Some of the best are now doing two closes-
                                           a soft close and a hard close.

The soft close is done quickly after month end, sometimes during the first business day of the new month.

The soft close or flash gives management a general idea on how the company did during the past month.  The numbers are reported quickly, so then management can act quickly.  Instead of waiting for the hard close, management is already making adjustments.  The next month gets off to a better start.

It is a win for accounting too.  The soft close takes some heat off the hard close.  They no longer have management on top of them wondering how soon the hard close will get done.  Accounting buys time for doing the hard close right with less pressure.  They are less likely to make mistakes.

The soft close can be a different process.  It likely will be much more summarized.  For some of my clients, the soft close is done differently.  Information is exported to Microsoft Excel and then a high level soft close is done there.  I develop a process so it is not as much work.

So, to get tougher on your results, first get soft, by having a fast soft close on your numbers.