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12–19 Train the Staff in Closing Procedures
There are a few problems with this approach. Some accounting personnel
will probably complain that they are entitled to make journal entries, while there
may also be a problem if the general ledger accountant is not available at month-
end to make entries; if so, there should be a back-up person on hand authorized to
handle journal entries. Another issue for larger corporations is what to do if there
are a number of general ledger accountants, all of whom must make entries at the
same time, simply because of the volume of entries required. In this case, it is
necessary to maintain a log, either manually or in the computer, in which every
accountant must record all entries. By referring to other entries already in the log,
any of the general ledger accountants can easily see what entries have already
been made and can thereby avoid any duplicate entries.

Cost: Installation time:

12–19 TRAIN THE STAFF IN CLOSING PROCEDURES

One of the biggest problems with a new accounting staff, or one in which the
responsibilities for producing financial statements have changed recently, is that
they do not know what they are supposed to do. This results in a general level of
confusion regarding responsibilities, as well as the slow completion of deliver-
ables and their probable inaccuracy even when they are done. This is a nightmare
situation for a controller, who must review everyone’s work in great detail and
check on everyone’s progress to make sure that they will complete their assigned
tasks on time. This scenario is almost guaranteed to result in the late production
of financial statements, and probably ones with errors, as well.
A key factor that will reduce the level of confusion is proper training of the
accounting staff. By doing so, error rates will decline, while the time needed to
complete assigned tasks will drop dramatically. To achieve this end result, one
must first have an adequate set of procedures from which to conduct training (see
the ‘‘Document the Process” section earlier in this chapter). Once these proce-
dures are written, one can use them to conduct personalized training of every per-
son who is involved in the creation of financial statements. It is important to con-
duct training prior to the end of the reporting period so that the training can be
done in a leisurely manner, giving everyone time to ruminate over the informa-
tion and to have their questions answered thoroughly. If the training is conducted
in the midst of the closing process, there will not be enough time for an adequate
level of training. Also, once the initial training is complete, the controller must
still monitor the progress of all the people on the accounting team and provide
follow-up training as needed to ensure that they have fully absorbed what they
have been taught and that any errors are corrected. Finally, the procedures that
were used as a training tool must be given to the accounting staff for referral pur-
poses, as well as being updated at once to reflect any ongoing changes to the closing