IntermediateBEHAVIORAL
Tell me about a time you led the month-end close process across multiple teams; how did you prioritize tasks, ensure accuracy, and meet the deadline?
Accountant
General

Sample Answer

At my last role I owned month-end close across finance, operations, and sales for a $120M business. With five teams and 12 contributors, I mapped every deliverable on a two-week close calendar and ranked tasks by dependency and dollar impact — revenue cutovers and bank reconciliations were top priority. I ran daily 15-minute standups, tracked progress in a shared dashboard, and allocated a senior analyst to high-risk accounts. To ensure accuracy we ran parallel reconciliations and a materiality checklist that caught three discrepancies totaling $180K before posting. By enforcing sign-offs and a hard close time, we moved from a seven-day close to four days and reduced post-close adjustments by 65% in six months.

Keywords

Created cross-functional close calendar and task prioritizationUsed daily standups and shared dashboard for accountabilityQuantified improvements: reduced close time from 7 to 4 days and 65% fewer adjustments