Tips for setting up Close Workspace

Keep these tips in mind as you set up Close Workspace and manage your templates.

Managing multiple close frequencies

If you have entities in which you close the books at different intervals, create a separate checklist for each interval. For example, you can create a monthly checklist and a quarterly checklist.

Keeping categories to a minimum

Close Workspace comes with several checklist and task categories out-of-the-box. You can create new categories to meet your needs. But we recommend that you limit the number of categories to as few as possible.

The categories are used for reporting purposes. For example, the Close Progress Monitor shows task progress broken out by task category.

The fewer task categories that you use, the more likely it is that reporting tools will deliver actionable insights. And we recommend limiting the number of template categories to simplify filtering and maintenance.

Create two tasks for reconciliations

For each reconciliation, create two tasks—one task for the person preparing the reconciliation and one for the person reviewing it. Then designate the review task as a dependent task because it cannot be completed until the preparation task is complete. The preparation task is thus considered the prerequisite task.

  1. Go Close Workspace > Setup > Templates for Close Workspace > Checklist templates.

  2. Find the checklist template that contains the reconciliation tasks.

    Both tasks must be in the same checklist.

  3. Select Edit.

  4. Find the review task and select Edit at the end of the row.

  5. In the Dependencies section, select the following:

    • Condition: Start on

    • Date type: Completion of

    • Task name: Select the preparation task

  6. Select Save.

You can set up notifications in Configure Close Workspace related to the tasks: 

  • The person responsible for reviewing the reconciliation is notified when the following events occur: 

    • The preparation task is marked as completed.

    • The preparation task goes past due

  • The person responsible for preparing the reconciliation receives a notification if their task is past due, which lets them know that a dependent task is at risk.

Updating checklist templates

After you've used a checklist template to create a checklist, you can no longer add or remove tasks from that template. The template is locked down to preserve a record of close-related processes at a given time. This information can be helpful during an audit.

Instead of modifying the checklist template, create a copy of it. You can then make any needed changes to the copy. When you're finished with the original, you can set the status to Inactive so that it no longer appears in lists.