It’s that time again — Q4.
The dashboards are red, finance is knee-deep in accruals, and operations is trying to close out every shipment before the holidays.
Before the year ends, give your CargoWise (or any ERP) database the gift of a clean slate.
Because your January self will thank you.
🧹 Step 1: Close Out the Clutter
Run your “no cost / no revenue” shipment report.
If a shipment hasn’t moved in 60 days, decide:
✅ Close it.
✅ Bill it.
✅ Or fix it.
This is such a critical step in the year-end process that it deserves to be on your official year-end checklist.
You know — that “System Reset” checklist you swear you’ll build every December but never quite do?
It always makes me think of a CFO I used to work for.
We both shared a deep love of checklists, and he would always say:
“Pilots have checklists… they use them before every takeoff and landing. That’s why more planes don’t crash.”
He wasn’t wrong.
And the same goes for systems — one unchecked item can cause a major problem later.
Cleaning up these hanging shipments isn’t just about tidiness; it’s about protecting yourself when the auditors come knocking.
Because last year’s open shipments will become this year’s audit sample — the ones they’ll trace to see:
- Did those shipments ever become shipments?
- And if they did, how materially did they impact your GP?
That’s when the questions start — about accruals, timing, and whether the prior year was understated.
So believe me, clean this up and make it as minimal as possible.
You’ll limit the sample size auditors love to test and reduce your exposure to those dreaded material findings.
And if you’re in finance, you know the word material carries weight.
It defines whether your auditors will insist on a correction — or simply note it and move on.
So do yourself a favor: treat this like a preflight checklist.
Because a clean takeoff means a smooth landing.
🧾 Step 2: Reconcile Your Accruals
In prior articles, I’ve mentioned CargoWise’s ability to automate and tie actions to triggers.
This is one of the most powerful — and underused — features for finance teams.
Having automated accruals and accrual reversals is critical not only for maintaining clean month-to-month reporting, but also for compliance with accounting principles.
And please be clear when I say accruals, I mean both cost and revenue.
As we all know, under the matching principle, revenue and expenses must be recognized when earned and incurred.
Tying these to system actions ensures you meet those accounting requirements — and your reports look clear, your closes are clean, and you avoid hanging accruals with no action behind them.
💡 Pro Tip:
Enable the auto-reversal of accruals once a cost or revenue post occurs.
Do not fall into the fallacy of “manual review for all,” because believe me — you won’t have time.
Finance has to move at the speed of logistics, and that, my friends, is fast.
Automating and tying accruals to workflows keeps you clean and compliant throughout the year.
But even with that, it’s still best practice to perform a year-end reconciliation — to catch anything that slipped through the cracks.
Because your auditors will run that report…
and you’d better be ready to speak to it before they do.
👥 Step 3: Merge or Lock Duplicate Vendors & Clients
Duplicate records don’t just cause confusion — they cause real financial errors, missed credit checks, and data headaches.
Adopt a naming convention like ClientName_CountryCode and enforce field-level validation rules.
💡 Pro Tip: Schedule a 10-minute Data Health Check every Friday — small habits prevent big audits.
🧭 Step 4: Review Your Reporting Logic
If your P&L doesn’t match your shipment data, don’t panic — trace your “money map.”
Walk through how an operational action becomes a financial transaction.
This is where operations and finance reconnect — and where you start the new year aligned.
🚀 Final Thought
Your Q4 cleanup isn’t busywork — it’s a leadership discipline.
It proves your systems work for you, not against you.
So before you hit “close” on 2025, take an hour to clean house.
Because efficient systems are the foundation for creative growth next year.
🧾 Please download my free Year-End Checklist — because remember, pilots have one… and so should you.
It’s available now on my Buy Me a Coffee page.
Your January self — and your auditors — will thank you. ✨
#Finance #CargoWise #SystemFix #Leadership #ProcessImprovement #YearEndClose #AuditReadiness #MatchingPrinciple #DataHealth #ALL2SConsulting
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