2. General accounting and reporting

2. General accounting and reporting
Across General Accounting and Reporting, our analysis showed that
companies using ERP have lower median FTE counts and faster cycle
times. These improvements are further substantiated and explained when
performance is examined in more detail, within specific Finance and
Operations process areas.
• General Accounting and Financial Reporting: Across the entire general
accounting and reporting cycle, the ERP Peer Group demonstrated an
overall decrease in the number of FTEs per US$1 billion revenue (see
Figure 9). The decrease in FTEs for financial reporting was even more
substantial (see Figure 10). Adopting a common financial system
enables organizations to create a enterprise-wide financial language
through consistent data standards across the enterprise, which in turn
makes consolidation and roll up of financial data less onerous and
enables meaningful, objective comparisons across the enterprise.
• Accounting close: The full accounting close cycle was examined, from
production of the initial trial balance to the release of earnings. A
long-standing objective for many Finance organizations is to reduce
the overall accounting period close cycle. Tactical steps to accelerate
the close include addressing materiality thresholds for journal entries,
automating feeds from sub-ledger systems and simplifying the chart of
accounts, to name a few.
• All else being equal across peer groups examined, the adoption of ERP
contributes to speed up the monthly and annual close (see Figures 11
and 12). Likewise, the median cycle time to produce flash reports at the
business entity level was improved