Is Your Consolidation and Close Implementation Partner Staffing Your Project With a CPA?
Author: Nayar Ellis | 5 min read | January 4, 2019
With complex, time-consuming processes that need to produce highly accurate results, financial close and consolidation is the bane of many organizations’ existence.
In order to resolve some of these issues, many companies have chosen to join forces with a third-party consolidation and close partner. This organization can help refine processes, evaluate areas for improvement, and implement a sophisticated, mature solution such as Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud Services (FCCS) or Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM).
Since consolidation and close is all about your financial processes, who better to help out with your project than a CPA? Their presence can be invaluable throughout the project. Below, we’ll discuss three reasons why you should look for a consolidation and close partner with a CPA.
The Benefits of Working with a CPA
1. Sanity checks on the data
Due to the difficulty, time, and effort involved, too many businesses are dissatisfied with the outcomes of their financial consolidation and close process. According to a 2015 survey, just 28 percent of organizations say that they fully trust the numbers reported in their financial close.
Financial experts such as CPAs perform an initial review of the financial close numbers and troubleshoot errors. For example, they know to confirm retained earnings rolls and the balance sheet balances. They can take it a step further by checking for sign flip and financial statement classification issues. They can even help users understand the system’s approach to critical calculations such as intercompany eliminations and currency translations in a manner that is meaningful to an end user. In essence, CPAs have the in-depth knowledge of the end reporting needs that can be critical during a project.
2. Industry knowledge
Every organization needs to carry out the financial consolidation and close process, but not everyone has the expertise needed to fully understand it. This is one reason why so many consolidation and close processes are plagued with inefficiencies: because companies simply don’t know how they can do any better.
Having a CPA on-hand to guide you and correct your assumptions is key to the success of your implementation project. CPAs understand the lingo of the financial industry and can help you get the desired results more easily and efficiently. Because they have a wealth of knowledge and experience, they can also point out things that may lead you down the wrong path or issues that you may not have noticed.
3. Better division of labor
Outsourcing and division of labor is key to your success and growth as an organization. For example, you may not have the in-house technical staff to run an IT project yourself – which is why you may have turned to a partner in the first place. Similarly, it makes no sense to spend time reading through arcane financial terminology when you already have a CPA available to help.
When you have easy access to a CPA, you can hand over an outline or idea and have the CPA handle the rest of the work. This allows your employees to focus on their day jobs and devote more time to strategic high-level activities, while the CPA helps move the project along in the background.
Final Thoughts
Although an on-demand CPA is still something of a novelty when it comes to financial consolidation and close projects, the benefits listed above are indispensable to the project’s success.
Don’t just pick a partner who knows how to install the financial software of your choice. Instead, work with a partner who has the in-house experience to advise you on the right course for your project at every step of the way.
Starting to see the advantages of having a CPA for your next consolidation and close cycle? Here at Datavail, we have CPAs on staff who provide all the benefits above and more. Contact us to learn how we can help make your financial processes faster and more efficient.
