Standard operating procedure · FI4A · Finance

Period Close

Transactional procedure owned by Record-to-Report & Close in Finance. 8 numbered steps, 2 of them a person deciding and 6 of them agent work … more

Finance manual Service view

Procedure code

FI4A

Transactional

Rule versions in force

v4.8 · v2.9 · v2.8

3 governing rules stacked over it

In force since

2026-01-05

Earliest effective date across those rules

Last reviewed

2026-06-12

Latest review date across those rules

Rules approved by

Corporate Controller

Rule health

3/3

0 under review · 0 superseded

There is no document register behind this header. The version, the dates and the approver names are read off the governing rules this procedure runs inside, which is the closest thing the estate holds to a document control record. Nobody wrote these procedures. There is no document library behind this page and no Word file anywhere in the estate. Every procedure below is generated from rows this platform already holds: the line and its ordered stations, the owning team and the person accountable for it, the policy items bound to that team, and the governance gates seeded against the function. The steps, the owners, the gates, the approvers, the dwell times and the volumes are read straight off those rows. The sentences that join them together are generated. Read a procedure as the estate describing itself, not as a document somebody signed.

Purpose and scope

What this procedure is for and where it stops

To run period close to one repeatable standard inside Record-to-Report & Close, part of Finance. more

Entry condition

Runs transactional. Starts when a threshold is crossed.

Exit condition

The unit clears close period. more

In scope

Every unit of period close raised inside Record-to-Report & Close, from the trigger below through to the final step.
6 of the 8 steps, which run without a person present.
2 decisions that stop the line until a named person releases it.

Out of scope

Anything outside the envelope set by the owning team. It leaves the line at a gate and becomes the named approver's decision.
Work that belongs to another function. This line records no handoff, so nothing leaves it mid-flow.
The 5 steps carried on the shared AI GBS spine. They are done for this line but not by this function.

Who owns it

Runs the line

Close Orchestrator

Accountable person

Corporate Controller

The end of the escalation path. Above them sits Finance Chief of Staff for the function.

That team’s remit

Owns close task work end to end inside Finance. more

That remit describes the whole team, not this one procedure, so its counts are larger than the ones on this page.

Autonomy

77% now · ceiling 88%

Journal posting and reconciliation are deterministic and audited. more

The procedure, step by step

8 numbered steps · 2 of them stop for a person

A step is one station on the line. more

No.	Step	Who does it	What happens	System of record	Time on the step	In flight
01	Open period GBSgbs	Journal Entry Agent	Journal Entry Agent performs this step unattended on the shared AI GBS transaction spine, outside the function, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	56 minstandard 1.8 hrs	33
02	Post recurring journals GBSgbs	Journal Entry Agent	Journal Entry Agent performs this step unattended on the shared AI GBS transaction spine, outside the function, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	28 minstandard 48 min	30
03	Reconcile accounts GBSgbs	Journal Entry Agent	Journal Entry Agent performs this step unattended on the shared AI GBS transaction spine, outside the function, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	1.0 hrsstandard 2.0 hrs	21
04	Clear intercompany GBSgbs	Journal Entry Agent	Journal Entry Agent performs this step unattended on the shared AI GBS transaction spine, outside the function, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	13 minstandard 20 min	32
05	Flux analysis Agentworkflow	Close Task Agent	Close Task Agent performs this step unattended at the workflow layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Bank Connectivity Gateway	2.2 hrsstandard 4.3 hrs	39
06	Exception review HumanpolicyDecision	Corporate Controller Releases: Corporate Controller	Work stops. Corporate Controller reviews what the line has produced and either releases the unit or sends it back. Nothing downstream of this step runs until that decision is made.Holds until: Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the close task decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.	Group ERP — Financials	5.4 hrsstandard 7.8 hrs	5
07	Controller sign HumanpolicyDecision	Corporate Controller Releases: Corporate Controller	Work stops. Corporate Controller reviews what the line has produced and either releases the unit or sends it back. Nothing downstream of this step runs until that decision is made.Holds until: Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the close task decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.	Group ERP — Financials	2.9 hrsstandard 6.3 hrs	9
08	Close period GBSgbs	Journal Entry Agent	Journal Entry Agent performs this step unattended on the shared AI GBS transaction spine, outside the function, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	1.4 hrsstandard 3.3 hrs	44

The swimlane

The same steps, laid out by who is holding the work

Three lanes: a person deciding, an agent working, and the shared services spine. more

Person2 stations and 57% of the dwellAgent1 station and 15% of the dwellShared spine5 stations and 28% of the dwell3 crossings between lanes

Human

decides

Agent

does the work

GBS

shared spine

System

attributed by rule

Group ERP — Financials

Bank Connectivity Gateway

Group ERP — Financials

Click any station to see who does it, what it costs in time, the rule that gates it and the system attributed to it.

Run the procedure

One unit walked along that swimlane on the happy viable agentified path

Press run and a single unit enters at station 01. Each station takes exactly the dwell this platform records for it and is held by whoever the estate says holds it. more

speed

worked clock

00:00

allowance clock

00:00

stations cleared

0/8

the happy path, worked time0 min of 15 hrs

the same run against its allowance0 min of 27 hrs

Human

decides · 2

Agent

does the work · 1

GBS

shared spine · 5

run log

Nothing has happened yet. more

where the worked time goes15 hrs a unit

Person8.3 hrs · 57%Agent2.2 hrs · 15%Shared spine4.1 hrs · 28%3 crossings between lanes

what makes this path viable

The lanes are the recorded lanes. 2 of the 8 stations stop for a person and every one of them still does on this run.
Every one of the 2 decisions is still taken by the people who hold them. The happy path is that each one is released first time, not that it is skipped.
The owning team is held to a 88% autonomy ceiling and this run sits at 43% unattended, inside it.
2 systems are attributed across the stations, and 0 of them are connected. Nothing in this run has been watched executing against a real system of record.

what would have to change

1 of the 2 decisions can be handed over inside the 88% ceiling. more

could move to the agent lane

06 Exception review — held by Corporate Controller, 5.4 hrs a unit

stays with a person

07 Controller sign — The last decision on the line. Something on every procedure ends with a person, so this one is never offered.

what this run is, and what it is not

This is a run, not a forecast. more

Happy means nothing goes wrong: no station raises an exception, no gate sends the unit back, no rework loop fires and nothing sits in a queue between stations. more

The second clock is the allowance. more

A decision may be handed to the agent lane only if two things hold … more

The run reads the station rows only. more

What this run does not model: arrival patterns, contention between procedures for the same person, shift patterns, weekends, learning curves, and the cost of anything. more

Run it again, going wrong

The same unit, the same stations, broken the way the estate already records breaking

This is the same unit on the same stations, breaking. more

No break below was chosen. more

One play head, two tracks, the same scale. The clean run stops when it runs out of stations; the other one keeps going.

As written

8 stations, nothing waiting, nothing sent back

0 min of 15 hrs

now Open period · Journal Entry Agent · 56 min

As the ledger has it

the same stations, plus 5 categories the estate already counts

0 min of 44 hrs

now Open period · Journal Entry Agent · 56 min

personagentshared spinework the break addsnobody working it

What breaks, and where it is counted

No break below was chosen. more

What the two runs say together

5 counted categories land on this procedure. more

What this run cannot claim

These breaks are shown together on one unit so the shape of a bad day fits on one screen. more

The separation register records a duty conflict against a sub-function and a named post, not against one procedure. more

Two clocks run. Worked time is the sum of the time the work is actually being done … more

Roles and responsibilities

4 named parties

The responsibility grid is assigned by a rule, not lifted from a chart. more

Party	RACI	Steps	Duty	Escalates to
Close Orchestrator orchestrator	Runs the line	0	Sequences this line, holds its timetable and decides what has to surface to a person. more	Raises to Corporate Controller when a unit falls outside the envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Journal Entry Agent agent A4% autonomy · ceiling A4% 91% clean · 8% overridden	Responsible	5	Runs the repeatable portion of r2r control tower inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.	Escalates to Tower Lead, Record-to-Report when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Close Task Agent agent A4% autonomy · ceiling A4% 94% clean · 7% overridden	Responsible	1	Executes the r2r control tower step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.	Escalates to Tower Lead, Record-to-Report when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Corporate Controller person	Accountable and responsible	2	Holds 2 decisions on this line. more	Accountable to Corporate Controller for the decisions held here.

Decision points and escalation

2 places this procedure stops

06 · Exception review

5.4 hrs

Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the close task decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.

Corporate Controller

07 · Controller sign

2.9 hrs

Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the close task decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.

Corporate Controller

Handoffs out of this procedure

Nothing leaves this procedure for another function. It completes inside Record-to-Report & Close.

The rules this procedure runs inside

3 governing rules

Record-to-Report & Close Decision Envelope

active

FI4-POL-200 · envelope · vv4.8

Agents in this lane may act without a human when the close task sits inside the stated value, risk and confidence envelope. more

Approved by Corporate Controller · in force 2026-06-25 · reviewed 2026-06-12

Binds Journal Entry Agent, Reconciliation Agent, Intercompany Agent, Accrual Agent, Close Task Agent, Flux Analysis Agent

LATAM · US

Record-to-Report & Close Evidence Standard

active

FI4-POL-201 · evidence · vv2.9

Every autonomous decision writes inputs, the rule version applied, the model and prompt version, the output and a reversal path. more

Approved by Corporate Controller · in force 2026-01-08 · reviewed 2026-05-28

Binds Journal Entry Agent, Reconciliation Agent, Intercompany Agent, Accrual Agent, Close Task Agent, Flux Analysis Agent

Global

Record-to-Report & Close Escalation Rule

active

FI4-POL-202 · escalation · vv2.8

Escalation is mandatory when confidence falls below the floor, when two options sit inside the confidence band, or when a break condition on a ratified position fires. more

Approved by Corporate Controller · in force 2026-01-05 · reviewed 2026-05-07

Binds Journal Entry Agent, Reconciliation Agent, Intercompany Agent, Accrual Agent, Close Task Agent, Flux Analysis Agent

Global

Systems this procedure touches

2 named · 0 connected

System attribution is a rule, not a reading. more

System	Vendor	Domain	Criticality	Steps	Connection
Group ERP — Financials	SAP S/4HANA	ledger	critical	7	modeled
Bank Connectivity Gateway	SWIFT and host-to-host channels	banking	critical	1	not-connected

0 of the 2 systems on this procedure is connected to the platform, and none of the twenty-six in the estate register is. 2 of them are marked as taking a write back, which is a property of the system, not a live path from here.

How it performs

End to end

14.6 hrs

Summed from the time each step sits, standard 26.8 hrs — running at 54% of the standard.

Touchless

82%

Agent share

75%

A week

916

In flight

213

Effort a week

499 human minutes · 375 agent minutes

Volume multiplied by the time on each step. more

Assurance over this procedure

4 governance gates sit above it

The twenty-four controls and eighteen exception classes in this platform are held at estate level … more

Gate	What trips it	Who releases it	Clock	Waivable
Payment above $100,000 approval	Any single payment or batch exceeding $100,000	Controller and treasurer	4 business hours	No
Nonstandard journal entry approval	Any entry outside the approved recurring library, including estimates and reserves	Controller	1 business day	No
New or changed bank details approval	Any change to supplier or employee banking information	Treasury and supplier master owner	2 business days	No
External disclosure or board forecast approval	Any external report, statutory filing or board-committed forecast	CFO	3 business days	No

Next to it on the same team

Record-to-Report & Close

Reconciliation Exception

FI4B

Manual Journal

FI4C

All of Finance

What this document is and is not

These procedures describe the modeled estate. more

Actions

What is waiting on a person

What one procedure document gives you, and what to check before you treat it as the standard.

151

named approvers appear across the library

Every decision point on every procedure carries a job title, not a queue. more

143

steps in the library hand their unit to another function

A handoff is where a procedure stops being one team’s problem. more

controls exist in the estate, and they belong to no procedure in particular

Controls and exception classes are held estate-wide. more

Operations

What this desk is allowed to start

A surface that only reports is not operable. more

Trigger and bound

A procedure document prints purpose, scope, entry and exit, the numbered steps with the actor on each, the roles and their RACI position, the swimlane, the decision points and escalation, the handoffs, the governing rules with version and approver, the systems by rule and the timings. more

Live observability

What the record shows right now

The whole library, by lane, so a single document can be read against the estate it came from. more

Current distribution

2,748 steps

Agent, inside the function1,38951%

Agent, on the shared spine85131%

Person deciding at a gate50818%

Is policy and strategy coming to fruition

Whether the written intent is holding here

Half. The document is complete and every actor on it is measured more

Not holding on the record

A procedure here carries a version, an approver, an in-force date and a last-review date. more