Making Collaboration Work in Your Financial Consolidation and Disclosure Processes
Executive Summary
Financial consolidation has become an ever tougher first stage in the Last Mile of finance,
particularly for international companies and those in financial services. The Finance group
is stressed by tighter deadlines, more reporting requirements, and multiple national GAAP
standards that are shifting in reaction to IFRS, as well IFRS itself. The XBRL reporting mandate
is also among the causes.
Disclosure is a quicksand trap waiting in the Last Mile. More people must participate in disclosure
than in the past: investor relations, sales, legal, accounting, and others. They have varying
knowledge of disclosure requirements, and few tools to guide their collaboration and help ensure
consistent disclosures. Disclosure remains time-consuming, tedious, and a risk area. Collaboration
in disclosure tasks is important, especially when a company is reporting on results from far-flung
operations.
A consolidation application should deliver specific benefits in the near-term, mid-term, and longer-term.
Any consolidation system licensed today should, in the near term, reduce the manpower, time and
resources needed to survive a specific closing period, increase accuracy, and meet applicable reporting
and disclosure mandates.
In the financial close, a software system that includes disclosure management workflow can add great
value. Adjusting and disclosing data is where collaboration looms large, and a software solution should
support that interaction with workflow and document version control.
A key guideline: select software that can handle processes and regulatory demands which become more
complicated over time.
