A CFO’s Guide to Financial Reporting Software: Interview with: John Vaughan, Managing Director, InfoCube Consulting, a sponsor company at the marcus evans CFO Summit 2013, discusses how Financial Reporting software simplifies, saves time and decreases the risk of error in high visibility financial reports.

1. A CFO’s Guide to
Financial Reporting Software
Reporting software enables multiple won’t use BI to prepare your monthly
people to work co-operatively on board pack or senior management
reporting and analysis using information review pack.
collected from core financial and
operational systems where all reports How can these systems assist with
can be refreshed against that source compliance?
data automatically.
Many organisations struggle with
This working environment can be highly regulatory compliance reporting.
structured, preventing a user from Financial Statement Reporting systems
changing formulas or breaking can directly ensure compliance is
alignments. It also makes use of maintained with up to date, accurate
Microsoft Office tools for preparation, information that is directly consistent
Interview with: John Vaughan, enabling the flexibility of those tools with all other uses of the same data set.
Managing Director, InfoCube where required. Default calculation As the reporting procedure is
Consulting methods are built into the environment standardised, the results are more
to ensure consistent analysis right accurate and less prone to error. For
across the organisation. example, certain pieces of information,
Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) can such as revenue, or profit by division,
use Financial Reporting software to Can you give an example of the use have tags associated with them. This
gather, analyse and report information of Financial Statement Reporting tag is used everywhere revenue or
in a standardised manner for output software? profit is required and updated
to multiple media simultaneously, with accordingly as the underlying data
the ability to update values and A Finance Team might be producing a changes. The reporting process helps
commentary in a controlled, automated monthly report pack for management or ensure com plianc e and enable s
manner, says John Vaughan, Managing board consumption that could be dozens information to be locked once it has
Director, InfoCube Consulting. “This of individual reports, from different been audited.
working environment is both flexible systems, all compiled into a single
and highly structured, is a controlled document and published. In many Any final thoughts?
workflow process, is simple and easy to organisations these reports are
use and results in a lower risk, higher manually created in spreadsheets and Using Financial Statement software can
quality outcomes,” he adds. are prone to data entry, reconciliation dramatically increase efficiency ,
and formula error. All these reports, increase effectiveness and lower the risk
From a sponsor company at the marcus both commentary and numeric analysis, of error all in an easy to use standard
evans CFO Summit 2013, in the Gold can be included and updated Microsoft Office environment.
Coast, in Queensland, Australia, 10 - 12 automatically in a tightly controlled
March, Vaughan discusses how CFOs workflow enabled environment.
can use smart software specifically
designed for financial reporting, What is the benefit for CFOs?
including commentary and analysis in
addition to the obvious financial That is easy. The ROI on Financial
Financial
statements. Statement Reporting tools is typically
measured in months. This is achieved Statement tools
can simplify,
How can financial reporting through direct saving of senior
software contribute to the accounting staff. In addition the greater
performance of the finance efficiency, the CFO’s team will be more
function? effective in providing their expertise to
the business and will operate in an
save time and
The traditional way of manually
collecting information for a complex
environment that has lower credibility
risk because of errors in the published
reduce risk
financial report, such as an annual
report or monthly management pack,
reports.
of error in
high visibility
creates many problems. It is very time Isn’t this just Business Intelligence
consuming and creates a high risk of (BI) rebadged?
non-reliable information being used, as
data, in many cases, has to be manually
entered and then has to be cross-
Absolutely not. BI is primarily focussed
on analytics, dashboards and
financial reports
checked by the finance team. Software operational reporting and sometimes,
can be utilised to get the most recent management accounting reporting. You
data from financial systems loaded into would not prepare your Annual Report,
the reporting environment on a monthly your ASX or ASIC filing, an Investor
basis. briefing with a BI tool. Likewise, you

2. About the CFO Summit 2013
The Finance Network –
marcus evans Summits group
This unique forum will take place at the RACV Royal Pines Golf Resort & Spa, Gold
delivers peer-to-peer information
Coast, Queensland, Australia, 10 - 12 March 2013. Offering much more than any
on strategic matters, professional
conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together
trends and breakthrough
esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and
innovations.
interactive networking event. The Summit includes presentations on ensuring
structural consistency, utilising digital and social media to boost financial results
and improving the quality and speed of decision making to deliver improved
outcomes.
www.cfo-anz.com
Please note that the Summit is a Contact
closed business event and the
number of participants strictly Maria Gregoriou, Journalist, marcus evans, Summits Division
Tel: + 357 22 849 400
Email: press@marcusevanscy.com
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About InfoCube Consulting
InfoCube is a Sydney based management accounting consultancy, specialising in applying IBM Cognos technology for accounting
and finance solutions. InfoCube’s primary area of expertise is Corporate Performance Management, including:
Rolling Forecasts
Budgeting
Planning
Data Warehousing
Management Reporting
Scorecards and Dashboards
Analysis
Business Intelligence
Consolidations
Financial Statement Reporting
www.infocube.com.au
About marcus evans Summits
marcus evans Summits are high level business forums for the world’s leading decision-makers to meet, learn and discuss
strategies and solutions. Held at exclusive locations around the world, these events provide attendees with a unique opportunity to
individually tailor their schedules of keynote presentations, think tanks, seminars and one-to-one business meetings.
For more information, please visit: www.marcusevans.com
To view the web version of this interview, please click here: www.cfo-anz.com/JohnVaughan