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Year-End Close: A Real-World Walkthrough

This example follows a 30-person creative agency closing its financial year with 1,800 supplier invoices, 12 fixed-asset additions, and outstanding accruals. Manually, the year-end close takes the bookkeeper and accountant two full weeks of spreadsheet work, catch-up data entry, and reconciliation — roughly €3,500 in fees. With Nika processing invoices throughout the year at {price} per invoice, the year-end close becomes a one-day review because every invoice is already entered, coded, and filed.

Before: manual process

A 30-person creative agency approaches its 31 December year-end. The bookkeeper has been entering invoices in monthly batches, but December is only half-entered by mid-January. Across the year there are 1,800 supplier invoices: recurring SaaS subscriptions, freelance contractor invoices, production costs, and office expenses. Roughly 15% are miscategorised — software dumped into Office Expenses, client dinners into Travel. The bank account was last reconciled in September. The fixed-asset register has not been updated since March, when three new iMacs and a server were purchased but never capitalised. The accountant estimates two weeks of cleanup: reconciliation, reclassification, depreciation schedule rebuild, and accruals — at a cost of roughly €3,500 in billable hours.

After: with Nika

The same agency uses Nika throughout the year. Each of the 1,800 supplier invoices is read, coded to the correct expense category from supplier history, and filed the day it arrives — so by 31 December, every invoice is already in the books. The December invoices entered by 5 January (same-day processing means no backlog). The bank account is reconciled monthly because the supplier side of the books is always current. The fixed-asset register is maintained continuously — each capital purchase above the threshold is tagged as an asset at entry. At year-end, the accountant receives a complete, categorised, reconciled set of books. The close takes one day: reviewing the pre-populated depreciation schedule, confirming accruals, and signing off. No catch-up, no reclassification, no rebuild.

Workflow

  1. 1

    Year-round invoice entry

    In: 1,800 supplier invoices arriving across the year (email, portal, forwarded)
    Out: Each invoice entered same-day: vendor, date, amount, VAT, category — coded from supplier history
    Saved: Eliminates the two-week year-end data-entry scramble entirely
  2. 2

    Continuous reconciliation readiness

    In: Monthly bank statements + coded supplier invoices
    Out: Reconciliation completed monthly, not deferred to year-end — December books ready by 5 January
    Saved: ~3 hours/month vs. ~2 days of year-end reconciliation per account
  3. 3

    Fixed-asset tracking

    In: Capital purchases above threshold (3 iMacs €7,200, server €4,500)
    Out: Each tagged to the asset register at purchase — depreciation schedule auto-updated, not rebuilt at year-end
    Saved: Eliminates a full day of asset-register reconstruction
  4. 4

    Year-end review

    In: Complete, coded, reconciled books for the full year
    Out: Accountant reviews depreciation, confirms accruals and prepayments, signs off — one day
    Saved: ~1 day review vs. ~2 weeks of manual close (~€3,500 in fees)

Cost comparison

MethodCostTime
Manual — bookkeeper + accountant (2-week close)~€3,500 / year in fees + 15% miscoding cleanup2 full weeks at year-end
Outsourced firm (year-end package)Typically €2,000–4,000 + data prep time1–2 weeks turnaround
Nika (per invoice, processed year-round){price} / invoice × 1,800Year-end close = 1-day review

Key takeaways

  • The year-end close becomes a review of already-complete books, not a two-week data-entry and reconciliation project.
  • Miscategorisation is eliminated during the year — each invoice is coded correctly at entry from supplier history, not reclassified at year-end.
  • The fixed-asset register stays current because capital purchases are tagged at entry, not reconstructed from bank statements in January.
  • The accountant receives finished books and does accountant-grade work (depreciation review, accruals, sign-off) instead of bookkeeper-grade cleanup.

Questions

Does Nika do the year-end adjustments (accruals, depreciation, tax)?

No — those require an accountant. Nika ensures that every supplier invoice is entered, coded, and filed throughout the year, so the books arrive at year-end complete and categorised. Your accountant then does the adjustment work — accruals, depreciation calculations, tax provisions — on clean data, rather than spending the first week reconstructing the books from bank statements and shoeboxes.

What if some invoices arrive after the year-end close starts?

Because Nika processes invoices the day they arrive, late-arriving invoices are entered immediately — typically within 24 hours. An invoice that arrives on 10 January for a December service is entered on 10 January and accrued into the correct period. There is no backlog of un-entered invoices blocking the close, which is the most common cause of year-end delays.

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