Dedicated offshore close specialists handle reconciliations, accruals, prepaid adjustments, payroll JEs, intercompany eliminations, and financial statement drafting. For finance teams tired of the close cycle eating the first two weeks of every month.
Close scope
The average US mid-market company closes its books 12–18 business days after month-end. The top-quartile benchmark is 5–8 days. The difference isn't company complexity; it's process discipline. Companies with slow closes usually share four symptoms: (1) reconciliations run ad hoc rather than on a calendar, (2) AP cut-off captured late or not at all, (3) manual journal entries done from scratch each month instead of from templates, and (4) no one owning the close calendar end-to-end.
Day 1: AP cut-off cleared, bank feeds pulled. Day 2: all bank and credit card accounts reconciled. Days 3–4: accruals (prepaid, received-not-invoiced, payroll), fixed asset depreciation, intercompany. Day 5: draft financials generated. Days 6–7: review cycle, adjustments, second-pass review. Day 8: close locked, financials issued. That's the 8-day close. Finance teams that haven't been there think it sounds impossible; teams that have been there wonder how they ever tolerated 18-day closes.
Close is time-boxed work with high volume early in the cycle. An offshore close specialist can do in 8 straight days what an in-house accountant does in 18 calendar days – because (a) the offshore person is doing close as their only job that week (not interrupted by meetings, ad hoc questions, or other priorities), and (b) the time zone gap means work handed off at 5pm US time comes back completed by 9am the next morning.
The first thing we build in a month-end close engagement is a documented close calendar: every task, every owner, every SLA, every dependency. This calendar is how we hold ourselves accountable and how your team tracks what we're doing. For most engagements, the calendar includes 40–80 discrete tasks, assigned across offshore and US staff, with strict day-by-day sequencing.
Month-end close pairs naturally with offshore bookkeeping (same seat, expanded scope), financial reporting (downstream of close), and offshore controller (senior oversight of close). See also our offshore accounting overview.
FAQ
Usually yes, though it typically takes 2–3 close cycles to hit the target. Month 1 builds the close calendar and establishes the rhythm. Month 2 tightens it. Month 3 is usually at target. Rare exceptions: very complex multi-entity structures or heavily manual AR/revenue cycles where the bottleneck is upstream of accounting.
Depends on scope. A single-entity close with a senior offshore accountant runs $2,400–$3,000/month. Multi-entity structures with 3–10 entities run $4,000–$6,500/month. See our pricing page for full detail.
The calendar is co-owned. We draft it, you approve it, we execute it. When something changes (new entity, new system, new reporting requirement), we update it jointly. Calendar lives at the engagement level and travels with the team.
Yes. Multi-entity close with intercompany eliminations, FX translation, and consolidated financials is a common engagement. Typically requires senior offshore staff ($3,500–$5,500/month per seat depending on complexity).
Yes. Monthly revenue recognition runs, deferred revenue rollforwards, contract modification adjustments. See our SaaS industry page for the full SaaS finance scope.
Yes. A common structure: your in-house bookkeeper handles daily transaction coding, offshore close specialists take over at month-end for reconciliation, accruals, and close tasks. The two teams hand off through a documented close calendar.
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