Finance Process Automation
Month-End Close Optimization for Swiss Manufacturing
Month-end close went from a 12-day scramble to a streamlined 5-day process. — Anonymized client, Precision Manufacturing, Zürich region
Executive Summary
Estimated Results
| Metric | Before | After | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Month-End Close | 12 days | 5 days | -58% |
| Reconciliation Time | 16 hours | 4 hours | -75% |
| Variance Analysis | 8 hours | 1.5 hours | -81% |
| Report Generation | 6 hours | 30 min | -92% |
| Error Rate | 4.2% | 0.3% | -93% |
| Annual Cost Savings | — | CHF 48,000 | — |
The Challenge
A precision manufacturing company with 40+ years of history was struggling with outdated month-end processes:
Manual Reconciliation
Bank reconciliation across 3 accounts, AP/AR matching with 200+ vendors and customers, inventory reconciliation against physical counts—all done in Excel with manual cross-referencing.
Variance Analysis Bottleneck
Budget vs. actual analysis required exporting data from SAP, reformatting in Excel, manually identifying variances, and writing explanations. The controller spent days on this alone.
Report Assembly Chaos
Executive reports were assembled from 7 different data sources. Each month, the CFO manually created P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, and KPI reports in PowerPoint.
Late Financial Insights
By the time financials were ready (day 12), the data was stale. Management decisions were based on 6-week-old information. Competitors with faster closes were more agile.
The Tipping Point
When the controller announced her retirement, the CFO realized the institutional knowledge locked in Excel macros and manual processes would be lost. They needed to systematize and automate before it was too late.
The Solution
Using the eflury Method™, we implemented a phased automation approach over 8 weeks.
Automated Reconciliation Engine
Built a Claude-powered reconciliation system that:
- Imports bank statements automatically via SWIFT/MT940
- Matches transactions against SAP entries using fuzzy logic
- Flags exceptions for human review instead of manual matching
- Generates reconciliation reports with variance explanations
Intelligent Variance Analysis
Created a Claude Skill that:
- Pulls budget and actual data from SAP automatically
- Calculates variances by cost center, project, and GL account
- Generates natural language explanations for significant variances
- Suggests investigation priorities based on materiality
Executive Reporting Dashboard
Implemented Power BI with AI-assisted narrative generation:
- Real-time connection to SAP Business One
- Automated P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statements
- KPI dashboard with drill-down capability
- Claude-generated executive summary for each report
Close Calendar Automation
Built a workflow orchestration system:
- Automated task scheduling and dependencies
- Slack notifications for task completion and blockers
- Progress tracking dashboard for CFO visibility
- Historical close metrics for continuous improvement
Detailed Results
Time Savings
Team now focuses on analysis and strategy instead of data entry and reconciliation.
Financial Impact
Reduced overtime, eliminated temp staff during close, avoided backfill for retiring controller.
Data Quality
From 4.2% error rate to 0.3%. Auditors noted "significantly improved controls" in annual review.
Decision Speed
Management now receives financial data by day 5 instead of day 12—enabling faster strategic decisions.
Return on Investment
The client's finance team reported significant time savings after implementation, enabling them to shift focus from manual month-end processing to strategic financial analysis.
Client details anonymized at their request. This is a summary of reported outcomes, not a direct quote. Implementation completed Q2 2024.
Technical Implementation
Data Security
All financial data remains within Swiss borders (Azure Switzerland North). The implementation complies with Swiss FADP, GDPR, and industry-standard SOC 2 controls. No financial data is sent to external AI providers—Claude processes only anonymized variance descriptions.
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