Financial Close Manager

What is Financial Close Manager?

Financial Close Manager is one of two modules that make up the Oracle / Hyperion Financial Close Management Suite

• Financial Close Manager (FCM) is a web-based tool that centralizes activities that make up an organization's financial close cycle
• FCM streamlines the process of managing all of these close tasks
• Allows direct access to the application(s) required to complete the tasks (via an interactive list or calendar)
• Provides workflow processing to validate that the tasks have been completed properly
• The interface is comprised of easy to use and filter schedules, dashboards, and calendars

These activities include, but are not limited to: Transactional (General or Sub-Ledger), Consolidation (i.e. - HFM), and Reporting

Key Features of Financial Close Manager

• Task Scheduling and Management Feature for prioritizing and monitoring close tasks
• Pre-built dashboards (via Web Interface) with customized views for managing and tracking the financial close
• Interactive Calendars and task lists that can be used to launch applications (such as HFM, FDM) for task management
• Security based on user task (via Calendar, Task List, Gantt Chart)
• Task Automation to schedule various tasks without user interaction (via Integrations)
• Calendars roll-forward to keep continuity with prior year reporting
• Integration with Microsoft Outlook

Process Setup Components

• Setup Security, Periods, Years, Custom Attributes, Alert Types
• Setup Integrations for Links to External Applications
• Define Tasks for a Close Process - setup Task Types
• Define Dashboard views
• Create / Update Templates (and Validate) with repeatable close tasks
• Setup / Update Schedule by pulling from a template and assigning Calendar dates - the Administrator changes schedule status from "Pending" to "Open"
• Process begins - shown on following slides
• Once a task is complete and submission is completed - notification sent to approver for review. Once approved, status is set to "Closed" automatically and next Task begins
• If various alerts are required, the User will activate the alert and proper assignee for resolution is notified
• Report Binder is generated for descriptions of completed tasks and audit information

User Process Scenario - via E-mail

The user receives an email notification of an outstanding task

• The user receives an email notification of an outstanding task
• From the email, the user selects the link for the page where the required process is documented
• The user reviews the instructions for the task and selects the Go to Task link in the Task Actions page to launch Financial Data Management
• The user extracts data through Financial Data Management and loads it to Financial Management
• When the task is completed, the user returns to the Task Actions page in Financial Close Management
• The user enters a comment about the task, answers any required questions before submitting and submits it for approval

User Process Scenario - via FCM

The user receives an email notification of an outstanding task

• The user logs on to Financial Close Management and reviews the tasks displayed in the Dashboard in the My Worklist portlet
• The user clicks the link for an assigned task
• The Task Actions page is launched with instructions for the task, and a reference document (any attached document)
• The user reviews the instructions and the reference document, processes the updates, enters a comment about the task, and submits it for approval
• The system automatically updates the task status and sends a notification to the assigned approver

Approver Process Overview

The assigned Approver receives an e-mail notification of an outstanding task

• From the e-mail, the reviewer selects the link for Review MD&A Input for Services Submission
• The Task Actions page is launched outlining the process.
• The reviewer reviews the document that the user submitted when completing the task to ensure completeness
• The reviewer enters additional comments, reviews answers to questions, and approves the submission
• If there is another level of approval required, the task is forwarded to the next approver. If this was the last required approval, the task completes, and the system runs the next task if it is ready
• The reviewer also has the option to reject a task instead of approving it, in which case the task is reassigned to the assignee

Components of FCM

• Views (Dashboard, Calendars, Gantt, Task List)
• Security
• Years / Periods
• Integration Types
• Custom Attributes
• Alerts (and Types)
• Tasks (and Types)
• Templates
• Schedules
• Report Binders
• Smartview - use for Outlook

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Case Studies

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