyadh typically see their close bottleneck concentrate specifically at the consolidation step, where numbers from multiple entities on potentially different systems or chart of accounts structures need to come together, which is often the single slowest part of the whole cycle.