The GL Company Presents 7 Steps to Financial Integrity James Taylor Account Manager The GL Company Australasia Presented by:

Financial Integrity  Ensuring that financial information accurately reflects the underlying accounting transactions  … and that the accuracy of the information can be easily verified

Who cares about Financial Integrity?  Who doesn’t?  Legal requirement to accurately report financials  Organisations need relevant, reliable, timely financial information in order to operate effectively, to:  Control costs  Review revenue  Ensure on-going financial viability

Month End Does it Send shivers down your spine???? Two Words…..

Challenges in achieving Financial Integrity  Time pressure  Difficult reporting, reconcilliation & validation processes  Imperfect toolsets  ERP Inquiry Screens & Report Writers  Spreadsheets  Business Intelligence & 3 rd Party Reporting tools

Does this look familiar?

Run directly against ERP system – good! Inquiry screens very limited & inflexible Report writers are technical IT tools No financial transparency in reports: hard-coded, static, no drill down Difficult & time-consuming to validate & reconcile reports ERP inquiry screens & report writers

Spreadsheets & Excel-based solutions 95% of spreadsheets contain at least 1 error (KPMG white paper) Results can be manually adjusted - no audit trail on what’s changed Can easily be proliferated without security both internally & externally Many local copies are created, which is the correct version? Difficult to manage if the person who wrote them leaves No Control System. Who publishes what and when? Financial Integrity nightmare Spreadsheets provide a familiar interface for Accountants but compromise financial integrity:

Complex Meta Data / End User Layers (EUL) require setup & on-going maintenance Limited financial transparency, difficult to reconcile Data often exported to separate database: reports do not run over core accounting data Fixed set of reports - new requests require specification, development (modification of Meta Data); a technical process prone to error Business Intelligence (BI) Useful for post-month end management reporting but does not necessarily provide Financial Integrity:

What’s needed Safe, secure, ad-hoc inquiry & reporting for accountants Real Time – post a journal, see the results immediately Pre-configured for the ERP system: meta data is built-in No staging – runs directly against core accounting system Financial transparency – drill to details & transactions Used by Accountants, not IT FAST – relieves time pressure at month end

7 Steps to Financial Integrity 1)Direct Inquiry 2)Interactive Trial Balance 3)Financial Transparency through drill down 4)Audit Unposted Batches 5)Review Currency Translation 6)Validate Financial Statement Lines 7)Analyse Results against Multiple Budgets

Step 1: Direct Inquiry Inquire directly over the Balance & Journals tables, not through a view, or against a data extract. Post a journal & see the results immediately.

Step 2: Interactive Trial Balance Analyze Trial Balances & multiple accounts across segments in summary or detail for multiple periods on a single screen.

Step 3: Financial Transparency Drill from consolidated account balances, to transactions to sub ledgers to quickly investigate issues.

Step 4: Unposted Batches Reconcile between journals & financial statement balances and investigate any unposted batches.

Step 5: Currency Translations Review base and translated currency summaries with drill to Entered & Accounted journal amounts.

Step 6: Validate Financial Statements Identify any accounts missing from financial reporting lines by validating parent account rollups, summary accounts or selecting totals for ranges.

Step 7: Actuals ‘v’ Budgets Analyze financial results against multiple budget versions simultaneously.

The 7 steps: Step 1: Direct Inquiry – Post a journal and see the results immediately Step 2: Interactive Trial Balance - Analyse accounts across segments, consolidated or detailed Step 3: Financial Transparency - Drill from balances to transactions, sub ledgers, journal entries Step 4: Unposted batches – Investigate unposted batch errors Step 5: Currency Conversions and Translations – Review base and translated currency summaries Step 6: Validate Financial Statement Consolidation Lines – Identify any accounts missing from financial reporting lines by validating parent account rollups and summary accounts Step 7: Analyse Actuals Against Multiple Budget versions At the completion of the 7 steps, financial reports can be published in confidence, with their financial integrity intact

Really Real Time Inquiry Suite Easy interface to audit the data in the Oracle General Ledger Pre-configured ad-hoc inquiry & reporting for Accountants Can be used to validate or replace FSGs Secure environment used by Accountants but controlled by IT

A few ANZ customers we’ve worked with

Really Real Time Inquiry Suite for Oracle Are you involved in Month End or Project Accounting? We can help make your life easier