9 Tips to Help Nonprofit Finance Teams Close Their Books Faster

Closing your books at the end of a fiscal period can feel like a marathon—especially for nonprofit finance teams juggling grant reporting, donor stewardship, and compliance requirements at the same time. When deadlines loom and documentation piles up, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But a streamlined close process does more than save time. You build trust, improve accuracy, and set your organization up for success.

An efficient close means fewer surprises during audits, more reliable data for decision-making, and less stress for your team. By adopting proactive strategies and leveraging the right tools, you can transform the close process from a scramble into a smooth, predictable routine.

Here are nine practical tips to help you close your books faster and with confidence.

1. Close Monthly and Quarterly, Not Just Annually

Waiting until year-end to reconcile everything is a recipe for stress. Instead, perform consistent month-end and quarter-end fiscal period closes. These regular checkpoints catch errors early, keep your books clean, and make year-end far less daunting. Review reconciliations, budget-to-actual reports, and journal entries each month. This routine not only uncovers discrepancies before they snowball but also familiarizes your team with processes and deadlines, reducing last-minute scrambles.

2. Create a Detailed Close Calendar

Build a close calendar that includes every task—data entry, reconciliations, report generation—and assign responsibilities to team members. Use project management tools like Trello or Asana and duplicate the project each month and quarter to track progress and keep everyone accountable. Incorporate buffer time for unexpected items, such as delayed invoices or grant receipts, so your team can adapt without derailing the timeline.

3. Automate Routine Tasks

Manual processes slow you down and increase the risk of errors. Leverage automation in your fund accounting software for bank and credit card feeds, invoice processing, and recurring journal entries. Automation reduces repetitive work, accelerates reconciliations, and frees up your team for analysis and planning. Regularly review which tasks are still manual and explore new features that can simplify your workflow.

4. Centralize Documentation

Hunting for invoices or receipts during your fiscal period close is frustrating and inefficient. Organize all financial documents—contracts, grant agreements, receipts—in a single, cloud-based repository. Attach files directly to transactions in your accounting system for easy retrieval during audits. Standardize file naming conventions and folder structures to ensure quick access and compliance with retention policies. Document these naming conventions, so everyone knows them, or at least can access the policy when they have questions.

5. Foster Cross-Department Communication

Finance doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Set up recurring check-ins with program and development teams to ensure timely submission of invoices, grant expenditures, and other critical data. Publish deadlines and expectations well in advance and share calendars across departments, so everyone understands when people might be slower to respond than usual, such as ahead of a major campaign launch or the annual financial audit. When everyone understands what’s needed, when, and why, you minimize delays and last-minute surprises.

6. Use a Soft Close Before the Hard Close

A soft close locks down data entry while allowing for adjustments. Once everything is verified, move to a hard close to finalize the period. This two-step approach gives you flexibility to correct errors without compromising the integrity of your financial data.

7. Implement Consistent Data Governance

Standardize coding, clean up duplicate vendor records, and archive unused accounts regularly. Good governance ensures accurate reporting and reduces surprises during fiscal period closes and audits. Train staff on policies and update documentation as your processes evolve, especially after turnover or technology changes.

8. Plan for Last-Minute Adjustments

Even the best plans encounter surprises. Build buffer time into your schedule for late invoices or grant payments. Develop contingency plans for delayed receipts, staff absences, or system outages. A little foresight goes a long way toward keeping your fiscal period close on track.

9. Stay Audit-Ready Year-Round

Audit readiness shouldn’t start after the books are closed. Schedule periodic reviews with your auditor to discuss new regulations and best practices. Prepare a post-close packet—including reconciliations, board meeting minutes, and financial statements—in advance. This proactive approach reduces stress and speeds up the audit process.