Case Study One | Cashcow

Cashcow CFOs were roped in to fix the existing accounting systems for enabling quicker closure of books and production of timely accurate reports.

Finance function transformation| Process Structuring Financial Reporting | ERP & Accounting System Implementation

Situation :

The accounts department of the client, a manufacturing concern, was unable to generate reports as required by the management due to lack of synchronisation of the ERP and accounting system. The monthly closure of books was also a tedious task for the accounts team. The management often spotted errors and irregularities in reports and failed to hold responsibility due to lack to audit trails.

Our Approach :

1. Firstly, we met the accounts team and visited the factory of the client to understand the data capture points and existing accounting practices.
2. We found gaps between accounting software and ERP, lack of access-restrictions and segregation of duties.
3. Basis our observations, we drafted an elaborate plan to integrate all the existing processes with the ERP, by activating all of its modules and bridging the gap between the accounting software and ERP.
4. We implemented a robust mechanism for mirroring the ground level operations in the ERP to avoid any data gaps, setting up KRAs to avoid conflicts regarding scope of work, enforcing restriction of accesses and implementing a maker checker policy to reduce chances of errors and frauds.
5. We synced the masters of the ERP and accounting software, and linked both of these to facilitate direct posting of entries. This helped save time and cost without hurting accuracy of data and controls over it.
6. After understanding the requirements of the management, we got custom reports designed in ERP and enabled automatic mailing of these reports to management regularly for monitoring and control purposes.
7. Enabled a seamless flow of the billing data from accounts to factory without requiring the factory staff to access accounts and instated a system of bill approval to avoid any frauds and errors.

Result :

Setting up data flows and a maker-checker model reduced errors and delays in report generation. Syncing the ERP with accounting software and setting up a module for recording invoices in HO (instead of factory) reduced the time lag further. This helped the client to close its books of accounts by 10th of the subsequent month and enable the management to revise its plans and take prompt corrective actions.