In dynamic markets with short product lifecycles, the management needs recipient-specific and controlling-relevant information in the most consolidated form possible at increasingly shorter intervals. This is critical to success in order to be able to make targeted, sound decisions on the basis of increasingly complex circumstances.
In practice, there are often numerous obstacles to setting up an inter-company reporting system. Often, decision-relevant information is not available or only available in insufficiently reliable data quality or can only be made available through great manual effort. The strong commitment of resources in the preparation of data for the reporting and the tight time restrictions mean that there is no in-depth or value-adding commentary on the figures.
Different divisions, departments or subsidiaries consciously or unconsciously use different key performance indicators and controlling approaches. This results in different interpretations and discrepancies. Thus, undefined specifications and responsibilities lead to the uncontrolled proliferation of “grey reporting,” and an increase in unstructured data leads to an information overload. A divergence between the demand for information, the need for information and the supply of information is the result and can have far-reaching effects on the success of a company.
The following measures and recommendations for action are seen as critical to success:
The contents of the report should be systematically aligned with the controlling logic of the company. An analysis of the critical business drivers should therefore be at the beginning and at the center of the development of targeted management reporting. The introduction of segment reporting and the integrated profit center and cost center structures generate additional stringent and company-wide views and create controlling transparency. In addition to deviation analyses and actual data, future-oriented outlooks and alternative courses of action should also be presented in the reports.
In addition, the visual processing of data, in the form of tables and graphs, is becoming increasingly important, as it supports a fast and intuitive understanding of information in the reports to the best extent possible.
In addition to the alignment of reporting with the specifics of the company, the individual (internal) recipient of the report or decision-maker is critical for an effective and controlling-relevant reporting structure. Clearly defined key performance indicators, specifications and responsibilities for the preparation of reports as well as uniform accounting standards and identical views for internal and external accounting will strengthen the comparability of the figures and create transparency in terms of the basis of the data.
The use of new innovative reporting technologies, such as (mobile) self-reporting, big data and predictive analytics, offer new and more in-depth analysis options, especially for ad-hoc requests, and can generate decisive competitive advantages. However, dealing with these new technologies also reveals new challenges. A structured information management as well as the intelligent use of available information become the decisive factors for success. The central administration of master data enables stringent and high-quality reporting. In addition to the reliability of the master data, a decisive factor for success is also the assurance of high booking quality.
WTS Advisory will support you holistically in setting up or realigning your reporting to achieve effective, efficient and future-oriented management reporting. Depending on the starting point for your company, we will work with you to carry out a report inventory and an analysis of the current reporting processes and systems. Or we will jointly derive a top-down reporting target image for your company based on our expert knowledge and best practice approaches. Our proven technical and process experts, their technical know-how and our partner network will let us accompany you throughout the derivation and harmonization of a targeted and clearly defined reporting system and the establishment of a single point of truth, as a basis for efficient reporting. We use the latest technologies, such as SAP S/4 HANA, to set up a central and harmonized finance system (Central Finance), for example, and modern BI solutions, such as Jedox, to set up visually supported reports.
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