Relationship Definition

Financial close software, also called accounting close software, provides tools to help businesses complete the financial close cycle. Many organizations perform financial close at the end of each month, during which accountants within an organization use this software to ensure the books are accurate and any transactions were successfully completed. Tasks, such as bill payment and delivery, expense approval, and lead importing, will be laid out in checklists and checked off once completed. Financial close products often include features such as individual task allocation, reconciliation management, reporting, and databases of past accounting close data organized by month and transaction type. Individual progress and deadlines for each period can also be tracked by the accounting team throughout the cycle.

These tools typically integrate with spreadsheets and various accounting tools to help users comprehensively document relevant data and identify noteworthy findings or inconsistencies. They may also integrate with, or come packaged with, other corporate performance management (CPM) features such as financial consolidation or budgeting and forecasting.

To qualify for inclusion in the Financial Close category, a product must:

• Allow users to create checklists and individual tasks related to closing accounting books
• Track the financial close process so users can view progress, timelines, and approvals
• Provide tools, such as reconciliation depositories or reconciliation management, that help users compare various sets of financial data
• Integrate with or import spreadsheets from other database or accounting software products

Relationship Index Description

A product’s Relationship score is calculated by a proprietary algorithm that factors in real-user satisfaction ratings for a number of relationship-related review questions. Software buyers can compare products in the Financial Close category according to their Relationship scores to streamline the buying process and quickly identify the products that provide the best relationship with software sellers based on the experiences of their peers. For sellers, media, investors, and analysts, the Index provides benchmarks for product comparison and market trend analysis.

Badges are awarded to products for: Best Relationship (highest overall relationship score), Highest Quality of Support (highest overall quality of support score), and Easiest Doing Business With (highest ease of doing business with score).

Products included in the Relationship Index for Financial Close | Winter 2023 have received both a minimum of 10 reviews and 5 responses from real users for each of the relationship-related questions featured in our review form by November 22, 2022. These ratings may change as the products are further developed, the sellers grow, and as additional opinions are shared by users, and a new Relationship Index report will be issued for this category as significant data is collected.