Faster financial closing & Effective Management reporting strategies

Financial Closing & Effective Reporting
Strategies
By : Dr. Dhirendra Gautam (Ph.D., CA, CMA & ICWA)
Visiting CFO Partner, Corporate Trainner, Mentor and Advisor
www.dhirendragautam.com

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 Dr. Dhirendra Gautam is a Mentor, Trainer and Corporate Advisor
providing world class Mentoring, Training & Skill development to
corporate Professionals, youths and students in India and across the
world for better Career-growth, Employability and Leadership
Development.
 A Professionally qualified Chartered, cost & Management accountant
with Ph.D. in business Management.
 23+ years of international expertise in leading and managing the
business and Finance around the world for 150 countries.
PRESENT
 Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Indiba Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. (www.indiba.in)
 MD & Visiting CFO Partner (www.visitingcfo.com)
 Chairman & MD, Navi Mumbai Chamber of Business & Industry (NMCBI)
PAST
 Global CFO – SuperMax Group (150 country)
 Group CFO – Al Khodari group (Africa & Middle east)
 Director Finance & Business planning – PEPSI (GCC)
 Head of Finance (Shared Service) – UNILEVER ARABIA
 Finance Manager – MOTOROLA
 Worked in UK, Singapore, Middle East & India
 Expertise in FMCG, Construction & Contracting, Retail, Financial Services, Utilities, Travel,
Transportation and Logistics, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing and other service industries.
Dr. Dhirendra Gautam
(Ph.D. , CA, CMA, ICWA)
The Course Director

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Finance Priority and Challenges
Sn. Financial Challenges Priority Index
1 Cash Forecasting 6.8
2 Period End Closing 6.7
3 Accounts Reconciliation 6.4
4 Working Capital Management 6.2
5 Banking Relationship 6.0
6 Consolidation 5.9
7 Debt & Other Investments 5.8
8 Pricing 5.8
9 Variance Analysis 5.7
10 Accounts Receivable 5.6
Note : Finance Priority Survey 2014, by Protiviti on a Scale of 0 to 10
Process Capabilities : Financial TransactionProcess Capabilities : Financial Transaction

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Sn. Financial Challenges Priority
Index
1 Strategic Planning 7.0
2 Periodic Forecasting 6.9
3 Budgeting 6.8
4 Performance Management / Executive Dashboard / BSC 6.6
5 Profitability Analysis (Product, Customer, Channel) 6.6
6 Business Intelligence (Operational Reporting) 6.4
7 Margin Management 6.3
8 Profitability Reporting - Product 6.2
9 Profitability Reporting - Segment 6.1
10 Board of Directors Financial Reporting 5.9
Note : Finance Priority Survey 2014, by Protiviti on a Scale of 0 to 10
Process Capabilities : Financial Analysis & ReportingProcess Capabilities : Financial Analysis & Reporting
Finance Priority and Challenges

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The Changing Role of Finance : The New Direction
Decision
Support
Control
Reporting
Transaction
Processing
Decision
Support
Control
Reporting
Transactio
n
Processin
g
Old Paradigm New Paradigm

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 The Paradigm has not just shifted its reversed and reduced.
 The New paradigm representing Efficiency gains (smaller size)
 The boost in productivity represented by the relative increase in
resources in Decision.
 The new paradigm is reached by transitioning from systems &
processes:
 That are manually intensive, cumbersome, redundant, high
maintenance, and high cycle time to
 Ones that are automated, streamlined, low maintenance, and quick
cycle time.

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Decision
Support
Control
Reporting
Transaction
Processing
Decision
Support
Control
Reporting
Transacti
on
Processi
ng
Old Paradigm New Paradigm
•Confrontational
•Independent,
•Veto Power
•Technical
•Compliance with
External Rules
•Minimal Involvement
•Problem Finding
•Post-Event Critique
•Sophisticated Analysis
•Strategic Market Issues
•Problem Solving
•Embedded
•Accountability
•Cost/Benefit
Sensitive
•Relevant to Business
• Rich Information
•Integrated
•Outsourced
•Quick Cycle Time
•Automated
•Streamlined
•Low Cost
•Data Collection
•Organizational
•Hierarchy Driven
•Manually Intensive
•Cumbersome
•Redundant
•High Cost
•High Cycle Time

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•Increasing
efficiency
•Ongoing reduction
in transaction
processing
effort
•Eradication of
errors reduces cos
of rework
•Continuous
improvement culture
emerges
•Regular, faster close
traps errors,
minimises
quality issues
•One set of standards
for group wide
integrity
•Programme instils
confidence
•Moves culture to
can do
•Increased focus on
value add content
•Improved job spec
motivates post
•Finance Business
Partnering
•Finance can do
more than the
basics
•Forward looking
business focus
•Enabler for greater
breadth of duties
The Finance Value Chain
Core Transactions and
Processes
Business Partnering, Decision
Support and Risk Management
Plan and
Manage the
Business
Financial
Analysis &
Reporting
Transaction
Processing and
Compliance
Financial
Closing

Achieving Faster high-quality Closing

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Collect data Close Adjustments
Currency
I/C
Subsidiaries
Report
Management
Legal
External
Analyze
6 Days 12 DaysAverage
Collect Close Adjustment Report Analyze and Forecast
<2 Days 6 Days
World Class
More time!
Source: Hackett Group Benchmarking-Solutions Book of Numbers
Corporate Financial Closing & Reporting

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Financial Closing to Reporting At-a-Glance
Collect Data Calculate & Adjust Report
• Gather from multiple &
disparate applications
• Store data in a centralized
repository
• Generate financial
statements,
managerial reports,
and perform ad hoc
analysis
• Apply FASB and IFRS
consolidation rules
• Perform currency translation
& aggregation
“Consolidations applications are seeing a resurgence after what was
considered a maturing of this market, driven primarily by compliance issues
in the United States (driven by Sarbanes-Oxley) and worldwide (driven by
the International Financial Reporting Standards).”

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Financial Closing & Reporting – Challenges
Complex
application
portfolio
Surveys find that in a typical multinational company to have as many as 300 to
1,000 individual steps, each to be executed in sequence, in its closing process.
increasing the risk of executing these steps in the wrong sequence across ERP
systems and spreadsheets. And hence the risk for errors is substantially
increased
The human
element
Many companies deploy extremely large and complex spreadsheets to control
their closing process, relying on manual data gathering and file editing. Tasks
and processes must be defined at the lowest level of detail to eliminate any
uncertainty or opportunity for personal misinterpretation and resulting risk of
inconsistency over time and across business units.
Missing
documentation
Many global businesses use "a central spreadsheet” to record the sequence of
steps they undertake in a financial close, but they find it most challenging to
demonstrate and document precisely the calculation and approvals of critical
aspects such as judgments about doubtful debts or impairment tests
Compliance with
new standards
Global corporations constantly face new challenges. An example is
implementing accounting policies compliant with International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS) and reporting them in using eXtensible Business
Reporting Language (XBRL) IFRS compliance means adopting a new set of
accounting policies that interpret some events in ways that may be unfamiliar to
US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) trained accountants.

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Business Pressures
More Stringent Regulations
• What can I do to accelerate
reporting as required by statutory
regulations?
• How do I improve transparency,
accuracy, and auditability?
Mergers & Acquisitions
• How can I ensure new
acquisitions are quickly
integrated into my company?
• How can I simplify keeping my
books in synch with re-orgs?
Demand for Growth
• How can I improve visibility into overall enterprise performance?
• How can I help my managers identify opportunities to improve profitability?
Collect Data Calculate & Adjust Report

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Accounting Differences
• Charts of accounts
• Accounting methods
Manual, Error-Prone Processes
• Data extraction, transformation, and load
• Adjustments and eliminations
Operational Challenges
Lengthy close process with weak internal controls
Rigid systems that cannot exploit new opportunities
Disconnect between strategy and execution
$$
Subsidiary 1
¥¥
Subsidiary 2
Joint Venture
Affiliate
€€
• Intercompany
transactions
• Currencies
• Calendars
Complex Ownership Structures
• Minority interest
• Cross holding
Multiple, Fragmented Systems
Consolidation
Parent Company
££

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“The Hackett Group’s studies show that “world-class companies
spend 45 percent less” on their closing and reporting efforts than
other companies, which on average saves $5.5 million per $1 billion
in revenue. These savings come, in part, from needing fewer people
and systems to scrub data.”
How IT Executives Can Help Speed Up Financial Reporting, CIO Magazine, March 15, 2007

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Fast Financial Closing - Definition
 Routine process of completing the accounting cycle and preparing
internal and external reports…
 Fast Close is accelerated financial and management reporting in
pursuit of value creation. This is achieved by the design
and implementation of a stable and focused closing cycle with optimal
use of available technology providing management with the
key financial information to enable proactive management action
 By rationalising existing processes, minimising manual effort and
increasing the use of automation and technology, Fast
Close accelerates financial and management reporting
 Companies that are able to close their books quickly and deliver more-
timely information to external and internal stakeholders can gain
competitive advantage in a rapidly changing marketplace.

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What is Fast Close?
 Fast Close is a process and methodology which utilises current best-
practice for Financial Close, Consolidation, and Reporting theory
 Fast Close combines working smarter throughout the month, and at
month-end, with technology enhancements, in order to close sooner
and with less overtime at month-end
 Fast-close focuses on improving discipline in the finance area and on
standardising as many of the pre-close, close, consolidation, and
reporting processes as possible across the various Business Units /
Operating Entities
 Fast-close does not mean simply closing the period off earlier in the
month

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Fast Close – Misconception
 Fast close is all about financial consolidation
 Only by using a single chart of account will companies improve their
reporting process
 Operating units or Group Consolidation are the only focus of attention
and will provide the majority of the improvements in a typical project
 Improvement can be achieved by closing prior to month end and rolling
forward
 Improvements in reporting and closing processes are only possible if
you spend money on IT
 If you report faster you are bound to be less accurate

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Performance
Management
Cost
Reduction
Internal time
Pressure
Statutory &
Regulatory
time Pressure
Market
Perception
There are number of business drivers that are forcing Organization to focus on “Fast Close”
Why “Faster” Financial Closing..?
• Business
leaders
require fast,
accurate
information to
support
decision
making
• Faster
Business
Decision
• KPI & Role
Driven
• Optimization
of the
Finance
Process
• Process
Efficiency
• World class
processes
• Increased
Information
Flow
• Input to
decision
making
• M&A
• Diversification
and
Expansion
• SEBI, ROC,
BSC, NSC,
Tax Authority
• IFRS,
USGAAP,
Sox
• Industry
specific
regulatory
requirement
• Shareholder
Value
• Stakeholder
Value
• External
stakeholders
and
regulators
want more
transparent
information in
less time

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• More timely
processes
• Increased
automation
• Routine activity
rationalised
• Information is
complete,
integrated real time
• Finance shift
• Number crunching
is minimised
• Analysis time is
maximised
• Increasing
efficiency
• Ongoing reduction
in transaction
processing
effort
• Eradication of errors
reduces cost of
rework
• Global consistency
• A simplified/
streamline audit is
enabled
• Continuous
improvement
culture emerges
• Regular, faster
close traps errors,
minimises
quality issues
• One set of
standards for group
wide integrity
• Allows standard
global processes
• Single version of
truth facilitates
confidence
in decision taking
• Programme instils
confidence
• Moves culture to
can do
• Increased focus on
value add content
• Improved job spec
motivates post
holder
• Skills and
competencies
broadened,
deepened to
aid delivery
• Finance can do
more than the
basics
• Forward looking
business focus
• Enabler for greater
breadth of duties
• Development of
Finance Portal
• Finance seen to
add value, support
the business
Benefit of “Faster” Financial Closing
Speed
Cost
Reduction
Improved
Quality
Motivated
People
Enhanced
Finance
Function

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Benefit of “Faster” Financial Closing
Phases Emphasises What is Addressed ?
Pre Close Preparation • Error tracking & Continuous
Improvements
• Data Quality
• Process Stability
• IFRS, SOX applicability
• Technology Environment
Close
• Re-engineering, Information flow
at local level
• Process Analysis
• Timing issues
• Global Vs. Local
• Responsibilities
• Information Integration
• Technology Interfaces
Consolidation
• Data Integrity / Integration • Accounting Policy
• Integration
• System Support Issues
• Process Documentation
• Validations
Reporting
• Re-engineering of Reporting
delivery
• Improvement of Analytical
Capability
• Timing
• Quality of Information
• Relevance of Information
• Distribution of Information
• New Information Need
Faster Financial Close Covers all aspects of the closing Process

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4.8
5
5.2
5.4
5.6
5.8
6
1997 2001 2003 2004
Days to Close
Avg. Co.
Average number of days to close.
The average number of days a median company took to complete its quarter-end close.

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 A Hackett Group study at that time showed that the average closing cycle for
companies was six business days, and the average reporting cycle was another 5.4
days. Closing cycles did improve earlier in the decade. However, Sarbanes-Oxley
(SOX) compliance requirements stalled and even slightly reversed the trend toward
shorter closing cycles, in 2003 and 2004.
 The Hackett Group publishes benchmark data on financial processes, including the
financial closing and reporting cycle. In their 2007 study, Hackett reported that the
average company took 5.9 days to close their books. In 2003, the Hackett Group
reported that the average company’s financial closing cycle was 5.2 days, with another
5 days spent on reporting. Top-performing companies in the study reported combined
financial closing and reporting cycles of 5 business days or fewer. Although this data
represented an improvement over the results in Hackett’s 1997 study, SOX compliance
requirements stalled and even slightly reversed the trend toward shorter closing cycles.
Average number of days to close.

Faster Financial & Reporting Closing –
Best Practice

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Management and Cultural Changes to Achieve
Fast Close
Necessary Management and Cultural Changes to Achieve Fast
Financial Closing and Efficient Reporting
Reduction in the number of legal entities to consolidate
Finance Shared Service with Centralised Finance Operation
World Class ERP System with
Clearly defined key performance indicators
Focus on top-level results rather than unnecessary details
Eliminating interim closes

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Financial Closing & Reporting – Best Practice
Date Collection, subsystems
closing
• Data at source; few manual entries
• Automated interfaces
• Accounting complexity reduced
• Don’t hold up close for minor errors
• Use pre-month end reserve and closing reviews
Book Closing • Materially limits established
• Work performed outside of close
• Error correction reduced
• Adjustments “true up” on quarterly basis
• Entries pre-formatted and automated
Consolidation & Review • Automate critical processes(intercompany)
• Reduce information to consolidate
• Eliminate and consolidate reviews
• Financial report through one consolidation system
Reporting • Reduce volume of reports
• Manage by exception
• Establish balanced scorecard
Forecasting & Forward
looking
• Relate volume and $ forecasts automatically
• Use “stub period” estimates to reduce closing cycle
• Automate forecasting process
• Flash income forecasts produced first day of close
• Use of forecasts critical to soft close

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Date
Collection,
subsystems
closing
• Capture data at source with few manual journal entries.
• Invalid transactions from feeder systems are resolved
before the start of closing.
• Account validation and maintenance are done using one
controlled data base.
• Automatic table updates when there are organizational
changes.
• Program edits in all feeder systems and rules for edits
are provided in standards for internal control.
• Close critical systems and update transaction data
weekly. Feed subsystems more frequently than monthly
Financial Closing – Best Practice

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Date
Collection,
subsystems
closing
• Summarize data from subsystems before posting to general
ledger.
• Track errors and assign responsibility for error recycling.
• Systematize routine journal entries, distributions, and closing
entries before accountants impact the closing process.
• Chargeback support-related expenses (allocations) based on
market or standard rates.
• Use of materiality limits to reduce entry and account detail and
manage time spent on small items.
• Reduce number of accounts and transaction codes.
• Tracking errors and assigning responsibility for determining root
cause and ensuring that errors never happen again.
• Chargeback/allocations of support-related expenses using
standard rates. These entries can then be run before the close
cycle.
• Use of materiality limits to reduce entry and account detail. This
is only important for manual entries that are required during the
close cycle. This is when you need to decide whether to make
the entry and affect downstream tasks or whether to book the
entry the following month

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Book
Closing
• Corrections of immaterial errors and adjustments should be done in the
following month.
• Book accruals at the subsidiary and not at the organization level. This can
be trued up the following month.
• Use pre-formatted accrual, elimination, reversal, and adjustment entries,
where possible, and automate.
• Use ratio and accrual rates based on previous month’s calculation.
• Establish materiality limits to book adjustments.
• Make external to the closing process.
• Selected activities:
• Reconciliation
• Immaterial error correction
• Account maintenance
• Calculated accrual percentages
• Minimize error to about .02% (233 errors per 1,000,000 lines of account
attributes).
• Use quarterly or annual true up to adjust as necessary, not monthly.
• Trend monthly accruals and record recurring estimates as recurring
entries.
• Reconcile accounts on a cyclical basis based on risk and do outside the
close.
• Establish performance metrics to monitor speed, quality, and cost of
closing.
• Only resolve material items during segment review at segment level and
reverse next month to book at market level.
• Same analogy could work at corporate.

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Consolidation
& Review
• Consolidated data should be pre-formatted and system should
automatically produce segment and corporate consolidated
reports.
• Reduce required information for consolidation.
• Avoid replicating financial data in separate reporting systems.
• Establish materiality limits for review and approval steps.
• Minimize number to review layers.
• Consolidated numbers are highlighted when outside budget or
trend control limits.
• Profit center and legal entity reporting are driven from the same
source of data and always balance.
• Intercompany eliminations, currency translations, and
corporate/segment allocations are done in an automated
manner to not hold up close.

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Financial Reporting – Best Practice
Reporting
• Formats based on key performance indicator and financial
reports.
• Report variance of hardcopy reports and have strategy for
retiring obsolete reports.
• Design executive report package to include trend, graphical,
comparison to target and “story line” information.
• Ability to “drill down” to analyze significant variances.
• Maintain financial data warehousing using relational data base
technology to access financial information.
• Responsibilities for reporting to executives are clearly
delineated with minimal adjustments after the consolidation
process.
• Automate month-end reporting for income statements, balance
sheet, cash flow, and performance metrics, including Value-
Based Management concepts.

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Financial Reporting & Forward looking – Best Practice
Forecasting
• Ability to develop flash income estimate after first day of
close.
• System modelling capability to create net income
forecasts from the estimate.
• Ability to analyze difference between forecasts and
actual based on the analysis of major “profit centers”
(e.g., volume, price, cost, mix, currency, etc).
• Use of forecast as part of introduction of soft closing
process for months that do not end a quarter.
• Ability to use product or service composites to forecast
profit margins. A composite is a grouping of services or
products such as combining products into product lines.
• Data base of forecast information integrated with actual
and budgeted information.
• Forecasts visible to all individuals that are responsible
for major “profit drivers”.

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Implementing – Faster Financial Closing
Create the Vision
of Finance
Get Ready For
Faster Close
Visualize Target
Environment
Extend to Soft
Close Process
Implement Target
Processes
• Create & design
the team and
steering
committee
• Define
customer
requirements.
Bothe Internal &
Externals
• Determine
finance function
goals and
measures
• Identify the
world class best
practice
• Evaluate
current
environment
• Perform
resource and
cycle time
analysis
• Assess systems
affecting the
close
• Identify non
value added
activities
• Identify
improvement
targets
• Identify close
process metrics by
portions of value
chain
• Define materiality
• Define closing
entry process
• Define end of
month and
beginning of
month processes
• Identify
outstanding issues
• Analyze major
performance
• Develop process
implementation
plan
• Conduct
training
• Implement
changes
• Monitor
progress
• Benchmark the
outcome with
identified target
• Develop
monthly
performance
scorecard
• Define soft
close process
• Implement soft
close
• Implement
periodic review
and
enhancements
• Set the next
level
Benchmark
Implement Change Management through the Process

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Leading Practice for Close at Work Day 5
Close Activity Day Activity
Complete
Production/Process Order Closure -1
Payroll & OT -1
Inventory -1
Material Close 0
Accounts Payable 1
Fixed Assets/Depreciation 1
Cash & Bank Recon. 2
SG&A Accruals 2-3
Revenue 2-3
Operational Costs 2-3
Accounts Receivable 2-3
Intercompany 3
Legal Entity Ledger Close & Review 3-4
Consolidation Activities & Review 4-5
Management Reporting 6-7
CloseProcess
5 WD

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Best Practice for Close at Work Day 2
Close Activity Day Activity
Complete
Actual
Achieved
Production/Process Order Closure -1 -1
Payroll & OT -1 -9
Inventory -1 -1
Material Close 0 -1
Accounts Payable 1 0
Fixed Assets/Depreciation 1 0
Cash & Bank Recon. 2 1
SG&A Accruals 2-3 1
Revenue 2-3 1
Operational Costs 2-3 1
Accounts Receivable 2-3 1
Intercompany 3 0
Legal Entity Ledger Close & Review 3-4 1
Consolidation Activities & Review 4-5 2
Management Reporting 6-7 2
CloseProcess
2 WD

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Accounting irregularities have
brought financial reporting
into the spotlight
The Challenge of Corporate Reporting
 Fast close vs data quality
 Fragmented reporting supply
chains
 Autonomy vs accountability
 Decentralised vs single stream
 Audit controls vs flexibility to keep
pace with change
 Too many spreadsheets….

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PwC survey
16% Base reporting on strategy
27% Clearly explain underlying
revenue drivers
31% Align KPIs to strategy
19% Link external drivers to strategic
choices
7% Communicate detailed
commentary across reporting
models by segment
• Compliance-driven approach to
external reporting
• Focus on financial measures to the
detriment of non-financial reporting
• Increasing pressure of timely
reporting to investors and markets
• Governance more important than
transparency?
• Finance overwhelmed by factors
not aligned with the reporting risks
Source: PwC Competitive Edge Survey 2011

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Shareholder suits may follow if the mistakes are material to the
company’s Report and it’s forced to restate financials. Further, finance
departments will be burdened by having to re-do the reports, and the
company may incur added cost and complexity if it has to hire a third
party to audit those numbers again. Finally, a restatement can be career-
ending event for the CFO or controller. “Who would want to employ a
CFO who made a material mistake and had to re-file their account?”

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Optimizing the Financial Process to Fast Reporting
Close sub ledgers
into GL (AR, AP, FA,
etc.)
Perform Reconciliations
and Post Accruals
Deliver self
service
financial
reporting to the
organization
Create external
reports with
disclosures and
financial data
Automate and
deliver
external &
statutory
filings
Gather and validate
complete data sets to
support all financial
reporting needs
Automate consolidated
financial reports
leveraging multiple
hierarchies and
calculations
Sub Ledger Close
General Ledger
Close
Data
Assurance
Consolidation
Internal
Management
Reporting
External
Financial
Reporting
Filing

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Get it right first
time!
 Apply a corporate close calendar for feeder systems to G/Ls.
 Automate allocations and accruals in the G/L.
 Standardise reporting formats for reliable data and faster review.
Central Finance
efficiency
 Perform intercompany reconciliations ahead of month end.
 Use phased submissions to act on availability of site data.
 Create automated ledger integrations for fast load of financial data.
Intelligent review
 Design hard and soft validations to facilitate one-touch reviews.
 Streamline the approval process – focus on what matters.
 Use process controls to minimize post-close entries.
Consolidation &
Reporting
 Automate top-side adjustments and equity eliminations.
 Build consolidation hierarchies that match cycle requirements.
 Use exception reporting with drill through analytics.
 Integrate financial and management reports as production packages.
Best Practices
Optimizing the Financial Process to Fast Reporting

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Technology to improve Faster Closing & Reporting
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS
Strategy
Management
Business
Planning
Profitability
Management
Financial
Reporting &
Compliance
EPM Workspace
OLTP & ODS
Systems
Data Warehouse
Data Mart
SAP, Oracle, Siebel,
PeopleSoft, Custom
Business
Process
OLAP
Fusion Middleware
Business Intelligence Foundation
BI Applications
EPM Workspace
Excel
XML

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Financial System to Achieve Fast Close & Reporting
Necessary Financial Systems Changes to Achieve Fast Close and
Effective Reporting
Adopting a fully integrated financial application system, ERP , SAP &
Oracle , BI and Hyperion
Deploying an automated financial consolidation system
Using an automated, intercompany accounting system, which allows
transactions to occur between different legal entities owned by the
same company
Leveraging a Web portal for delivery of standard reports
Linking a Web portal to an online analytical processing database that
allows companies to conduct ad hoc queries and analyses

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Although automation can relieve some of the human factor, it can be
an albatross in its own way. The more things are automated, the
harder it can be to update the system, and the more a real person
may have to update it by hand.
“The technology alone is not a silver bullet,” “These initiatives require
a balanced focus on people, process and governance in order to
truly realize each application’s full value.”
Financial System to Achieve Fast Close

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“The new Group Reporting System
successfully merges multiple reporting
models across the group, improving
the efficiency of our consolidations. We
have reduced our monthly closing
cycle by around 2 weeks and save 30+
man days of time at head office.”
Group Financial Controller
Tata Steel Europe
£12 Billion t/o service and steel
manufacturing company
Tata acquisition of Corus
imposed fast close challenge
Concentric business process
review ensured project focus on
key drivers for change
Global deployment in 8 months
Single stream, centrally
architected solution cuts 2
weeks from closing cycle
4000 spreadsheet reports
replaced with 300 HFM reports
Deployment of HFM reduces
close by 2 weeks
Use of ERP to Achieve Fast Close & Reporting
Note : Date and Facts from Oracle Corporation

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Deployment of Hyperion Financial Management Pays for Itself in 18 Months
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
• 20 days to close
• Lengthy year-end reporting
• Costly financial reporting
process
• 78 charts of accounts
• Widely varying reporting
definitions and procedures
VALUE DELIVERED
• 6 days to close
• Reduced year-end reporting by
25%
• $1 million annual savings
(67% ROI)
• 1 reporting chart of accounts
• More productive finance staff
Global publisher of textbooks for the education,
business information,
and consumer publishing markets
Saves $1 Million Annually
Use of ERP to Achieve Fast Close & Reporting
Note : Date and Facts from Oracle Corporation

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Insight
Performance
Action
Set
Goals
Model
Plan
Monitor
Analyze
Report
Finance Reporting Strategies

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Operational &
Statutory
Reporting
Management
Reporting
Board PACK
LEVEL 1
LEVEL 2
LEVEL 3
Strategic Management reports, Performance reports,
KPI and Status Updates on various Projects and
initiatives
Functional &
Department
Reporting
Sales, Marketing
Manufacturing
and SC
performance
reviews
Framework for Financial Reporting
Finance Reporting Strategies
Profitability
Reporting by
Product, Customer
& Channel
• Daily, Weekly, Monthly & Quarterly reports,
• Profit & Loss Accounts, Balance Sheets
• MCA returns, SEBI Compliance, IT compliance reports

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The Financial Reporting Trend & Board Pack
Actual Board Presentation Pack of a MNC will be presented to
the participants on the date of Training. This will give a real-
time experience to them:
1. What is the latest reporting trend
2. How a Reporting Board pack is prepared &
3. what are the reports to be included in this report pack

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Questions?

Thank you
Dr. Dhirendra Gautam
ceo@indiba.in

Faster financial closing & Effective Management reporting strategies

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