Today, Financial Controllers and their teams spend up to 70% of their time on close-related activities – time that could be better spent generating insights and guiding business decisions. What if much of that effort could be minimised, or even eliminated? That’s where the ‘autonomous close’ comes in. By building on cloud-based ERP foundations and layering in agentic AI (AI that can act autonomously to prepare outputs, with a human in the loop for review) finance functions can fast-track their transformation. The result: a faster, more accurate, more strategic close with less manual work.
We’re often asked by clients how to get started. This article is designed to help. It summarises what Financial Controllers and Chief Financial Officers need to consider to enable an autonomous close, based on what we’re seeing in the market and the leading practices that are driving results.
Here’s what defines an autonomous close:
- continuous transaction processing and reconciliation throughout the month, powered by automation and machine learning
- autonomous exception handling and issue resolution, guided by predefined finance policies
- instant flash reporting, with embedded narrative and commentary
- real-time variance analysis, with AI surfacing key drivers and business impacts.
Build on a clean core: The role of cloud ERP
The journey starts with a strong foundation: a clean-core, cloud-based ERP. Many legacy on-premise systems simply weren’t designed for real-time operations. Without standardised processes or consistent data definitions, finance teams are forced to work outside the system – manually cleansing data to prepare for month-end.
Cloud ERPs solve this with:
- Real-time architecture – transactions post immediately across ledgers and subledgers, removing batch delays.
- Embedded automation – reconciliations, journal entries, allocations and approvals are built in, driving consistency and freeing up time.
- Unified data models – finance, procurement, HR and operations are connected, enabling a seamless flow of information.
Using standard, out-of-the-box functionality ensures you get the full benefit of your ERP. It reduces recurring effort and creates stronger connections across your data landscape – laying the groundwork for a more autonomous finance function.
Go beyond automation with AI agents
Even with a modern ERP in place, finance teams still spend time linking outputs, generating reports and analysing results. These tasks are essential – but often time-consuming and low in judgement.
The next shift comes from AI agents: intelligent systems that act autonomously to make decisions, initiate actions, resolve issues and surface insights – without waiting for a prompt.
By embedding AI agents into your finance processes, you can reduce manual effort and unlock new value. The focus shifts from preparation to insight – enabling finance to play a more strategic, advisory role.
Here’s how AI agents can transform key finance activities:
1. Autonomous reconciliations and exception handling
Today, exceptions like invoice mismatches or revenue recognition issues require manual resolution. AI agents change the game. They:
- detect anomalies in real time
- analyse root causes and apply corrections or trigger workflows to auto-resolve.
With FloQast’s ‘Transform’, AI agents are built and tailored to each client’s processes. They pull data from multiple sources, harmonise it, and generate outputs like reconciliations and journal entries. Once trained, they automate the process – pausing only for human review before posting to maintain control.
FloQast’s AI Matching tool uses large language models to create and apply rules that perform matches across vast datasets in seconds. Only genuine exceptions are flagged for review.
2. Dynamic variance analysis
Today’s variance analysis is largely manual. Analysts spend hours slicing data to find out what changed and why. AI agents can:
- continuously monitor finance data
- identify variances using predictive models and thresholds
- suggest actions or raise flags with business owners.
What does it take to get there?
Many finance teams have already invested in their future – but haven’t yet realised the aspiration to automate the end-to-end close. To unlock the potential of an autonomous close, a few factors are critical:
- Disciplined processes – automation works best when processes are standardised. Cloud ERP gives you the opportunity to adopt leading practices.
- Change-ready teams – moving from ‘processors of results’ to strategic business advisors requires mindset and skillset shifts. Build capability in AI oversight and business partnering to drive adoption and to ensure the team become champions of change.
- Data quality – AI agents need clean, real-time data to perform. A clean-core ERP helps deliver this – but AI can also support data harmonisation before you reach full autonomy.
- Start small, scale fast – focus first on high-friction, manual processes. Early wins build momentum, demonstrate value and fund further transformation.
The payoff: A more strategic finance function
With an autonomous close in place, finance is no longer weighed down by manual tasks. Instead, your team can:
- close the books in near real time – freeing capacity for high-value work
- deliver instant, actionable insights to the business (not just historical reports)
- shift from reactive analysis to proactive, strategic partnership.
This is more than automation. It delivers the future of finance. A future where the function is leaner, smarter and better equipped to lead. The autonomous close is your first bold move toward it.
With thanks to Mathea Beck for her contribution. If you're ready to fast-track your future of finance with agentic AI, get in touch with Paddy McEvoy to start the conversation.
