Case | Reconcile gross margins reflected in financial and operational management reports

Problem

A company in the technology industry keeps track of her performance by analyzing several information systems and- sources. The sales department uses her own sales report, the management works with custom-made reports on product -and project margins and the production department checks their efficiency by using data from their production software.

During the monthly financial close cycle, the finance department aims to explain the financial figures by analyzing the various information systems and- sources. Until recently, this was not an easy task. Every month, a lot of financial figures remained unexplained… which resulted in many discussions during management meetings. Who had the correct financial figures and why was the gross margin in the financial reporting different compared to the one in the operational reporting?

There was a clear need to rapidly and efficiently reconcile and analyze the financial figures with the figures from the various departments. horsum was contacted to design and introduce a new way of working.

Results

horsum enabled the finance department to rapidly and efficiently explain the financial figures – based on operational information sources. There are no more material unexplained figures. In addition, horsum developed a financial management reporting wherein the financial figures are presented in a way that leads to better management decisions.