How to Get the Best Results from Pinnacle
Sixteen best practices — from closing the accounting period to tracking management actions through measurable outcomes.
Best Practice 1 — Close the Accounting Period
Close the accounting period before running any analysis. Open periods contain unposted transactions, accruals, and adjustments that will distort the results.
Best Practice 2 — Reconcile Bank Accounts
Reconcile all bank accounts before analysis. Unreconciled bank accounts create cash balance discrepancies that flow through the entire financial picture.
Best Practice 3 — Reconcile Credit Cards
Reconcile all credit card accounts. Unreconciled credit card balances affect both the expense analysis and the liability position.
Best Practice 4 — Review A/R and A/P
Review Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable aging before analysis. Stale or uncollectible A/R and unrecorded A/P liabilities affect the working capital and liquidity analysis.
Best Practice 5 — Post Accruals
Post all period-end accruals before closing. Missing accruals understate expenses and overstate income, which distorts the profitability and risk analysis.
Best Practice 6 — Post Depreciation
Post depreciation before closing. Missing depreciation overstates income and understates the fixed asset position.
Best Practice 7 — Provide Detailed GL Data
Provide transaction-level General Ledger data rather than summary balances. Transaction-level data enables root cause analysis, anomaly detection, and the full drill-down from financial result to individual transaction.
Best Practice 8 — Include A/R and A/P Aging
Include A/R and A/P aging schedules. Aging data enables working capital analysis, collection risk assessment, and vendor payment pattern review.
Best Practice 9 — Include Budgets
Include budget data for the analysis period. Budget vs. actual variance analysis is one of the most powerful tools for identifying where the business is performing above or below expectations.
Best Practice 10 — Include at Least 12 Months of History
Include at least 12 months of historical data where available. Historical data enables trend analysis, seasonality detection, and period-over-period comparison.
Best Practice 11 — Prefer 24–36 Months for Trend Analysis
For M&A, quality of earnings, or strategic planning work, 24–36 months of historical data produces significantly stronger trend analysis and anomaly detection.
Best Practice 12 — Upload Supporting Subledgers
Upload supporting subledgers where available: inventory listings, fixed asset schedules, debt amortization schedules, and payroll registers.
Best Practice 13 — Use Appropriate Materiality Thresholds
Set materiality thresholds appropriate for the size of the business. A common starting point is 5% of revenue or net income.
Best Practice 14 — Investigate High-Risk Items First
Start with the highest-risk, most material findings. PFI ranks findings by materiality and risk level.
Best Practice 15 — Review Root Causes, Not Just Variances
A variance tells you what happened. A root cause tells you why. Reviewing root causes rather than only dashboard variances leads to management actions that actually address the underlying issue.
Best Practice 16 — Track Actions Through Measurable Outcomes
The Pinnacle workflow: Connect → Validate → Analyze → Investigate → Resolve → Act → Measure. The final step — Measure — confirms whether management action produced the expected improvement.
The Measurement Step
The Pinnacle workflow ends with Measure — confirming whether management action produced the expected improvement. Without measurement, the cycle is incomplete. Re-run PFI for the next period and compare results against the prior findings.