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Reporting Improvement Project

The ‘Reporting Improvement Project’ was carried out by our colleague and Finance Consultant Anne de Lange. Anne (32) is a Chartered Controller (RC) with an MSc in Business Administration and a post higher vocational certificate in Operational Auditing, who has been working for Robert Muntel Financial Consultancy since January 2015.

Client

An international organization in the fast-moving consumer goods industry.

Assignment

As part of a worldwide efficiency programme initiated by the parent company, the client was faced with the implementation of a new integrated IT platform (SAP). A result of the implementation of this platform, including a new reporting system, was that part of the available management information and the information requirements of the business and management side no longer dovetailed correctly.

The focus of this assignment was on enhancement of the management information to make the information match the information needs of the management.

The ‘Reporting Improvement Project’ consisted of two phases:

Implementation of technical system improvements in SAP and SAP CO-PA (‘Controlling Profitability Analysis’, module SAP) for the purpose of optimization of the financial process and improvement of the data quality.
Improvement of the management information and designing new analyses and insights (e.g. adding profitability data (client/brand/article) and automatic cost calculation for better insight into profitability at product level).

Successful completion of both project phases, in which technical and organizational aspects were optimized, has resulted in considerable improvement of the data quality, enabling the organization to provide improved and reliable management information that allows the management to better and timely control the business. That, after all, is what it is all about.

Tasks

Improvement of the financial insights by, among other things, implementing adjustments within SAP and SAP CO-PA (‘Controlling Profitability Analysis’ – module SAP), optimization of the financial process, reduction of the number of manual financial correction entries, and improvement of the automatic cost allocation;
Proposing and setting up a functional design for all adjustments within SAP CO-PA and taking care of the implementation of changes (in close collaboration with IT/SAP specialists);
Analysing existing reporting issues and, based on the input of stakeholders (e.g. controllers, sales managers, financial administration, IT), defining effective solutions that result in improved control information;
Creating new/improved financial/profitability reports and analyses;
Carefully documenting (functional) changes within SAP and SAP CO-PA and providing accurate instructions to all stakeholders.

This assignment was realized in continuous consultation with all stakeholders, internal (CFO, Controllers, head of financial administration, IT specialists) as well as external (core application support).

Result:

A significant improvement in the quality of the management information, making a clear contribution to adequate controlling of the organization, achieved through:

Optimization of the financial (sub-)processes
Reduction of the lead time for end-of-month closure
Improved data quality and data enrichment
Improved cost allocation method
Changed cost structure (more insight into cost drivers)
Making available and drawing up financial (profitability) analyses.

If you are interested in the full assignment description and the detailed action plan, please feel free to request this information without any obligation.