The Financial Close cycle is one of the critical activities in every organization. Governmental requirements, stakeholder’s expectations and management reports are increasingly putting more pressure on the financial close process. As a result, companies need to deliver their reports faster, more accurately and transparently – because failing to do so may lead to malpractice legal actions.
Sarbanes- Oxley (SOX) Compliance and IFRS conversion are good examples of regulatory scrutiny. To overcome this pressure, organizations have to focus on redefining the financial close process for better results.
Close Cycle Checklist
- Streamline month-end, quarterly and yearly financial close processes
- Increase visibility and transparency in financial consolidation and reporting
- Apply financial controls for error free financial statements
- Identify the list of accounting reconciliations
- Gather reporting requirements from authorities, investors and internal management
With such a comprehensive to-do list, companies find the need to devise an extended financial close where all the activities (from Sub ledger close to Regulatory fillings) are aligned. Some of the leading organizations have already adapted to the extended financial close process, achieving great results.
Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Suite is ideal for the extended financial close process, as it enables faster creation of financial statements with proper governance and accurate numbers. However, there are a few key considerations to ensure success with the tool:
- Prepare a best-practice based process for the extended financial close cycle
- Use Uniform Chart of Accounts structure across the enterprise systems
- Leverage systems integration across the organization to avoid manual effort
- Keep security audit trails and controls in line with the extended financial close cycle
- Provide support details like comments for the financial statements
- Deliver the financial reports in time for internal and external reporting
For more information on our Hyperion services, click here