Finance organizations are being asked to do more faster in an environment of ever growing complexity and change. As a result, companies are exposed to greater risk in generating financial statements. Mistakes have a dramatic impact on reputation, stock, partner and investor relations. For those companies looking to replace older CPM systems, there’s much more to consider than the type of user interface or deployment options. You need an in-depth look at critical features to look for in a modern CPM solution that has the capability to adapt to business change and growth in coming years. Download this eBook to learn the 3 Things Your Financial Consolidation Software should have.

1. The 3 Things Your Financial
Consolidation Software Doesn’t
Have…But Should!

2. “FINANCIAL PROCESSES SHOULD NO LONGER BE ISOLATED INTO SEPARATE SYSTEMS FOR
CONSOLIDATIONS OR BUDGETING AND PLANNING OR THE LAST MILE. DISCONNECTED SYSTEMS
REQUIRE TOO MUCH MANUAL INTERVENTION TO MAKE SURE DATA IS ACCURATE AND SYNCHRONIZED.
WITH THE RIGHT SOLUTION, PROCESSES CAN BE CONNECTED FROM THE TIME YOU PULL SOURCE DATA
FROM THE LEDGER ALL THE WAY TO THE DELIVERY OF DOCUMENTS IN THE LAST MILE.”
Kevin Gray, VP Solution Consulting
Finance organizations are being asked to do more – faster – in an environment of
ever-growing complexity and change.
As a result, companies are exposed to greater risk in generating financial statements.
Mistakes have a dramatic impact on reputation, stock, partner and investor relations.
For those companies looking to replace older CPM systems, there’s much more to
consider than the type of user interface or deployment options.
You need an in-depth look at critical features to look for in a modern CPM solution that
has the capability to adapt to business change and growth in coming years.

3. The Top 3
Accounting
Intelligence
1
Adaptability to
Growth and
Change
2
Financial Reporting
(“The Last mile of
Finance”)
3

4. Accounting
Intelligence
1

5. Double-entry logic
as an extension of your ERP, all entries into the system
should have two sides – as accounting dictates. This
eliminates risks that one-sided entries pose to your
statements down the line. No one likes a restatement.
Control
provide a control mechanism to monitor where
contributors are in the reporting process. Includes the
ability to track submissions and data sources, with
controls prevent contributors from making changes as
the process goes up the chain. Solutions should provide
full auditability.
Cash Flow
should show cash flow position within the software as
part of the generation of financial
statements. You shouldn’t have to do a post-close
analysis to figure out where the cash is.
Detail
regulatory reporting requires a detailed breakdown of
data that is typically collected from different systems.
For example, if a bank has $100 million in mortgages on
the balance sheet, it now has to show details such as the
number of single-family and multi-unit mortgages and
identify which are delinquent.
Some things to consider when looking for
CPM:
Accounting Intelligence
ACCOUNTING INTELLIGENCE IS ONE OF
THE KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL CPM
SYSTEM. A CPM SYSTEM IS TRULY AN
EXTENSION OF A COMPANY’S ERP OR GL
SYSTEM AND SHOULD BE HELD TO THE
SAME STANDARDS.
“TODAY’S CONSOLIDATION SOLUTIONS
SHOULD DO MORE AND MORE OF THE WORK
FOR YOU. YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO MONITOR
WHO SUBMITTED INFORMATION, HOW IT
GETS UP THE CHAIN, WHO HAS REVIEWED,
APPROVED AND ADVANCED IT, AND THEIR
COMMENTS ALONG THE WAY.
THE PROCESS SHOULD BE AUDITABLE AND
INHERENTLY CONFORMING, MAINTAINING THE
INTEGRITY OF THE DATA UNDERNEATH.”
Kevin Gray, VP Solution Consulting
Click here to read how a global leader like Brembo leveraged a single
application to manage all of their complex financial processes.

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7. Adaptability to
Growth and
Change
2

8. Any system needs to accommodate for company growth.
Growth often comes through global expansion and M&A
activity. As such your system needs:
Built-in logic for converting currency (not leave it up to
the user to make adjustments). More importantly, the
logic needs to accommodate historical exchange rates
for retained earnings and apply it period-over-period.
You can’t get a true picture of performance until you
isolate the variance in converted budgets. This
typically happens in a post-close analysis in a separate
system using a manual spreadsheet process. CPM
systems should automatically manage such variances,
giving you the ability to evaluate at any time how the
business is doing irrespective of currency fluctuations
between budget and actuals.
For true management reporting, certain costs need to
be allocated out to get a more detailed picture of how
operations are actually being run. CPM systems should
convert local currency to a common currency for
performing such allocations.
Adaptability to Growth and
Change
CAUTION
Does your current system adapt to growth and
change? Find out more in this informative whitepaper:
Top Signs It’s Time to Replace Your Financial
Consolidation System

9. “GLOBAL COMPANIES NEED THE FLEXIBILITY
TO SUPPORT CURRENCY DIFFERENCES.
COMPANIES WITH BIG TRANSACTIONS –
SUCH AS INVESTMENTS IN OTHER
COMPANIES, DIVISIONS AND SUBSIDIARIES –
NEED TO COMPLY WITH ACCOUNTING RULES
FOR THE EXCHANGE RATE OF THE DAY.
USERS OF OLDER SYSTEMS THAT CAN’T
ACCOMMODATE CHANGING EXCHANGE
RATES NEED A WORKAROUND. LOOK FOR A
NEWER SYSTEM WITH BUILT-IN RULES SO
YOU CAN DO CURRENCY CONVERSION
RIGHT WITHIN THE SOFTWARE.”
Adaptability to Growth and
Change
Any company doing business in Europe is faced with
reporting requirements using local GAAP standards
and newer regional IFRS standards. Companies need
to show a set of year-over-year comparisons in the old
and new standards. Systems today should have multi-
standards awareness already built in.
Older systems don’t have the ability to effectively
handle M&A activity and other structural business
changes. Growing companies need systems with built-
in awareness to give insight into the impact of such
events such as:
Value of the investment at any stage, currency
conversions and exchange rates, net equity impact, roll
over into any dividend or investment eliminations, equity
picks ups, what if scenarios, etc.
And it needs to manage any intercompany
relationships as it grows.
CAUTION
Some systems claim to manage multi-standards, but
you actually have to create a redundant set of
information and reconcile it.
Kevin Gray, VP Solution Consulting

10. Financial Reporting
(“The Last mile of
Finance”)
3

11. Many CPM systems stop at the ‘last mile’. But more
advanced systems will take financial information
through a controlled process and integrate it with
narrative information about results.
Look for a system that provides collaborative
workflow in a controlled auditable process for
managing reviews. An automated process is much
more secure than having your financial information
floating around in an email attachment.
Complete CPM solutions will automatically pull data
from the ledger, validate and manage data through the
closing process, and streamline the production of
financial statements and the various other packages
needed in the last mile.
“MODERN SYSTEMS SHOULD MAINTAIN LIVE LINKS INSIDE REPORTS BACK TO SOURCE DATA AND
ELIMINATE THE NEED TO COPY AND PASTE DATA. AND, IF YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR CONSOLIDATION
OR POST A LAST MINUTE JOURNAL ENTRY, YOU WANT IT TO FEED INTO YOUR DOCUMENT STRUCTURE.
YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO REMEMBER TO GO BACK LATER AND UPDATE TEN DIFFERENT SECTIONS
OF THE DOCUMENT.”
Kevin Gray, VP Solution Consulting
Financial Reporting
(“The Last mile of Finance”)
Click here to read: “How to Speed Up Your Closing Cycle”

12. CLICK HERE TO SEE COMPLETE LIST OF UPCOMING DEMOS!
Tagetik: Unified Performance Management Software

13. Kevin Gray is Vice President of Solutions Consulting for
Tagetik North America. Kevin joined Tagetik in 2008 and has
25 years of experience helping customers manage and
implement ERP, CPM and BI solutions. Before joining the
software industry, Kevin worked in accounting and financial
planning.
Contact Kevin:
KevinGray@tagetik.com
Kevin Gray

14. THANK YOU
www.tagetik.com