Reduce Your Company's Close Cycle and Boost Your Financial Analytic Capabilities

It's been a long time since CFOs were mere background accountants. As corporations and the regulations they adhere to become increasingly complex, the role of CFO is set to become one of the most important leadership positions in the corporate world.



However, with more power comes more responsibility. While the CEO is the head and heart behind a company's managerial structure, the CFO is holding the entirety of a company's finances and revenue potential on their shoulders. One small shrug, and it could all come tumbling down. Indeed, the CFO role has become one of the riskiest positions in recent years for that very reason. Not only have financial regulations tightened, but the Department of Justice is serious about holding individuals accountable for corporate mistakes. The finger tends to be pointed at the CFO, who can be forced to give up incentive and stock-based compensation and even their job should their company have to restate its financial results.

What's more, 90% of CFOs surveyed by consulting firm Kaufman Hall said that they aren't doing enough with the financial data they have right at their fingertips. Data may be everywhere, but it's not always useful. There's a big difference between raw data and actionable data, and less than 10% of CFOs surveyed said they were "very satisfied" with performance management reporting.So, accurate reporting is more important than ever. But so is staying competitive, which does not involve pouring over paperwork for hours on end. The only way to remain competitive is through increased efficiency, streamlining, data analytics, and agility. A survey from APQC shows that, according to senior finance executives around the world, 75% of organizations identify their close-to-disclose process as one of the top two areas for needed improvement. Ideally, companies should close in under 10 days – it's a matter of corporate survival. Companies that are able to close in less than 10 days spend 50% less than their competitors.

Reporting and analysis clearly needs to be a top priority moving forward, with agility being near the top of the list as well.

Unfortunately, trimming the fat and taking the time to improve financially is often diametrically opposed to increasing regulations and the burdensome amount of time it takes just to report how you're already doing financially.

The answer here is standardization and automation. Investment in technology that helps to automate and reduce your company's close cycle, freeing up time and money to focus more on increasing your capacity for financial analysis will be critical to staying competitive in years to come.

OneStream's platform is designed specifically to help you reduce your company's close cycle while enhancing your financial analysis capabilities. It takes ahold of your company's complexities and cleans them up, handing you financial consolidation and simplified reporting.

Adhere to financial reporting requirements with more ease than ever. OneStream is able to truly support statutory financial reporting requirements by incorporating all multi-GAAP reporting, US GAAP, IFRS, and local statutory financial consolidation requirements. The inclusion of minority interest and partial ownership allows you to deal with complex ownership and equity pickup. The system also offers actual node level entity adjustments to accommodate specific hierarchies.

Superior IC eliminations greatly increase your financial agility. The automatic IC eliminations in OneStream occur at the first common parent for all hierarchies, and they don't disappear at the first common parent. Without complex rules, it becomes easy to quickly understand how business changes, acquisitions, and changes in reporting requirements will affect your company.

Complete controls ensure accuracy and transparency. The audit and drill back capabilities of OneStream are unrivaled. Track how data is provided to the system, view adjustments and eliminations at every level of consolidations, and enjoy 100% visibility of all changes, including map and rule changes, data, and metadata.

A world-class fast close process will greatly reduce your close cycle. Guided Workflows and a standard process for pre-load mapping and intersection validation make the close cycle quicker and easier than ever. Not only does this shorter close, but it includes 100% traceability from report to source, so it takes seconds to resolve data quality questions.

Essentially, the main features of OneStream – a reduced close cycle, increased accuracy and data transparency, agility, and adherence to the latest financial reporting requirements – are the top goals that most CFOs have said they would like to target in the upcoming year. These financial improvements are the key to financial success, and the companies that achieve them are the ones that will remain competitive.

An effective close should be three things: controlled, standardized, and efficient. Utilizing OneStream's platform is the best way to achieve all three of these things. The software incorporates some of the smartest, most extensive controls in the industry, it standardizes the close process across even the most complex companies, and its ability to simplify those complexities and guide users through the close process carefully creates maximum efficiency.

In the end, a product is only as good as its customer satisfaction. The customer testimonials at OneStream really prove its ability to revolutionize your company's financial system. With a 100% customer success rate, OneStream Software has achieved a 4.8 out of 5 BPM Pulse Rating. Companies as large and varied as AAA, Fruit of the Loom, Nilfisk, meineke, and Nelson Global Products all use OneStream Software to improve their financial reporting.

If your company is not able to produce consolidated reports in under 10 days, ideally within 5, you will struggle to grow and remain competitive in the future. Slowness, inaccuracy, manual processing, and insufficient analytics are no longer just a setback – they are a complete hindrance to corporate growth.

Achieving a high level of financial reporting efficiency should be your company's top priority moving forward if it isn't already. The smartest way to do this is by implementing software that specifically aims to reduce the close cycle and consolidate financial reporting, such as the OneStream platform. Secure your company's financial future today.

-Philip Parker

Philip Parker is a Managing Director with Holland Parker Consulting. He has over 16 years of experience implementing Corporate Performance Management solutions for a variety of industries including Energy, Retail, Healthcare, Higher Education, Airline, Banking and Manufacturing verticals. Mr. Parker has had the opportunity to speak at several user conferences on various functional and technical subject matters related to Corporate Performance Management implementations.