Close Workspace overview

The Close Workspace is a centralized environment for managing the period-close process. Designed to streamline workflows, enhance visibility, and reduce delays, this feature helps finance teams execute their close with greater confidence and efficiency.

The following video provides an overview.

Checklists and tasks

Checklists consisting of the tasks required to close an accounting period are at the core of Close Workspace. In multi-entity environments, a task assignment can be created for each entity. The task owner can then assign the task to a different person in each entity.

For example, Karla owns the Review bank reconciliations task. In addition to being the task owner, she's the task assignee for the top-level. The following table shows all the task assignments for the company.

Example of assignments for the Review bank reconciliations task
Entity Task assignee
Central Jodie
East Betty
South Thomas
Top-level Karla

If you work on tasks related to closing accounting periods, use the checklist to see which tasks are assigned to you. You can also indicate when your task assignments are in progress or completed.

If you manage the close process, view the checklist for an overview of where your organization stands in the close process. With the correct permissions, you'll see the state of all tasks and their start and due dates. You can see at a glance what tasks are on track, at risk, or over due.

For more information on the roles within Close Workspace, see About Close Workspace roles.

Task dependencies

If one task assignment cannot be started until after another one is completed, you can specify that in the dependent task assignment. The person responsible for the dependent task assignment can receive a notification when the task it depends on is marked as completed. You can enable this type of notification on the Configure Close Workspace page.

Entity restrictions

In a multi-entity environment, a task can be created for the top-level only, or it can be split into separate task assignments for the different entities.

  • If a user is restricted to one or more entities, they can see only the task assignments within their entities.

  • If a user has an assignment that's dependent on an assignment in a different entity, they will see that other assignment only if they have access to the entity.

  • At top-level user can see all dependencies and track progress across entities.

Templates

Templates for tasks and checklists help you save time and maintain a consistent close process. They eliminate the need to create a new checklist from scratch every time you close a period.

Task templates include the information needed to calculate a task's target start and completion dates. You can add attachments with instructions to help with the task, and a link to an Intacct page or other online resource that's used when completing the task.

Copilot comes with several system-generated task templates, but you can create custom ones to match all of your processes.

Checklist templates are basically a container for a set of task templates. Use these templates to create your period-close checklists.

Notifications

Depending on which notifications you enable in Configure Close Workspace, Copilot generates insights to alert task assignees of certain situations such as the following:

  • A task is approaching its deadline

  • A task is at risk

  • A task is overdue

The notifications are generated based on the task target dates and other information. Assignees can view these insights in the Copilot panel, and you can set up Copilot to send email notifications as well.

Close progress monitor

The Close progress monitor provides a clear, comprehensive view of your close progress by transforming Close Workspace data into actionable insights. Use this page to track task statuses, assignees, and due dates for real-time visibility into the progress of your close process.

Regional availability

Close Workspace is available in the following regions:

  • United Kingdom

  • United States