Finance teams at international companies face familiar and fixable challenges when it comes to consolidation and close. Modern EPM platforms remove many of the manual bottlenecks and control risks that slow reporting and increase audit effort. Below are the core success factors every finance leader should be watching.
1. Data quality and consistency
Inconsistent accounting policies, multiple systems and divergent charts of account are the root causes of most close headaches. A unified EPM creates a single source of truth, integrating data from different systems and layering GAAP adjustments on top so multi-GAAP reporting becomes repeatable and auditable. Supplemental data can then be entered and validated, ensuring data quality.
2. Intercompany transactions
Manual intercompany matching and eliminations are time drains and error hotspots. Modern EPMs include automated intercompany matching and elimination rules out-of-the-box. Transaction matching in Account Reconciliation and Profit and Cost Management take this to the next level with detailed analysis of transfer pricing.
3. Currency translation
Applying differing translation methodologies to entities with varying functional currencies must be standard functionality. If your EPM solution doesn’t include this functionality out-of-the-box then you need to be looking at alternatives. Oracle EPM Financial Close and Consolidation delivers this functionality on day 1, no rules required.
4. Regulatory compliance and multi-GAAP reporting
Navigating multiple accounting standards and keeping up with changing local legislation demands flexible, auditable solutions. EPM platforms that support multi-GAAP dimensions let you capture and report GAAP adjustments separately and maintain clear audit trails. With Oracle EPM this doesn’t require complex coding, allowing subject matter experts to own and maintain their solution and implement changes over time.
5. Manual Adjustments
Teams should be delivering insight, not wrestling a drawn-out manual consolidation. Many consolidation adjustments are the application of accounting standards, automating them saves repeated effort and reduces errors.
6. Workflows
Many still rely on spreadsheets to track workflows. With tight deadlines, data collection is often missed and local copies in inboxes can be lost, causing confusion. Oracle EPM introduces a task manager solution, bringing offline spreadsheets into the cloud. It can generate detailed task lists, workflows, dependencies and automated validations with assigned roles and responsibilities and dashboards for visibility.
7. Complex ownership structures
Minority interests, joint ventures, equity pick-up and multi-tier ownership structures are routine, and your consolidation tool should handle them without custom workarounds. In Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close, you simply tag entities with the appropriate consolidation method and percentage, and let the platform do the rest.
8. Integration and future tech
Seamless integration with existing systems, strong security controls and an architecture that supports cloud and AI capabilities are now baseline requirements. AI and machine learning (ML) are now tools we utilise daily. Oracle has already introduced AI and ML into their infrastructure, meaning it is immediately available for Oracle Enterprise EPM Cloud users at no extra cost.
If any of these resonate, we will be demonstrating practical, hands-on solutions for each at our one-day Oracle EPM event on 23 October.
If you’d like to see how these approaches could work in your environment, register via our event page or message me directly to discuss your specific challenges and what to bring to the session. Learn more.