Introducing: Fast Close by CODA

The mySAP™ ERP application from SAP AG already provides support for your fast close, through its general ledger (GL) structure, report scheduling and consolidation tools. Now CODA – in support of SAP® solutions – has taken this further, producing a software solution that manages the processes that take place outside of the GL itself.

Fast Close by CODA helps control, speed up and even automate processes that are currently manual or involve input from people or other systems in your finance department, beyond finance or even from outside organizations. It offers SAP customers a streamlined, better-controlled period close, helping to make your financial period-end processes more visible, repeatable, controlled and auditable.

Fast Close has now been tested and certified for integration with SAP NetWeaver® Portal and can be up and running as part of your SAP solution-based environment in just a few days.

The month-end close can be time consuming and demanding for any finance team, including those using powerful SAP® applications. Thanks to CODA’s experience and unique insight into the finance function, combined with new technologies from Microsoft, we can now offer a solution that will make a real difference.

Unlike other month-end products, Fast Close by CODA addresses a vital and overriding aspect of period close – that it is a complex process: of collaboration between individual people; of chasing, collecting and confirming; of hassling and haggling; and of retyping and reformatting. Unless these issues are recognized and solved, then closing the books will remain a resource-hungry drain on your finance function.

Fast Close integrates with the SAP NetWeaver® Portal and harnesses proven and familiar Microsoft® technology (including Outlook, InfoPath® and, where required, SharePoint®) to:

• deliver efficient collaboration between all stakeholders and participants in period end
• streamline, automate and integrate period-end processes
• bridge the gaps between insular systems and inaccessible data across the organization.

Speeding up the completion of repetitive and manual tasks benefits the finance function itself, by freeing up staff to do other things with their time. It also provides the business with faster access to information to help in decision making.

All in all, it’s exactly what you need to ensure the finance department can spend less time adding up your bottom line and more time adding to it.

Fast Close – full control

Closing the books forms the basis for financial reporting, management reporting and statutory reporting. It is also the essential foundation for other activities across the organization, like performance management, compliance and corporate governance. Sarbanes-Oxley, IFRS and Basel II mean that reported information needs to be produced more reliably – through a consistent, repeatable, quality-oriented process. It is no longer acceptable to throw figures together and chase imbalances through a series of hurried checks.

If you look at what happens in a typical period close, it is quickly apparent that its impact goes far beyond the finance department, as accountants chase individuals across the enterprise to check and double check that:

• sales forms, invoices, timesheets, etc. have all been submitted and input
• sales and stock have been correctly accounted for
• the numbers are correct
• the numbers are really correct!
• and so on…

The larger or more complicated the organization, the more inefficient and time consuming the whole process can be.

As well as gathering information from all over the business, another important factor is that authorization often needs to be obtained for some of the numbers presented in the month-end figures (e.g. bad debt provision may need to be signed off by the business head or Finance Director). Fast Close by CODA supports both these elements and offers an effective schedule for achieving them.

With Fast Close by CODA, customers SAP® solutions gain the reassurance that these processes are fully defined and documented. This achieves consistency of approach and provides visibility, so that over time it is possible to identify areas of inefficiency or bottlenecks and devise ways to address them. It also enables the Financial Controller to plan a timetable for the close (when to stop booking, when to calculate supplier position, when to calculate bad debt position, when to calculate accruals etc.) taking into account how tasks impact upon each other.

Fast Close in action

Bringing new levels of collaboration, automation, repeatability and control to period end…

CODA’s specially developed task management system drives and co-ordinates the processes, ensuring that disparate processes all come together in one place. The shared, secure website dynamically reflects the data in your finance system and the system automatically generates forms both for predictable, regular activities involved in period end and for any unexpected variances, as soon as they occur. Tasks can be dependent on values within your SAP® financials application, or can offer those values for review. Reviewed and/or calculated results can be posted back into the consolidated results. This is a major step forward from today’s simplistic workflow systems. It enables you to specify not only the tasks but also the sequence in which they are to be carried out. The forms are automatically directed to the relevant managers and designed to assist and encourage swift completion.

As each task is completed, and then approved by the finance department, the relevant data is automatically posted to the books (where appropriate) and the period-end website updated accordingly. Where the task has others dependent on it, its completion also triggers the next task or tasks in the sequence.

Your period close can become more:

• Visible & coordinated – Fast Close takes a project plan for any financial process and automatically generates a shared secure website, enabling each participant to see the relevant information for each procedure (depending on that individual’s role and access rights). This includes details of the people involved, as well as the tasks, statuses and attached documents.

• Repeatable & refinable – the starting point each time is your own best practice model for the process. All the steps are set out, so each one can be followed in the same order each time – guaranteeing consistency. They can also be easily fine-tuned to further improve their efficiency and effectiveness – without needing to learn specialized programming skills or constantly call upon in-house IT resources!
• Controlled & integrated – each task can be assigned to owners, along with timescales and dependencies, whilst keeping all participants informed of what input is needed and when. This includes automated emails to prompt actions by participants and the ability to control the process while it’s happening – for example to reassign a stalled task. It is particularly effective for complex processes where collaboration between many people is involved.
• Auditable & secure – every documented step in the process has an “owner”, and each change made is recorded in a tamper-proof audit trail to show what was done, when and by whom!