closing cockpit

SAP Financial Closing cockpit

Streamlining the Financial Close with SAP Financial Closing cockpit

2009-11-25 Linda Lehman SAP Svenska AB

© SAP 2009 / SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Customer Presentation V.1 / Speaker Name /

1.  Financial Close – Business Challenges

2.  SAP Financial Closing cockpit - Automation and Collaboration

3.  Demo

4.  Wrap Up

Agenda


Efficiency   Fast cycle time   Fewer resources   Significant cost

savings

Compliance Efficiency

Transparency

Compliance   Documentation of

process for audit trial   Enterprise-wide

monitoring of closing status and delays

  Enhanced oversight of internal control

Transparency   Consistency and

reliability of results   Centralized control and

monitoring   Real-time error detection

Corporate governance imperatives require a greater control and supervision of the financial close and reporting cycle

The Financial Close – Critical to Compliance

Financial Close Requirements

© SAP 2009 / SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Client facing Detail Presentation V.5 / Ralph Schöpfer /

Achieving Closing Excellence – Our Major Principles

1. Insight – Financial and operational

2. Collaboration – Share common information

3. Automation – Reduce manual processes

4. Control – Exception-based management

5. IT Simplification – One platform


Business Benefits – From Optimized Closing Cycles

Business Benefits Some Benchmarks

  Reduced costs of finance and compliance

  Increased investor confidence

  More time for making decisions based on reliable data

Days to Close Annual Books

Staffing Levels (FTEs) per $Billion Revenues

10,1

4,1

3,3

10,2 9,8

2,3

G/L and Closing

Analysis and Reporting

Best in Class Average

Just as organizations have undertaken process automation in other operational areas of the business, so must finance now take a hard look at the financial reporting process. Enterprises will need to invest in efforts to institute reliable and sustainable processes that are automated with the help of technology. This frees finance for the value-added activities that organizations really need.” IDC, 2006

Source: ASUG Benchmarks 2006

“


It was so frustrating for staff to deal with all our inefficiencies that they had pretty much given up trying to be fast.“ CFO of a $26 billion oil and petrol-retail company

“

  Fragmentation   Spreadsheets   Decentralized

Database

  Lack of status overview of closing process

  Error detection late in the process

  Ineffective coordination

  Missing “Global Game plan” for closing

  Email-driven communi- cation of guidelines and deadlines

  Manual “Hands-on” closing procedures

  Management vs. Legal Accounting – 2 worlds

Long close cycle times & high error potential & high cost

High potential of frustration

Barriers to a Financial Close – 4 Areas of Risk


  Integrate and Consolidate ERP Platforms

  Simplify user access

  Standardize and Automate   Harmonize Legal and Management

Accounting   Establish 'Self-Auditing' Processes

  Define Closing Process centrally   Provide Workflow and Coordination

  Ensure Reliable Reporting and Decision Support

  Monitor Closing Status centrally

SAP Enhanced Financial Close – Breaking the Financial Close Barriers

SAP

Enha

nced

Fin

anci

al C

lose

So

lutio

n M

ap

IT Systems

SAP Software Solutions

Organization

Processes

Insight & Control

CFO Strategies

  Enterprise Performance Management   Process Control Monitoring   SAP Financial Closing cockpit

  SAP Financial Closing cockpit   SAP BPC   SAP Workflow

  Audit Information System   SAP BPC   Inter-company Reconciliation   New General Ledger

  SAP NetWeaver Portal   SAP NetWeaver BI and Analytics   SAP ERP Financials   SAP Business Objects Enterprise

Barriers


Financial Close with SAP – Driver of Savings and Benefits

Benefits of a streamlined financial close   Improved control systems and

processes at lower cost

  Greater quality and greater efficiency

  Faster access to financial information for decision making

  More time for value add financial analysis

  Ability to respond to management requests and support key initiatives

  Work-life balance for accounting staff

Benchmarks from SAP's case studies and success stories % Impact

Operating Costs

  Time to close books (cycle time) 25% - 45%

  Financials staffing levels 20% - 45%

  Reconciliation costs (e.g., data sources, legal accounting, management accounting, inter-company)

50% - 80%

  Chart of Account maintenance 30% - 50%

  Ledger maintenance costs 20% - 40%

  Report data collection and distribution 25% - 50%

  Internal and external audit costs (“self-auditing processes”)

10% - 20%

World-class companies spend 45% less on their closing and reporting efforts than other companies and save €5.5 million for every €1B in revenue. “

The Hackett Group


1.  Financial Close – Business Challenges


3.  Demo

4.  Wrap Up

Agenda

© SAP 2007 /

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Providing the global game plan for the close

Closing Preparation

Local Close

Group Close

Audit Support Report

Valuation for

Accounting

Financial Closing cockpit

Audit Information System (AIS)

New General Ledger SAP BPC

Data Retention Tool

(DART) Financial Analytics

  Supports standardization across closing periods and subsidiaries

  Accelerates the closing process and improves user productivity

  Creates transparency and supports compliance


Intercompany reconciliation

Define Global Plan for Close

Consolidation & Audit

Corporate Finance

Analyze Group Results

Corporate Management Group Close

Monitor Close Globally

Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance

© SAP 2008 / SAP Financial Closing cockpit/ Janet Salmon /

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Value Add for all Enterprises

Local Close on Subsidiary Level

Local Accountants

Submit Data Consolidation

Analyze Local Close Results

Prepare for Consolidation

Local Accountant

Execute Local Close Tasks

Local Accountants

Management

SAP

Fina

ncia

l Clo

sing

coc

kpit

Local Accountant

Prepare Local Close

Collect Data from Subsidiaries


SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Concept of the Application

Analyze Execute SAP Financial Closing cockpit

Monitor

Plan


Execute Local Close

Tasks

GL Accountant

Submit Data to

Consolidation

Analyze Local Close

Results

Prepare Data for

Consolidation

Asset Accountant Cost Accountant Corporate Accounting Local Accountant


  The template contains all default tasks related to the local close and a relative default schedule

  Based on the milestones defined for the global close the template defines the detailed schedule of the local close per subsidiary

  Creation of templates can even be organized under corporate responsibility to ensure a harmonized closing process across subsidiaries

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Template - 1

Prepare Local Close


The template documents who is responsible for processing each close step

The template specifies the standard start time for each task with respect to a key date. It also contains the default duration for the task, based on experience in previous closes.

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Default Project Plan


Execute Local Close

Tasks

GL Accountant

Submit Data to

Consolidation

Analyze Local Close

Results

Prepare Data for

Consolidation



  The task list contains all tasks related to a concrete close cycle and the absolute schedule for the tasks

  The task list is generated from the template and adjusted according to the concrete closing cycle of the subsidiary

  Generation of task lists can even be organized under corporate responsibility to ensure a harmonized closing process across subsidiaries

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Task List - 2

Prepare Local Close


Template: Factory Calendar and Variables Task List: Key Dates for Variables

Timeline in Web Application

Tasks with a negative offset are moved backwards if they fall on a

non-working day

Tasks with a positive or zero offset are moved forward if they fall on a

non-working day

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Scheduling based on Factory Calendar


The template lists all tasks associated with the close and sorts them by folder.

All tasks in the template are classified by closing type

Thus, a single template can contain all tasks used within closing. As the task list is created, the system will determine which tasks are relevant to that close, e.g. month-end close for December 2008 and filter out any tasks that only apply to other closing types.

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Closing Types


Where the same close tasks are performed in multiple company codes, group them in one folder of type „company code“. Then assign the individual company codes to that node using „Change Characteristic Values“.

Folders can be used to group tasks in the template by organizational unit.

A node can be created of type „controlling area“ and the appropriate controlling areas assigned for the CO tasks.

The organizational units are passed to the variant for the job as the job is scheduled

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Organizational Units


Run Reports with/without Variants

Perform Manual Transactions

Execute jobs (CCMS or SAP CPS)

Include Notes as Tasks

Include Documents

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Types of Tasks and Help


Set „Critical Path“ flag to identify key tasks in close

Visualize Task Dependencies

Define Dependencies in Template: For each task define which jobs must be completed before that task can start

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Dependencies and Critical Path



Prepare Local Close

GL Accountant

Submit Data to

Consolidation

Analyze Local Close

Results

Prepare Data for

Consolidation


Execute Local Close

Tasks

  The generated task list can be accessed and processed by all stakeholders, either using SAP GUI or Web Dynpro application

  The authorization object F_CLOCO controls template and task related activities

  The task list can contain scheduled batch jobs, reports to be started manually or just text descriptions of manual activities

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Scheduling Tasks


Define Global Plan for

Close

Prepare Local Close

GL Accountant

Submit Data to

Consolidation

Prepare Data for

Consolidation * *


Execute Local Close

Tasks

Analyze Local Close

Results

  The status and progress of the local close can be displayed as BI queries that provide realtime access to the close figures

  This enables corporate managers as well as managers of the subsidiary to monitor the status of the closing process on their levels of responsibilities

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Monitoring of the Closing Status

Corporate Manager Local Manager


Prepare Local Close *

GL Accountant

Submit Data to

Consolidation

Prepare Data for

Consolidation *


Execute Local Close

Tasks

Analyze Local Close

Results

Define Global Plan for

Close

  Financial close related reports available in the 'Report Launchpad' and in the 'SAP Financial Closing cockpit'

  These reports help to improve the template based on clear insights for the next closing cycle

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Continuous Improvement of the Closing Cycle

Gain insight Optimize


BI-Reporting: Schedule Overview

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Reporting to improve the Closing Cycle


BI-Reporting: Status Overview or by Unit

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Monitoring of the Closing Cycle


BI-Reporting: Schedule Monitor



BI-Reporting: Schedule Analysis



Existing Scheduling System

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – A Look under the Hood

* SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood is required for:

Scheduling and Monitoring in heterogeneous IT landscapes

Real-time status of

remote chains

Cross-system

Cross-client

SAP Central Process

Scheduling by

Redwood *

(brand new version with new capabilities, fully

integrated into SAP NetWeaver)

Event-based scheduling

Parallel processing

FI MM CO SD

SAP NetWeaver

. . .

Non-SAP Retail

SAP NW BW

SAP CRM 7.0

SAP SEM-BCS


(capsulated in business function

FIN_ACC_LOCAL_CLOSE of SAP ERP 6.0.3)

Statistics and

benchmarks

…

SAP ERP 4.7


Together with SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood the SAP Financial Closing cockpit can manage processes across the Enterprise –

Including SAP and non-SAP systems

•  Enables enterprise-wide control and monitoring of closing cycle processes

•  Reduces latency between dependent processes and data sources

•  Increases automation and reduces error-prone manual processes

•  Provides more reliability and integrity of results

•  Documents process flows for auditing and compliance

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Mixed IT Environments enabled by SAP CPS

Valuation for

Accounting

Closing Preparation

Local Close

Valuation for

Accounting Group Close

Audit Support

Closing Preparation

Local Close

Report

Valuation for

Accounting

Closing Preparation

Local Close Subsidiary 1, Systems i {1 – m}

Subsidiary 2, Systems i {1 – m}

Subsidiary n, Systems i {1 – m} …

Subs

idia

ries


& SAP Central Process

Scheduling by Redwood


Demo

Demo



1.  Fast and Reliable Financial Close – Business Challenges


3.  Demo

4.  Wrap Up

Agenda


SAP Financial Closing cockpit – What is it about?

  It is an SAP ERP based application to plan, execute, automate (*), monitor, and analyze local closing tasks even in heterogeneous system landscapes (*)

  It provides the 'global game plan' for the financial close

  It enables enterprises to standardize and automate their 'best-practices' for the closing process in a powerful and end-user friendly application which is easy to implement

  It lowers costs and time commitment, it improves data quality, it reduces error-rates and it completes visibility into what is being done, when and by whom

It has comprehensive business values for all enterprises by offering improvements in some of the most

important areas of responsibility of a CFO !

(*) For usage in heterogeneous system landscape and for some automation purposes the SAP Central Process Scheduling by Redwood is required


also for remote tasks




Cross-system & event-driven

scheduling of tasks

SAP Central Process

Scheduling by Redwood

Transparency

Monitoring insights in closing for

all levels

Usability

User-friendly execution Portal integration

Organization

Global game plan 'Best run' template concept

Accessibility

One single point of access

Compliance

Documentation of all closing activities

Efficiency

Reduction of manual efforts Automation of tasks

Reduction of error-rates


Your integrated tool for the local close

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Areas of Improvements


Questions ?


Thank you!


Hierarchy View

1. Select Task List for Close in Progress

Role-based System Access

2. Closing Cockpit is Started as Separate Session

Graphical View

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Via SAP NetWeaver Business Client


Graphical View Hierarchy View

1. Select Task List for Close in Progress

2. Closing Cockpit Starts in Separate Window

Role-based System Access

SAP Financial Closing cockpit – Via SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Portal


Copyright 2009 SAP AG All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP AG. The information contained herein may be changed without prior notice. Some software products marketed by SAP AG and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors. SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, Business ByDesign, ByDesign, PartnerEdge and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned and associated logos displayed are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.

The information in this document is proprietary to SAP. This document is a preliminary version and not subject to your license agreement or any other agreement with SAP. This document contains only intended strategies, developments, and functionalities of the SAP® product and is not intended to be binding upon SAP to any particular course of business, product strategy, and/or development. SAP assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document. SAP does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the information, text, graphics, links, or other items contained within this material. This document is provided without a warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. SAP shall have no liability for damages of any kind including without limitation direct, special, indirect, or consequential damages that may result from the use of these materials. This limitation shall not apply in cases of intent or gross negligence.

The statutory liability for personal injury and defective products is not affected. SAP has no control over the information that you may access through the use of hot links contained in these materials and does not endorse your use of third-party Web pages nor provide any warranty whatsoever relating to third-party Web pages

Weitergabe und Vervielfältigung dieser Publikation oder von Teilen daraus sind, zu welchem Zweck und in welcher Form auch immer, ohne die ausdrückliche schriftliche Genehmigung durch SAP AG nicht gestattet. In dieser Publikation enthaltene Informationen können ohne vorherige Ankündigung geändert werden.

Einige von der SAP AG und deren Vertriebspartnern vertriebene Softwareprodukte können Softwarekomponenten umfassen, die Eigentum anderer Softwarehersteller sind. SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, Business ByDesign, ByDesign, PartnerEdge und andere in diesem Dokument erwähnte SAP-Produkte und Services sowie die dazugehörigen Logos sind Marken oder eingetragene Marken der SAP AG in Deutschland und in mehreren anderen Ländern weltweit. Alle anderen in diesem Dokument erwähnten Namen von Produkten und Services sowie die damit verbundenen Firmenlogos sind Marken der jeweiligen Unternehmen. Die Angaben im Text sind unverbindlich und dienen lediglich zu Informationszwecken. Produkte können länderspezifische Unterschiede aufweisen.

Die in diesem Dokument enthaltenen Informationen sind Eigentum von SAP. Dieses Dokument ist eine Vorabversion und unterliegt nicht Ihrer Lizenzvereinbarung oder einer anderen Vereinbarung mit SAP. Dieses Dokument enthält nur vorgesehene Strategien, Entwicklungen und Funktionen des SAP®-Produkts und ist für SAP nicht bindend, einen bestimmten Geschäftsweg, eine Produktstrategie bzw. -entwicklung einzuschlagen. SAP übernimmt keine Verantwortung für Fehler oder Auslassungen in diesen Materialien. SAP garantiert nicht die Richtigkeit oder Vollständigkeit der Informationen, Texte, Grafiken, Links oder anderer in diesen Materialien enthaltenen Elemente. Diese Publikation wird ohne jegliche Gewähr, weder ausdrücklich noch stillschweigend, bereitgestellt. Dies gilt u. a., aber nicht ausschließlich, hinsichtlich der Gewährleistung der Marktgängigkeit und der Eignung für einen bestimmten Zweck sowie für die Gewährleistung der Nichtverletzung geltenden Rechts. SAP übernimmt keine Haftung für Schäden jeglicher Art, einschließlich und ohne Einschränkung für direkte, spezielle, indirekte oder Folgeschäden im Zusammenhang mit der Verwendung dieser Unterlagen. Diese Einschränkung gilt nicht bei Vorsatz oder grober Fahrlässigkeit. Die gesetzliche Haftung bei Personenschäden oder die Produkthaftung bleibt unberührt. Die Informationen, auf die Sie möglicherweise über die in diesem Material enthaltenen Hotlinks zugreifen, unterliegen nicht dem Einfluss von SAP, und SAP unterstützt nicht die Nutzung von Internetseiten Dritter durch Sie und gibt keinerlei Gewährleistungen oder Zusagen über Internetseiten Dritter ab. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

closing cockpit

Documents

systems sap

sap software solutions

platform sap

financial information

insight financial

financial close breaking

financial reporting

closing excellence