The Right Tool for the Job

Aligning Technology for an Effective Close

Carolyn Faeth, Sr. Director, eCapital Advisors

4/18/2019 © 2019 eCapital Advisors, LLC.

Agenda

• Introduction

• Why Does Finance Need?

• Cloud and On-Premise Approach

• Customize Tool vs. Process Change

• Right Tool for Right Job

• Q&A

2

Introduction

© 2019 eCapital Advisors, LLC.4/18/2019

Introduction – Carolyn Faeth

4

• EPM Consulting for 15+ years

• Experience in credit, banking, finance, and accounting

• Extensive development experience in Close and Consolidations

technology

• Specializes in aligning processes and technology to meet

business requirements.

• Manage large, multi-team projects as well as smaller-scale

implementations across a number of verticals:

• Manufacturing

• Retail

• Technology and Telecommunications

• Energy

• Pharmaceuticals

• Financial Services

• MBA from University of Texas – Austin

• Business Process Design for Strategic Management Certificate –

MIT Sloan School of Business

• Hyperion Certified Consultant and HFM Implementation Specialist

What Does Finance Need?

© 2019 eCapital Advisors, LLC. 54/18/2019

Close Activities

6

Close Actuals

External Reporting

Budget/ForecastManagement

Reporting

Analysis

Actuals

• Close and consolidation activities and reporting

• Eliminations and intercompany matching

• Translation in accordance with FAS-52

• External reporting

• IFRS and USGAAP

• Statutory

• Management Reporting that ties to External Reporting values

• Legal Entity View (Tax consumes)

Budget and Forecast

• Budget and forecasting activities

• Level of detail more granular for

Revenue/COGS than required for

External Reporting

• Cost center/department distinction for

Indirect/G&A

• Spreading and calculations to reduce

manual inputs

• Aligning data across the organization

for variance reporting

• Calculation consistency and visibility

• Management View

Management Reporting

• Variance reporting

• Actuals to Budget

• Rolling forecast

• Management view vs. Legal Entity

view

• Department and Cost Center

• Regions

• Analysis

• Trending

• “Slice and dice”

Cloud and On-Premise

Approach

© 2019 eCapital Advisors, LLC. 104/18/2019

Don’t…

© 2019 eCapital Advisors, LLC. 114/18/2019

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-

NC-ND

HFM: the “Kitchen Sink”

• External Reporting

• Management Reporting

• More detail than necessary for

consolidation

• Some allocation / reclass

calculations and rules

• Planning/Forecast data or

processes impact structure and

reports

• Other close activities not

consolidation-specific

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As an Example…FCCS and ARCS

FCCS

• Specific to only addressing consolidation activities

• Translation

• Consolidation

• Eliminations

• Supports standard processes

• Aligns with other reporting tools at high level

• Minimal manual input

• Data driven

• Not a lot of wiggle room to customize

© 2019 eCapital Advisors, LLC. 134/18/2019

ARCS

• Supports workflow

• Repository for documentation

• House accrual and amortization

schedules for completeness of entries

• Aligns policy with process

improvements

• Leverage data sources from across

close activities

• Most effective when developed with

reporting and accountability defined

Right Tool for the Job

© 2019 eCapital Advisors, LLC. 144/18/2019

Customize Tool or Address Process

• Processes and tools often riddle with work arounds and band-aids

• Business needs change

• Scalability

• Standardization

• Technological improvements

• Maintenance and knowledge transfer

• Who owns the details of the “why”

© 2019 eCapital Advisors, LLC. 154/18/2019

Technology Nirvana

Close Actuals

HFM/FCCS w/ FCM

ARCS

External Reporting

HFM/FCCS/FR

Budget/Forecast

Planning/EPBCS

Management Reporting

Essbase/Analytic Cloud

/EPBCS

Analysis

Essbase/Analytic Cloud

Just because you can…

…doesn’t necessarily mean that you should!

• Application maintenance

• Cost to implementation

• Changing reporting structure/business needs

• Effectively aligning the right technology lets you

address close functionality needed by the

business

• Business vs. IT ownership

• SOX Controls – customization no-no*

• Audit

Q&A

© 2019 eCapital Advisors, LLC.4/18/2019

Cloud vs. On-Prem Considerations

• Centralized vs. de-centralized processes

• Pre-built best-practices

• Allocations

• IT appetite for support and infrastructure maintenance

• Growth by acquisition considerations

• Sophistication and maturity of business processes

• Spreadsheet “purgatory” and manual activities vs. defined process

• Multiple applications needed

• Business need to address local vs. global issues

• Total cost of ownership/ROI*

• Business ownership of the application and functionality

• Spin-up time

• User acceptance

• Immediate development updates available

• Immediate needs and long-term roadmap