Confidence in Financial Control with ACL

© 2014 Consider Solutions All rights reserved.
Solutions for World Class Finance
Confidence in Financial Control with ACL
“Exception Analytics for the CFO”
18th February 2014

Welcome
Today’s Speakers:
‐
2 © 2014 Consider Solutions All rights reserved
Robin Ashby
Practice Leader, Financial Control
& Assurance
Consider
Dan French
CEO
Consider

solutions for world class finance
Business Streams
‐ Financial Control & Compliance
‐ Risk Assurance
‐ Finance Process Optimization
Technology Enablement
‐ INFOR Approva
‐ SAP
‐ Oracle
‐ ACL

Clients

World
Class
Finance
Business Results
Cost of Finance
Cash flow
Risk Management
We are all on the road to World Class Finance
© 2014 Consider Solutions All rights reserved5

Today’s Discussion
Introductions & Objectives
Visibility over Financial Processes & Controls
Lenses of Insight
High Impact Analytics with ACL
Entry Points for Deeper Insight
Q&A

Survey Question - 1
How would you characterize your data analytics
maturity as an organization?
1. No current capability – Investigating
2. Early efforts – Exploring & Learning
3. Some ad-hoc business wins – Value Proven
4. Developing techniques, best practices & organizational
capability
5. Mature & sustained organizational capability

Financial Control, Assurance & Insight . . .

What we know, what we think we know and
what we need to know
Analytics provide insight beyond stratifying,
summarizing and reporting data.
A tool to leverage change in the business process.
A safeguard against misappropriation of assets.
Improve the quality of questions asked by
management.
Isn’t this just Business Intelligence?

3 Lenses for Visibility
Process & Control
‐ ICFR
‐ SOX
‐ Data Governance
‐ Control Self Assessment
Risk Assurance
‐ Fraud
‐ Error
‐ FCPA
Finance Process Optimization
‐ Eliminating Waste
‐ Driving Simplification & Standardization
‐ Optimizing Cash Flow

Survey Question - 2
What is your primary business objective for data
analytics?
1. Improving Audit process
2. Improving financial control & management
3. Cash recovery – duplicate payments, credits etc.
4. Improving business process insight
5. Business performance improvement

Best Practice in Managing ACL Analytics
Analytic Objectives – the roadmap
Business Process Maturity – what do you really look
at today?
Start Small – Well built, small analytics convince the
skeptic and build credibility
Define Success – the signs on your roadmap
Sustainable – Incorporating analytics in the business
process.
Reporting – who, what, when, how, and why

Biggest Wins with Analytics
Data Quality
‐ Duplicate vendors, customers, invoices
‐ Incomplete data
Risk
‐ Access reviews
‐ Expense management
‐ User provisioning
Operational efficiency
‐ Revenue recovery
‐ Working capital analysis (cash conversion cycle)
‐ Inventory movement

Example Best Practice Analytics with ACL
Order to Cash
‐ Customer deduction and payments and A/R subledger
analysis.
Master Data Review
‐ One time vendors, employee-vendor relationships, VAT
ID validity, customers with No Credit Limit, Orders over
the Credit Limit, Average time to Pay versus the
Customer Terms, Inactive Customers, and Customers
with No Address.

Example Best Practices with ACL
Disbursements –
‐ Summary of payments by vendor, duplicate payments,
average days to pay per vendor, payments entered into
the system before the invoice document date, payments
with no description, and more.
User Provisioning
‐ Terminations, new users, changes.
FCPA
‐ Vendor, customer, employee data review

Starting from scratch: What to expect
Dedicated Analytics team?
Specific knowledge of the source data?
Expertise with analytic software? (Not Excel)
Business Process Owner buy in?
Report Consumption – who and how often?
Process for accepting new requests?
Which Analytics to start with?

Example - Manual Journal Entries
BSEG + BKPF – sorted on highest dollar amount
•Combine Header and Detail Record
•Exclude auto postings
•Verify local authorization and review process

Example - Current valid users…except

…..7 terminated employees
These accounts had write
access to the payroll system,
although AD accounts had been
disabled, substantial risk
remained

So What?
Are you performing the Top 15 Analytics?
1. Top ten expense categories
2. AP Expenses multiples of $10, $100
3. Inactive vendors (within 18 months)
4. Duplicate Vendors (match on address, tax ID, name,
vendor #)
5. Employees as Vendors
6. Vendor Payment method – non electronic
7. Banned Vendors from OFAC list

Top 15 Analytics (Cont.)
8. Vendors with excessive invoices for the year
9. Duplicate payments – same vendor, amount,
invoice #, different date
8. Journal Entries by unusual or generic user names
9. Stratify Inventory movement types
10. Benford analysis of PO amounts
11. User Access – terminated vs. current system users
12. CIP with credit balances
13. Employees paid beyond termination date

Survey Question - 3
What is your highest priority/return business process
for data analytics?
1. Expense Cycle – Purchase to Pay
2. Revenue Cycle – Order to Cash
3. Record to Report – GL & General Accounting
4. Anti-Bribery & Corruption
5. Other

But its not just about tools . . . .
Education
Governance
Management Process
Stakeholder buy-in
Ensuring Commitment
Roadmap for Analytics

Analytics Roadmap
Identify existing analytics, script and develop
existing data into new data expectations.
Include focused process analytics to key business
drivers – PTP, OTC, FCPA, Revenue Recovery, etc.
Knowledge and skill transfer/training, augmentation.
Establish an analytics roadmap with base, or next
level analytics required by process, group, region, or
enterprise.
Implement a best practices scalable framework to
provide flexible and repeatable data analytics.

Hits & Myths
1. Analytics are too complicated
Analytics are built block by block
Start small, understand the discrete processes
Share results
2. We can do this internally with our current team
It requires time, knowledge and perspective
Day jobs trump analytics until they are real
Driving acceptance
3. What is the business case for analytics?
Process maturity
Show me the results
Sustainability and cost

Things to Consider . . .
Where are you in your analytics capability today?
How well are you doing against your peers?
How strong is your business case?
What should your next steps be?
These are not rhetorical questions !

Review
Introductions & Objectives
Visibility over Financial Processes & Controls
Lenses of Insight
High Impact Analytics with ACL
Entry Points for Deeper Insight
Q&A

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The
leader adjusts the sails.”28

Any Questions?
Enjoy the journey!
dfrench@consider.biz
Blogerati can visit . . .
www.consider.biz/thinking/
@consider_ations
#worldclassfinance

Confidence in Financial Control with ACL

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (17)

Ähnlich wie Confidence in Financial Control with ACL

Ähnlich wie Confidence in Financial Control with ACL (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Confidence in Financial Control with ACL