Financial close software evaluations often begin with a feature list. The harder question tends to arrive after go-live, when the close finishes on time and someone still asks whether the numbers can be explained. Sixthfin, a financial data control and financial close technology company with offices in London and Paris, has set out eleven criteria for enterprise finance and procurement teams comparing close automation software, intended to put the reliability of the accounts at the centre of that comparison. For more information, visit https://sixthfin.com/en/solution/closing/
The eleven criteria are enterprise scalability, multi-entity capability, ERP coverage, data harmonisation, account analysis and justification, analytical review, transaction level drill-down, anomaly identification, audit evidence, control standardisation and implementation requirements. Financial close software covers substantially different capabilities, and an organisation that scores vendors on feature counts can complete a procurement, deploy successfully and discover a year later that it bought coordination when the problem was review.
Sixthfin’s research among UK finance leaders shows why the distinction matters. In the Sixthfin Report on Accounting Transformation, a study of 303 CFOs at large and mid-sized private UK companies conducted by Odoxa for Sixthfin and published in May 2026, 67% named improving the reliability of accounts as their top priority for improving the close, and only 42% described the way their organisation manages the close as very satisfactory. The full study is available at https://sixthfin.com/en/resource/sixthfin-report-on-accounting-transformation/
The first criteria concern the finance estate a platform has to work across. Multi-entity scalability comes first. A platform intended for a multinational organisation has to accommodate differences between subsidiaries while giving group finance consolidated visibility over close progress, account justifications, accounting reviews, exceptions and supporting evidence.
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