“𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑛 𝑢𝑛𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒.”

Every year-end surprise I’ve ever seen was visible months earlier. Somebody knew. It just never became anyone’s problem until the auditors made it one.

It’s the middle of October. You have about ten weeks — and most companies will spend them preparing schedules rather than testing positions.

Here’s the distinction that matters.

𝗔 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗸. You can move tasks earlier, and you should. That’s most of what close acceleration actually is.

𝗔 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁. Whether your bad debt reserve is adequate. Whether that revenue arrangement has one performance obligation or three. Whether the capitalized development costs on your balance sheet still represent something that works. Whether the comp accrual reflects the plan everyone is actually going to be paid under.

You can’t move a judgment earlier. But you can have the argument earlier, and that’s the whole game.

Because somebody is going to disagree with you about at least one of those positions. That isn’t a risk, it’s a certainty. The only variable is when you find out.

In October, a disagreement is a conversation. You have time to gather support, change the treatment, or build the disclosure. In February it’s a delay, a restatement discussion, or a very bad week with your audit committee chair.

So pick your three or four. Not twenty. The three or four judgments where a reasonable person could land somewhere other than where you’ve landed, and where being wrong would be material.

Then go argue about them now. With your auditors. With your controller. With whoever on your team has been quietly uncomfortable since the spring — and I promise you there is someone.

That last one is the real source. 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿-𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 discoveries. They’re things somebody noticed in June and decided not to raise, because raising it meant reopening work everyone had moved on from.

The deadline isn’t what makes it hard.

The silence is.

What are your three? And has anyone outside your team heard about them yet?

#TheAccidentalCFO #YearEnd #FinancialClose #AuditReadiness #INERSEC