2. The past several years have seen a fundamental restructuring of the economy, resulting in
major changes to the way companies conduct their business.
While these changes can be felt throughout the organisation, the finance function has been
particularly affected, with major regulatory and reporting changes and challenges, and greater
responsibility for helping to identify and mitigate risks to the business.
This increased responsibility and focus on financial success has put pressure on finance
teams to develop and streamline their processes to drive profit and growth across the
business.
Effective financial performance management in today’s competitive environment has become
vitally important.
Today’s finance teams frequently deal with multiple
priorities that can include everything from overseeing
financial transactions to the creation of customised reports
for individual decision-makers. Nevertheless, the three
core functions remain:
•
•
•
financial consolidation, close and reporting
budgeting, planning and forecasting
analysis
The consolidation, close and report function is essential to
the entire financial process. It is imperative that data is
accurate, timely and integrated with data from elsewhere in
the organisation. Finance teams often struggle with slow,
manual spreadsheets, particularly when data has to be
obtained from diverse entities and often involves multiple
currency conversions. The final product must also conform
to statutory reporting requirements and deadlines.
Ventana Research defines
financial performance
management (FPM) as the
“process of addressing the often
overlapping issues that affect
how well finance organisations
support the activities and
strategic objectives of their
company and manage their own
operations. FPM deals with the
full cycle of the department’s
functions, including corporate
and strategic finance, planning,
forecasting, analysis, closing and
reporting.”
The budgeting, planning and forecasting process is no longer a static exercise that happens
once or twice a year. As businesses fight to maintain or sharpen their competitive edge, many
are opting for more frequent or rolling forecasts. This creates a further burden on the finance
team, as they are now required to gather, validate and compile more data more frequently.
The third core function is analysis of the data, which in the FPM process, is the opportunity to
review and assess the data, seek out areas of opportunity and identify where improvements
can be made.
TCM Infosys Ltd.
info@tcminfosys.com | +44 (0) 845 50 50 350 | www.tcminfosys.com
3. TCM and Financial Performance Management
Financial consolidation, close and reporting
TCM provides a flexible solution for consolidation at group and subsidiary level, and can use
multiple hierarchical structures. TCM provides legal and management consolidation,
preparing all major standards (including UK GAAP, US GAAP and IAS) from one source.
TCM also includes an ICB module and a journals module, including journal templates, secure
audit trail and journal reporting.
Budgeting, planning and forecasting
TCM provides a powerful solution for the most complex budgeting and forecasting
applications. TCM allows users to develop parameter-driven budgets, forecasts and strategic
plans, drill down to see the underlying information and generate reports. As standard
functionality, TCM includes scenario modelling, which allows users to determine where
efficiencies can be created to directly affect profitability.
Analysis
Users can analyse information in report format and through a free form analysis tool with full
drill down and drill up functionality. TCM is seamlessly integrated with Excel, allowing users
to input, interrogate and report information. And TCM’s industry-first functionality allows
users to input and report commentary down to a single data cell.
TCM enables finance teams to align resources, identify opportunities and ensure compliance
throughout the process, all based on one powerful solution that increases productivity,
improves the time to close and provides a competitive advantage.
TCM Infosys Ltd.
info@tcminfosys.com | +44 (0) 845 50 50 350 | www.tcminfosys.com
