The best companies can close in two or three days; the laggards might take as long as 15 days.

At least that was typical until Sarbanes-Oxley. With new audit demands, requirements that the CFO and CEO sign off on the numbers, and additional government reporting regulations, it is not surprising that a recent Business Process Management Initiative survey of about 350 companies said that close times increased by at least a week in 2005, and as much as two weeks last year.

Obviously, companies would like to return to a fast close for a number of reasons.

The No. 1 benefit is that it allows you to get historical information out to your managers quickly. If it is the middle of February before the January figures are distributed, you can't begin to take action on something for two weeks.

Not only that, but if it takes you 15 days to close, it is likely you are wasting an inordinate amount of administrative resource hours in the process, and that relates right back to costs, says Rob Kugel, senior vice president at Ventana Research.