Month-end is intense. And every period, controllers run into the same snag: rolling the checklist forward.

What should be a simple “copy last month” step turns into hours of spreadsheet surgery, shifting dates for holidays, and answering the same questions over and over.

The Problem: Why Rolling Forward Is Harder Than It Should Be

1) Messy rules buried in sheets

Most teams manage close calendars in Google Sheets or Excel. Add a task, shift a deadline, or change a frequency, and you’re rewriting formulas or copying cells. The logic is fragile, easy to break, and often lives with one person.

2) Communication overhead

Even after you roll forward, the questions keep coming:

• “Does this move because of Labor Day?”
  
  

• “Do I still do this recon this month, or is it quarterly?”
  
  

• “Why did my deadline change from last time?”
  Controllers spend as much time explaining rules as running the close.
  
  

3) No traceability for controls or audit

Edits made in spreadsheets - date shifts, ownership changes, one-off exceptions - rarely get documented consistently. That’s a long-term risk for SOX and audit readiness. Auditors expect clear evidence of rules, approvals, and changes; ad-hoc cell edits don’t provide that trail.

How Stacks Solves It

Rolling forward in Stacks is automatic, accurate, and transparent. Create the new period; Stacks applies your rules and updates everything downstream.

1) D+ / D- dates (not fixed due dates)

Every task runs on a relative-day system tied to your close (e.g., D-2, D+3). When you roll forward, deadlines adjust automatically, meaning no hand edits.

2) Holidays built in

Holidays are handled at the system level:

• Import country calendars in one step.
  
  

• Add company-specific dates (e.g., year-end shutdowns).
  
  

• Stacks shifts pre-close tasks earlier and pushes close-period tasks past non-working days so the calendar reflects reality.

3) Frequency-aware roll forward

Not everything is monthly. Stacks respects frequency when you roll:

• Monthly tasks carry over.
  
  

• Quarterly and annual tasks appear only when due.
  
  

• One-time tasks stay out unless you add them.
  You get a clean, relevant checklist without clutter.

4) Simple kick-off, shared clarity

Once the period is live, everyone sees:

• Total tasks for the period
  
  

• Owners and due dates
  
  

• Dependencies and blockers
  No more Slack threads asking “what’s due when?” The roadmap is visible from day one.

Why This Matters for Controllers and Teams

• Save hours of setup each period
  
  

• Fewer clarifications; everyone knows what’s happening and why
  
  

• Deadlines that adjust intelligently for weekends and holidays
  
  

• Frequencies that keep checklists accurate and uncluttered
  
  

• Better control evidence for SOX and audit - by design

Instead of chasing dates and rules, teams focus on closing with confidence.

Final Thoughts

Every “simple” step in the close is part of an important workflow. If it’s messy, it drags everyone down; if it’s clean, it lifts the whole team.

That’s why we sweat the details like roll-forward. We listen to controllers and remove friction point by point, so that, inch by inch, controllers get better leverage, and the whole team benefits.

Less chasing. More closing.