Tip Doctor, Insider Learning Network

Month-end closing activities can be a time-consuming and resource-draining process for a lot of financial teams. SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation, however, can help facilitate month-end closing and consolidation activities to help reduce both the time and costs invested every month-end.

In his BPC Bootcamp presentation, “Reduce closing and consolidation costs and timelines: An illustrated guide,” David Dixon offers several best practices for leveraging SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation, and other helpful work-arounds, for reducing the time to takes for you to close the books:

•    Here are six ways to reduce cost and timelines via faster cycle times:

1. Automated eliminations and consolidation of investments
2. Integration to SAP ERP via SAP NetWeaver BW for faster data loads of recent data, including delta change record handling and trickle feeds
3. Drill-back to SAP ERP, Excel reconciliation, and Remote Cube reconciliation for better reconciliation and greater transparency
4. Flexible OLAP-based reporting and analysis capabilities including integration with separately licensed SAP BusinessObjects tools
5. Integration with separately licensed Intercompany Matching for faster peer-to-peer intercompany reconciliation
6. Integration with separately licensed Disclosure Management for more compliant and automated reporting

•    Here are three ways to reduce costs and timelines through flexibility:

1. Easy to create new applications and data models
2. Flexible business rules and script logic for consolidation postings adaptive to statutory changes
3. Easy-to-adapt reports through Excel functionality