The pipeline

Five stages, run continuously.

1

Connect

Banks, cards, payroll, billing and processor feeds linked; existing ledger mapped.

Runs once at onboarding, then continuously for new accounts and connections.

Agent

2

Categorise

Transaction identified, supplier normalised, account and dimensions proposed.

Deterministic rules first; precedents and confidence thresholds after that.

Agent

3

Reconcile

Statement matched to ledger at line level across every account.

Differences classified as timing, error or unmatched — none absorbed silently.

Agent

4

Review exceptions

Policy ambiguity, unusual vendors, material variances and low-confidence items.

Decided by a named accountant, with the rationale recorded against the entry.

Accountant

5

Close

Statements finalised, reviewed against budget, signed off and issued.

Blocked if the exception queue is not clear. Silence never closes a period.

Signed off

Why the order matters

Reconciliation depends on correct coding; the close depends on cleared reconciliations. Enforcing the sequence is what makes the output trustworthy rather than merely fast.

Why it repeats daily

A day's worth of unreconciled activity is a small problem. A month's worth is a project. Running the pipeline daily keeps the size of the problem constant.

Why nothing is smoothed

An unexplained difference is a finding, not an inconvenience. It stays visible in the account until someone resolves it or explains it on the record.

Onboarding

Three stages, and most of the work is in the first.

Stage 1 Typically 1–2 weeks

Discovery and mapping

We review your current ledger, chart of accounts, entity structure and open items, then agree a starting position in writing.

Trial balance review and opening balance agreement
Chart of accounts and dimension mapping signed off
Open receivables, payables and unreconciled items listed
Coding rules documented for your common vendors
Expense policy captured in a form the agents can apply
Close calendar and approval thresholds agreed

Stage 2 Typically 2–4 weeks

Parallel run

We process a period alongside your existing process so you can compare the two outputs line by line before anything is handed over.

Systems connected and historical data loaded
Agents code the period with review on every suggestion
Reconciliations produced and compared to your own
Differences investigated and either fixed or explained
Thresholds tuned based on observed accuracy
Your team walks the platform with us, hands on

Stage 3 Ongoing

Handover and steady state

We take over the cycle against the agreed calendar. Your team keeps approvals and the decisions that are contractually yours.

Named accounting manager and contact route
First close run end to end with you watching
Review cadence agreed — monthly, quarterly or on request
Quarterly threshold and rule review
Adjustments to policy reflected in the rules engine
Period-by-period history retained and exportable

What we need from you

Onboarding moves at the speed of access and answers. In practice, almost all delay comes from these six items.

Ledger access: Read and write access to your current accounting system, or an export path if you are migrating.
Bank and card access: Read-only connections to every operating, payroll and credit account — including the ones that are rarely used.
Chart of accounts: Your current chart, plus any internal guidance on how accounts and dimensions are meant to be used.
Expense policy: Whatever exists today, even if it lives in a shared document. We will help you formalise the gaps.
Contracts and commitments: Anything with revenue recognition or amortisation consequences: subscriptions, retainers, leases, loans.
A decision-maker: One person who can approve mapping, policy and thresholds. Committee decisions stall onboarding.

Bring a recent trial balance and one bank statement to the demo. With those two documents we can usually scope the engagement and give you a realistic onboarding window in a single conversation.

Onboarding checklist 4 of 9 open

Item	Owner	Status
Ledger access granted	Client	Complete
Chart of accounts mapped	Accruna	Complete
Opening balances agreed	Both	Complete
Coding rules drafted	Accruna	Complete
Expense policy formalised	Client	Awaiting policy
Payroll connection	Client	Awaiting access
Contract list provided	Client	Not started
Approval thresholds set	Both	Not started
Parallel period reviewed	Both	Not started

The daily cycle

What a normal day looks like.

Overnight

Ingest

Bank, card, payroll and processor feeds are pulled. Duplicate and out-of-order files are rejected with a reason rather than re-posted.

Morning

Code and match

New transactions are categorised and reconciled. Above-threshold confidence posts; everything else queues for review.

Midday

Chase and resolve

Missing receipts are requested, unmatched lines investigated, and supplier queries raised. Flagged items are routed to approvers.

End of day

Report position

Ledger balances, cash position and any new exceptions are published. Reports are regenerated from the updated ledger.

Daily activity log · 28 Sep Cycle complete

02 Feeds ingested 6 accounts · 214 new transactions · 0 rejected files Done
03 Transactions coded 211 posted automatically · 3 held for review Done
04 Reconciliation run All 6 accounts balanced · 1 timing difference logged Done
05 Documents requested 2 receipts outstanding · reminder sent to cardholder Awaiting
06 Exception queue 3 items assigned to M. Okonjo for decision Needs review

Your involvement today: zero actions required. One item will need your approval when it reaches the threshold.

What you are asked to do

A well-run engagement asks very little of a client in a normal month. When we do ask, it is because the decision is genuinely yours to make.

Approve above your threshold — payments and postings above an amount you set.
Answer context questions — a vendor nobody recognises, or a one-off cost with no explanation.
Confirm policy exceptions — spend outside policy that you want to allow anyway.
Sign off the close — once a period, after the variance narrative is with you.
Tell us about changes — new entities, new revenue models, funding rounds, restructures.

If a month passes with no requests, that is the intended outcome — not a sign that nothing happened. The activity log shows the work either way.

Exception review

How an item gets to a human.

Step 1

Detected

The agent recognises it cannot decide: no precedent, conflicting rule, or a value above its authority.

Step 2

Prepared

Context is assembled — source document, proposal, comparables, policy clause and accounting impact.

Step 3

Assigned

Routed to the right owner: the engagement accountant, a specialist, or you if it crosses a threshold you reserved.

Step 4

Decided and learned

The decision posts with the owner's name, feeds the precedent set, and updates the rules if a gap is found.

Service levels we work to

Same day: Routine coding questions and document requests raised during the working day.
Next working day: Exception items assigned to an accountant, with a proposed treatment attached.
Before the close deadline: Anything blocking the close, escalated to your named contact rather than left in the queue.

Escalation is explicit

Every engagement has a named accounting manager and a documented escalation route. If the exception queue is not moving, it is our problem to escalate — you should not have to notice.

Ageing exceptions visible to both sides at all times
Blocking items escalated to your contact, not left in a list
Quarterly review of thresholds and precedents together
A written record of every decision, available on request

The close

What actually happens in close week.

1

Freeze and confirm

Cut-off agreed, last feeds confirmed, and anything post-cut-off listed for the next period.

2

Adjust

Accruals, prepayments, depreciation and revenue adjustments prepared and approved.

3

Review

Statements checked against budget and prior period; variances written up with the reason behind them.

4

Sign and issue

Statements, close report and supporting workpapers issued together with sign-off recorded.

Close report · September 2025

Delivered with every close

Profit and loss, with comparatives
Balance sheet and cash position
Reconciliation pack for every account
Journal register with approvals
Variance narrative against budget
Open items and their expected resolution

What "signed off" means

It is a specific claim, not a formality. A signed-off close means:

Every account has a reconciliation dated within the period
Every journal entry has a named approver
The exception queue is empty, or its remnants are documented and assigned
Material variances have an explanation on file
The statements tie to the ledger without a plug

If the close cannot complete

Sometimes it cannot, and pretending otherwise is worse than the delay. If a blocking item remains unresolved, we say so before the deadline.

You are told which item is blocking, and who owns it
The revised realistic date is given, not a vague reassurance
Statements can be issued as draft, clearly marked, with open items listed
The cause is reviewed at the next quarterly check so it does not recur

Change management

Accounting is not static, and the process should not be either.

How common changes are handled
What changed	How we handle it	What you should expect to decide
New revenue model	Recognition policy reviewed, new schedule templates created, comparatives restated if required	Whether prior periods are restated or the change applied prospectively
New entity or acquisition	Entity added to the consolidation, intercompany rules set, opening balances mapped	Functional currency, consolidation timing and elimination policy
New bank or card programme	Connection added, mapping set, reconciliation schedule extended	Which accounts to include and whether any are excluded by policy
Headcount growth	Payroll mapping extended, approval thresholds reviewed against new cost centres	Whether approval authority is delegated and to whom
Expense policy change	Rules versioned and applied from the effective date, with history preserved	The effective date and whether historical items are revisited
New reporting requirement	Report built from existing ledger dimensions, or a new dimension added and backfilled	Whether historical periods need the new dimension populated
A mistake in a closed period	Correction posted in the current period with full disclosure, or the prior period reopened if material	Materiality assessment and whether the prior period is reopened

Roles

Who does what, in plain terms.

Responsibility split between Accruna agents, Accruna accountants and the client
Activity	Accruna agents	Accruna accountants	You
Transaction coding	Prepare	Review exceptions	—
Bank reconciliation	Prepare	Review differences	—
Expense policy	Apply	Interpret	Set the policy
Journal entries	Propose	Approve	Approve above threshold
Payments	Prepare batch	Verify	Authorise
Revenue recognition	Calculate	Own the policy	Confirm contract terms
Statements	Generate	Review and sign	Accept
Tax filing	—	Prepare schedules	Engage the preparer
Audit liaison	Provide evidence	Manage requests	Own the relationship

Discovery usually takes one to two weeks and the parallel run two to four, so a realistic window is roughly four to six weeks from kick-off to taking over the cycle. That assumes access is granted promptly and someone on your side can approve mapping decisions.

Two factors move this most: how many years of history you want loaded, and how much of your chart of accounts is undocumented or inconsistently used. Both are worth fixing before onboarding rather than during it.

Mid-year is normal and usually preferable, because you stop accruing problems while you wait. We agree a transition date, reconcile everything up to it, and take over from that point with agreed opening balances.

The one thing we avoid is taking over in the middle of an unfinished close. Either your current provider finishes the period, or we take it on and complete it ourselves with that work clearly scoped.

Your history stays in your ledger. Accruna operates on the chart of accounts and opening balances we agree, and we can reference prior periods for comparatives without needing to re-post them.

If we identify errors in prior periods during onboarding, we will list them with their impact and let you decide how to treat them. We do not silently restate your history.

Yes. Access is role-based and can be scoped by entity, by function and by amount. A department head can be given visibility of their own cost centre without seeing payroll or the full ledger.

Separation of duties is enforced rather than advisory: the person who prepares a payment cannot also authorise it, and supplier bank detail changes require dual authorisation.

The ledger is current, so most urgent questions are answerable the same day — a runway question, a spend query, a board number. Your named accounting manager is the route in.

For anything with a genuine deadline — a lender pack, a diligence request, a board meeting — tell us the date when you ask. We would rather plan around a deadline than discover it the day before.

We reconcile the period, identify what is wrong, quantify it, and present the options: correct prospectively if immaterial, or reopen and restate if not. The assessment is documented either way.

This is often the most valuable part of onboarding. Many companies discover that prior periods contain classifying errors that were never material individually but skewed their reported gross margin.

A ledger that is maintained, not reconstructed.

Five stages, run continuously.

Why the order matters

Why it repeats daily

Why nothing is smoothed

Three stages, and most of the work is in the first.

Discovery and mapping

Parallel run

Handover and steady state

What we need from you

What a normal day looks like.

Ingest

Code and match

Chase and resolve

Report position

What you are asked to do

How an item gets to a human.

Detected

Prepared

Assigned

Decided and learned

Service levels we work to

Escalation is explicit

What actually happens in close week.

Freeze and confirm

Adjust

Review

Sign and issue

What "signed off" means

If the close cannot complete

Accounting is not static, and the process should not be either.

Who does what, in plain terms.

Questions about the process.

Walk through it with us, using your numbers.