The Complete Guide to Close Automation provides finance leaders with a seven-chapter roadmap for transforming month-end processes. From diagnosing workflow issues to implementing AI-powered solutions, this comprehensive resource delivers practical strategies for faster closes, improved accuracy, and strategic finance operations.
Month-end close shouldn't feel like a monthly crisis. Yet for most finance teams, it does. Controllers spend late nights reconciling accounts across multiple entities. CFOs wait days for consolidated reports that arrive already outdated. Accountants drown in manual tasks instead of delivering strategic insights.
The problem isn't your team's capability or work ethic. It's the tools and processes finance inherited from a different era, built for simpler organizational structures and slower business cycles. Manual spreadsheets, disconnected systems, and repetitive workflows create bottlenecks that prevent finance from operating at the speed modern business demands.
Nominal created The Complete Close Automation Hub to help finance leaders modernize every part of the month-end process in 2026. This comprehensive content hub covers everything from identifying roadblocks to implementing automation that actually works, whether you're stuck in spreadsheets or already exploring AI-powered solutions.
What's Inside The Complete Close Automation Hub
This isn't a surface-level overview or vendor pitch disguised as education. The hub delivers seven detailed chapters packed with practical frameworks, real-world examples, and actionable strategies finance leaders can implement immediately.
Beyond the written content, the hub includes exclusive resources designed to accelerate your transformation. Downloadable blueprints provide visual frameworks you can share with stakeholders. Interactive quizzes assess your current state and deliver personalized recommendations. Infographics distill complex concepts into shareable formats. Scorecards help evaluate software vendors objectively. A live webinar demonstrates automation in real organizational context.
Each chapter builds on the previous one, creating a complete roadmap from assessment through implementation. You can read straight through for the full transformation journey or jump directly to the chapters addressing your most pressing challenges. All tools and assets are exclusive to readers accessing the hub.
Your Seven-Chapter Roadmap
The guide walks through every stage of close transformation, from diagnosing current problems to implementing solutions that scale. Each chapter addresses a specific aspect of the journey, providing frameworks and strategies finance leaders can apply immediately to their own processes.
Chapter 1: Where Does Your Close Stand Today?
Start with a two-minute interactive assessment that benchmarks your current close process. Answer questions about timelines, manual workflows, and pain points to receive a personalized path through the guide based on your results. No long forms or sales pitches, just clear next steps tailored to your situation.
Chapter 2: The Cost of a Broken Close
Discover the hidden costs manual processes create beyond obvious time drains. This chapter unpacks how broken closes increase risk exposure, create audit headaches, and block finance teams from strategic work that drives business value. Learn to recognize the warning signs before they become crises.
Chapter 3: What a Modern Close Looks Like
Explore the six-stage blueprint high-performing finance teams use to transform month-end from chaotic firefighting into predictable workflow. See real timeline comparisons showing how organizations compress 10-14 day closes into four to five days while improving accuracy and reducing stress.
Chapter 4: Automating the Close Process
Dive deep into four core workflow areas where automation delivers immediate impact: reconciliations, intercompany eliminations, variance analysis, and task management. Learn how AI-powered platforms handle repetitive matching work while finance teams focus expertise on exceptions requiring judgment.
Chapter 5: How to Choose Close Automation Software
Navigate the crowded software marketplace with a clear evaluation framework. This chapter distinguishes three fundamental approaches (ERP modules, AI assistants, and Agentic Performance Management platforms) and provides eight criteria plus specific vendor questions that reveal how solutions actually perform in operational reality.
Chapter 6: Implementation Tips That Actually Work
Follow a proven 30-day implementation roadmap that puts finance teams in control without IT dependencies. Learn which common blockers derail projects before they deliver value and how modern platforms enable finance-led rollouts that start showing results within the first month.
Chapter 7: A Real Close with Nominal
Watch theory become reality through a live webinar demonstration. See how autonomous agents handle multi-entity consolidation, intercompany eliminations, and month-end workflows in actual organizational context, not idealized scenarios with clean data.
Who This Content Hub Is For
The Complete Close Automation Hub speaks directly to CFOs, Controllers, and Heads of Finance at mid-market and enterprise organizations managing multiple entities, currencies, or complex consolidation requirements.
This resource is particularly valuable for finance leaders evaluating automation platforms, teams stuck in manual spreadsheet processes looking for a better way, and organizations experiencing growth that's outpacing finance capacity. If your close timeline prevents timely decision making or your team spends more time gathering data than analyzing it, this content hub provides the roadmap forward.
Start Your Close Transformation Today
The finance organizations winning in 2026 won't be the ones with the biggest teams. They'll be the ones running on systems that let autonomous agents execute operations while finance talent drives actual business value.
The transformation doesn't require replacing your ERP or months of planning. It starts with understanding where your close stands today and what modern automation makes possible.
Access The Complete Close Automation Hub and take the two-minute assessment to discover your personalized path forward. Or book a demo with Nominal to see how Agentic Performance Management transforms month-end from chaos to confidence.
The tools to fix your broken close exist today. The question is when you'll deploy them.
