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The Soft Close ON DEMAND

Available Until

Your Desk

1.0 Credits

Member Price $29.00

Non-Member Price $33.00

Overview

This course shows how the accountant can minimize the time needed to close the books and issue financial statements. This involves the elimination of some closing steps, thereby presenting a tradeoff of somewhat reduced financial statement accuracy for much less closing effort. The course notes the risks involved and the situations to which a soft close can most readily be applied. In short, this course provides the accountant with a complete toolkit of solutions for streamlining the closing process.

Highlights

Soft close overview. Overhead allocations. Intercompany eliminations. Reserve account updates. Revenue accruals.

Prerequisites

None.

Designed For

CPAs, CFOs, controllers, financial professionals, and auditors.

Objectives

Recognize the situations in which financial statements that have been produced with a soft close can be issued. Identify the reporting periods in which a public or private company could use a soft close. Specify the situations in which a soft close is more likely to result in financial statement errors. Recognize the calculation methods used to estimate ending inventory. State the types of risk environments in which a soft close should and should not be used.

Preparation

None.

Notice

None.

Leader(s):

Leader Bios

Steven Bragg, Western CPE

Steven M. Bragg, CPA, is a full-time book and course author who has written more than 70 business books. He provides Western CPE with self-study courses in the areas of accounting and finance, with an emphasis on the practical application of accounting standards and management techniques. A sampling of his courses include the The New Controller Guidebook, The GAAP Guidebook, Accountants’ Guidebook, and Closing the Books: An Accountant’s Guide. He also manages the Accounting Best Practices podcast.

Steven has been the CFO or controller of both public and private companies and has been a consulting manager with Ernst & Young and an auditor with Deloitte & Touche. He holds an MBA from Babson College, a Master of Finance from Bentley College, and a BA from the University of Maine (summa cum laude).

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Non-Member Price $33.00

Member Price $29.00