OnBoard is a secure board management platform that helps organisations govern more effectively. Its six-person accounting team used to take 12 days to close the books across six NetSuite subsidiaries. Today, that same team usually finishes by 10 a.m. on the first workday.

Behind that change is a different way of working. For two years, Jason Brownlee, SVP of Accounting, and Julio Trigo, Director of Accounting, focused on two priorities: automation and a shorter close. With Stacks, the team applies cash throughout the month, reviews accruals before month-end, and finishes more than 95% of reconciliation and cash application work by the last business day.

Why the close took 12 days and the question that changed it

Two and a half years ago, most of OnBoard's close was spent waiting for invoices, cash application, routine journals, and accruals, which held up the final days of the close. Half of every month went to closing and the other half to catching up, which left little time to do real analysis and support the business

While the company handles approximately 100 AP items each month, the real pressure was on the accounts receivable side, and cash application was the clearest example. OnBoard bills approximately 6,000 customers monthly and takes payments across 13 bank accounts, several entities, and several currencies. Every payment had to be matched to the correct invoice, and checks arrived via a lockbox in four bundled batches per day. 

Before Stacks, the team was still clearing unapplied cash three or four days into the close, and sometimes it rolled into the next month's close. Until the cash was applied, receivables were inaccurate, and everything downstream had to wait. Jason’s first goal was to reduce the close to between 6 and 8 days. Then the question changed.

"We stopped asking, 'How do we do the last few days faster?' and started asking, 'Why is any work waiting for the last few days of the month at all?' That was the turning point. Why was anything waiting for the end?"

- Jason Brownlee, SVP Accounting, OnBoard

At the time, a half-day close was not on Jason’s radar. 

Why Stacks: Starting with bank recs and journal uploads

OnBoard started with Stacks to tackle two time-consuming areas: automated bank reconciliation and journal entry uploads. The Excel Assistant posts journal entries straight from Excel into NetSuite, and OnBoard’s Dayforce payroll journals are posted this way every cycle. 

With Excel Assistant, Stacks reduced a journal upload from 37 clicks to 5. The OnBoard team also uses Stacks to mass-edit entries in NetSuite, including entries that Stacks did not create, which Jason says NetSuite has never done well. 

The Close Checklist also addressed a gap Jason noticed while building the schedule: nobody knew where the team stood. 

“I didn’t think we’d use the [Close Checklist]. It turned into one of the best parts. It gives one view of what’s done, what’s left, and who owns it across all six subsidiaries. No status meetings, no pinging people on Teams three times a day asking where things stand.”

- Jason Brownlee, SVP Accounting, OnBoard

Transforming cash application with the Payment Application Hub

Cash application was once one of the biggest manual jobs for OnBoard. Now, Jason’s team reviews the proposed cash applications throughout the month in the Payment Application Hub, and by month-end, the cash is applied and reconciled with help from Stacks’ agents.

"When a customer pays us, Stacks picks up the payment from the bank feed, matches it to the open invoice, and proposes how to apply it. Someone on my team reviews it and posts it to NetSuite right from Stacks with remittance details in the memo. We don't even have to open NetSuite to apply a payment."

- Jason Brownlee, SVP Accounting, OnBoard

OnBoard posts around 500 payments a month this way, every working day, so none of it waits for the close. About 10% need a manual tweak before posting, so about 9 in 10 go through as proposed.

Checks receive the same review because Stacks reads the scanned check images in the lockbox daily report and matches each one to the correct payment. Before Stacks, every check was a manual entry. 

Agents for accruals and bank recs

Accruals were once among the last tasks the close waited on. OnBoard switched on Accruals Agent in September and had that month’s accruals ready for review in the final week of the month, before the close even began. Since most expenses are known in advance, the team now reviews accruals instead of building them.

Similarly, Jason shared that setting up the Bank Reconciliation Agent has been straightforward. The team describes its process in its own words. The agent then asks follow-up questions and does the work for review. The biggest time savings so far have been in unapplied cash.

The results: what the first workday looks like now with Stacks

Since June 2026, more than 95% of reconciliation and cash application work in Stacks has been finished by the last business day. What is left is the prior day’s bank feed and a final review. The last task is the final-day bank reconciliation, usually completed by 10am. Every task on the Close Checklist is signed off each month, and Jason says checklist completion has been at 100% for over a year.

The shorter close also changed Jason’s and his team’s perspective on month-end.

"The benefit I didn't see coming is that the close stopped being an event. Nothing gets saved for the last day. So the last day has nothing special on it. It's just another Tuesday."

- Jason Brownlee, SVP Accounting, OnBoard

A checklist due time by the hour

By completing its month-end in half a day, OnBoard’s close became so short that planning it by the day no longer made sense. OnBoard asked for due times by the hour in the Close Checklist, and Stacks built it for them in a week. 

The team now plans the close hour by hour, and the Close Checklist view means Jason always knows where they stand. The shorter close has changed how the team weighs even small tasks. Julio explains it simply when talking about a five-minute task.

"5 minutes matter when you only close in 3 hours."

- Julio Trigo, Director of Accounting, OnBoard

Leadership and flux analysis

Before the shorter close, OnBoard’s leadership received monthly numbers about three weeks after the month-end. As of the last close, they had the numbers by the end of day one.

Part of that speed comes from how the review works now. Stacks drafts OnBoard’s flux analysis, and the team runs it several times during the close, so the numbers come with an explanation of what moved and why. Review now happens throughout the close rather than only at the end, leaving very little for the first workday.

The shorter close has also shortened OnBoard’s audit cycle, helping keep audit fees flat as the business continues to grow. It also got the attention of OnBoard’s investor, JMI Equity.

Handling revenue growth with a six-person team

OnBoard’s business has continued to grow, with all accounting work still handled by Jason’s six-person team.

"Since we started with Stacks in 2025, revenue's grown around 20 percent and we're on track to do that kind of growth again this year. The accounting team is still six people. Without Stacks, we couldn't have absorbed the growth in payment applications and bank recs alone. Never mind everything else."

- Jason Brownlee, SVP Accounting, OnBoard

The time to absorb that growth came from the close itself, since half of every month used to go to the month-end close and catching up. Now, OnBoard uses that time to build more automation, find more efficiencies, and support the broader business.

Collections is a good example. The team now has more time to talk with customers directly, and Jason says invoices get paid faster as a result. For each person on the team, it is "days back every month, not just hours."

What's next

Jason’s next target is to have books read for review on any day of the month. Most of the work already happens as the day goes on, and the main blocker is same-day bank feeds. Jason shared that the team is always looking for the next task to hand off to Stacks agents, and the time it frees up goes back into supporting business processes. 

Jason’s advice

Having gone through the incredible process of shortening the close to half a day, Jason outlines four steps for any CFO or controller who is where OnBoard was two years ago.

"If a CFO or controller asks me where to start, I tell them four things in this order. One, clean up your data. Two, figure out your task dependencies. Three, automate one step at a time and keep going. Four, find the right tools to help."

- Jason Brownlee, SVP Accounting, OnBoard

Jason acknowledged the key role of Stacks in reducing the time required for OnBoard’s month-end close.

"Stacks wasn't the only thing that got us to a half-day close, and I won't pretend it was, but it was key. It's the piece doing the most work all month long, so the close can be fast."

- Jason Brownlee, SVP Accounting, OnBoard

He ends on the question that started OnBoard's financial transformation.

"If there's one thing I'd want a CFO or controller to take away, it's the question that changed everything for us. Why is any work waiting for the last day? Once you start asking that every month, the close keeps getting shorter."

- Jason Brownlee, SVP Accounting, OnBoard