Effect of Month End Close Practices on the Financial Performance of International Non-Governmental Organizations in Rwanda (2020-2021)

Purpose: Month-End Close Practices are tasks performed by finance department every month (or accounting period) prior to and following the closedown of the relevant books of accounts. It is good practice to closedown financial systems for each accounting period to allow the institution to compile its management accounts (e.g. showing the actual expenditure versus budget) to assess its financial position. Therefore, month-end procedures involves running reports to check transactions and balances, as well as preparing management accounts to assess the financial position of the organization. This study focused on the evaluation on Month-End Close Practices on the Financial Performance of International Non-Governmental Organizations in Rwanda. It aimed to finding out whether the Month-End Close Practices were effective and whether they really have effect on Financial Performance of International Non-Governmental Organizations in Rwanda especially in the selected NGOs over the period of 2020-2021. Methodology: The design of this study was a quantitative and qualitative descriptive in nature. The study enrolled 20 respondents senior finance staff from the selected NGOs. Quantitative data were collected using data collection sheet while qualitative data were collected using interviews, focus groups and observation. Quantitative data were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 and qualitative data were to look for emerging themes then further distilled to identify any abstract themes that could be understood holistically. Findings: The study findings revealed that Month-End Close Practices have a significant effect on the Performance of International Non-Governmental Organizations. The study found a strong positive correlation between moth end practices and financial performance. Recommendation: International Non-government organizations (NGOs) should maintain internal control system and policies related to the month-end close practices as it showed the high standard of compliance and financial performance.