as discussed during the last CFO Round Table meeting, I wanted to follow up on the reporting of data for the new Cash Flow statement on a monthly basis.
To bring the discussion back to your mind, let me summarize the facts.
Currently your teams are reporting statistical information on certain accounts every month which allow CF to analyse the differents between last month liquid funs + ONCF and this month liquid funds.
The new (direct) Cash Flow statement, which will be required for half year and year end closing, addresses the same question in a much more comprehensive and coherent approach.
CF would like to use the greater detail of the new Cash Flow statement to enable a more thourough and clearer reconciliation of our liquid funds (currently deviations of almost 10 million EUR in any given month are possible!)
During the CFO Round Table some of your raised the concern that this will lead to an increased workload for your accounting teams.
We then discussed three alternatives:
Monthly usage of the new Cash Flow statement (and an end to the usuage of those statistical accounts which were used so far and are not part of the new cash flow statement)
Continuation of the "old" reconciliation accounts in every monthly close and additionally reporting the full extend of information with half year and year end reporting to fullfill the legal requirements of the new Cash Flow Statement (which will lead to the maximum extend of statistical accounts to be reported)
Use the new cash flow statement every quarter and only reconcile the liquid fund quarterly
The third option was ruled out as liquid fund reporting has to be done for each MABEG meeting and this would increase the required frequency for the quarterly reporting.
In order to assess the two first options, please find the attached Excel for further information. The file indicates, that there are several statistical accounts which are currently reported mostly in order to satisfy information requirements of CF and shows how these accounts are either part of the new Cash Flow calculation (highlighted in green) or not (highlighted in orange). There is an even split between statistical account information from the current approach which will become redundant with the new Cash Flow statement and those which will continue to be used. Additionally there is a significant share of further accounts required for the new Cash Flow statement (highlighted in blue).
Given the fact that option 2 would require your teams to report basically the same information in two different account structures depending on whether or not it is half year and year end close or just a monthly close, I strongly advice for Option 1. In my opinion the duplicate reporting structure will only lead to confusion and errors. I am also convinced that the monthly reporting of the new cash flow statement will help to increase the quality of this important part of the legally required external reporting piece.
Your teams have been asked to report the new structure for May close in an Excel template provided by CCA. Strating from half year close, the new structure will be available in MARS and has to be filled for June anyways. I would suggest to continue this process for July and August and discuss the results in the September CFO meeting.
Please discuss this with your teams and come back to me by the end of this month.