Month-end close cut from 18 days to 5
A growth-stage SaaS business moved from a slipping 18-day close to a reliable five-day close — with full IFRS 15 revenue recognition and a board pack ready on business day six.
The challenge
The client had outgrown its bookkeeper. Month-end was landing on day 18, deferred revenue was reconciling manually each period, and the board was receiving last month's numbers in the middle of the next month. An upcoming Series B round meant the board pack needed to be timely, defensible under IFRS 15, and consistent across two reporting entities. The in-house team of two could not absorb the work, and a full-time Controller hire was both slow to recruit and hard to justify at the current scale.
The solution
Siyaval placed a senior Controller and a transactional accountant on a Growth-tier retainer. We rewrote the close calendar around a five-day target, automated the deferred-revenue waterfall in Sage Intacct, built standing schedules for accrued revenue and contract assets, and put a reviewer-led sign-off into every balance-sheet account. A monthly board pack template was agreed with the CEO and produced on day six with variance commentary, KPI movement, and cash forecast.
The outcome
The first close under the new model landed on day eight, the second on day five, and every close since has met the target. Deferred revenue is reconciled inside Sage Intacct without manual workings. The board pack now reaches investors on the same day every month, and the Series B diligence ran on workpapers prepared during the normal close — with no separate clean-up phase.