What is Financial Consolidation and Close?
The financial close, consolidation, and reporting process can be relatively easy in a small enterprise that is using a single, centralized GL/ERP system, operates in a single currency, and has a simple legal entity structure. However, as organizations grow and evolve in sophistication, the process can become quite complex. In a mid-sized to large enterprise, the financial close and reporting process spans the following activities:- closing out the sub-ledgers (e.g., accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets) and general ledgers (GLs) at multiple locations
- Collecting and consolidating financial results from multiple locations and systems
- Performing account reconciliations, booking the tax provision
- Producing financial and management reports
- Completing statutory reporting and filings to regulators
As organizations grow and evolve in complexity, the financial close and reporting process can cross multiple locations and departments, involve multiple systems, and consume a great deal of the finance team's time and resources. Most organizations execute the financial close and reporting process every month, with additional tasks and even more rigor every quarter. The year-end close then requires yet even more time and effort.
OneStream Software provides a unified platform that simplifies the financial close and consolidation process and enables organizations to modernize Finance, replace multiple legacy applications, and reduce the total cost of ownership of financial systems. OneStream enables Finance teams to spend less time on the mechanics of managing finance processes and more time focusing on driving business performance.
Integrated Financial Data Quality
With OneStream, Financial Data Quality is not a module or separate product, but part of the core platform. When it comes to financial reporting, speed and accuracy are of paramount importance. OneStream's Financial Data Quality Management provides strict controls to deliver confidence and reliability in the quality of financial results.
Financial Close and Consolidation
While most CPM vendors attempt to support financial consolidation using a straight aggregation engine, this approach often fails to scale and perform well in complex organizations. OneStream developed a purpose-built financial consolidation engine that contains the core requirements for true statutory consolidation and is designed to meet the needs of the world's largest global enterprises. OneStream supports strict compliance requirements with comprehensive audit controls on data, metadata, and processes.
Account Reconciliations
OneStream allows customers to attack the challenges in account reconciliations uniquely, with a solution that is completely integrated with the financial close, consolidation, and reporting process. Available as a free download from the OneStream MarketPlaceTM, the Account Reconciliations solution can be integrated into the financial close workflow and leverages data that already resides within the consolidation application.
As a complement to OneStream Account Reconciliations, OneStream's Transaction Matching solution helps accounting teams collect and match large volumes of transactions from two or more sources, identify and resolve differences to accurately finalize period-end balances, and close the books. The solution supports the loading of transaction data from multiple sources via flat files or direct connect, manual or automatic matching of transactions with a configurable, rules-driven approach, and extensive reporting or exporting of results.
Supporting an efficient period-end financial close process is essential to producing timely and accurate financial and operating results for any internal and external stakeholders that require agile decision-making. This might sound easy on the surface, but in a large global enterprise, the process can be very complex. Such a process includes collecting and consolidating financial results from multiple systems, managing currency translations, handling intercompany eliminations, accounting for partial ownerships, and reporting per multiple reporting standards.
Purpose-built software applications to support the financial close and reporting process have been available for over 20 years. Yet many organizations struggle in managing this complex process with spreadsheets and manual work, or legacy financial applications that are inflexible and no longer meet current business requirements.
Organizations that have adopted modern, cloud-based applications for financial close, consolidation, reporting, and other processes have been more successful in streamlining the process, ensuring the accuracy of their financial results. And perhaps most importantly, such organizations have gained the agility needed to adapt quickly to changing business and industry requirements.
Partner SpotLight
OneStream CPM
OneStream aligns to your business needs and changes more quickly and easily than any other product by offering one platform and one model for all financial CPM solutions. OneStream XF employs Guided Workflows, validations and flexible mapping to deliver data quality confidence for all collections and analysis while reducing risk throughout the entire auditable financial process.
Our Company
MindStream Analytics' senior staff was there at the birth of Business Intelligence. We have been part of building Business Intelligence nationally from its humble niche product status to the ubiquitous analytic tool that it is today. MindStream consultants are well versed in reporting and information management and are ready to help you leverage the power of multiple tier-1vendors. From Oracle Hyperion to IBM Cognos, we can help you select and integrate the right tools for you to better understand your information. MindStream Analytics has experience across a wide variety of industries: Business Services, Consumer Products, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Transportation , and Telecommunication. We have the depth and breadth of experience to help you deliver actionable information to users.
Whether you need an enterprise wide Oracle BI Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) rollout, an Oracle BI Apps rollout, or an IBM Cognos ReportNet rollout, MindStream Analytics is here to help you succeed.
Case Studies
Accumen
Thanks to the intervention of MindStream Analytics, Accumen's Finance department can now model their business with a new, more organized structure that isn't conventionally available in NetSuite.
Acme Brick
Acme Brick turned to MindStream Analytics for help implementing OneStream to replace their outdated TM1 solution.
Alterra
Alterra sought the expertise of MindStream to address the challenges they faced in their Capital Planning process.
ATCO Group
Energy conglomerate ATCO operates worldwide in utilities, power generation, and related services.
Avalon
Working with MindStream Analytics, Avalon Healthcare Solutions adopts NetSuite Planning and Budgeting to accelerate budgeting and forecasting processes.
Bayer Health Care
Bayer Healthcare implemented Hyperion Planning and Workforce Planning in 10 weeks to dramatically streamline their Income Statement budget and Workforce Planning process..
BluEarth
MindStream Analytics' partnership with BluEarth Renewables epitomizes the power of technology and collaboration.
Celgene
An Oracle Hyperion Planning Upgrade provides multi-national organization Hyperion Application optimization and stabilization.
Cleaver Brooks
OneStream XF was chosen as the platform that would transform Cleaver-Brooks' Finance processes.
CoorsTek
The collaboration between CoorsTek and MindStream resulted in significant improvements in CoorsTek's financial consolidation and reporting processes.
Elite Body Sculpture
MindStream Analytics' collaboration with Elite Body Sculpture encapsulates the transformative potential of targeted tech solutions in streamlining administrative processes.
Enlyte
Enlyte, a merger of Mitchell, Genex, and Coventry, faced challenges with disparate financial solutions and the need for combined reporting.
Flanders
MindStream Analytics collaborated with Flanders to implement OneStream Consolidation and Reporting solution.
Foley Products
Foley Products was facing a significant challenge with its Excel-based actual management reporting system.
Harte Hanks
The collaboration between MindStream Analytics and Harte Hanks culminated in a highly customized, user-friendly NetSuite implementation.
Interface
Interface used a complex, manual, excel-based FP&A process for monthly review, and the summary data was loaded in OneStream.
Kymera International
Thanks to Mindstream Analytics' assistance, Kymera was able to load all of their data into OneStream and validate it successfully.
MacLean Fogg
MacLean-Fogg partnered with MindStream, a leading implementor specializing in modernizing and optimizing enterprise systems.
MEPPI
MindStream's expertise and experience were sought to conduct a vendor selection initiative focusing on MEPPI's F2023 planning process.
OUAI
MindStream Analytics and OUAI's collaboration showcases the transformative power of strategic technological intervention.
Plaskolite
By migrating to OneStream, Plaskolite has achieved a material reduction in consolidation time and overall Financial Close cycle, eliminated the hours spent compiling and verifying data in Excel, streamlined its Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting model and delivered flexible and timely reporting that enables more strategic analysis of their financial data.
Redwire
Understanding the nuances of Redwire's challenges, MindStream Analytics devised a holistic approach to overcome them. The implementation of NetSuite was just the beginning.
Simon
Simon's existing corporate Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) production application was consolidating at a rate of seven hours, a performance issue causing great headache to corporate Accounting.
Source Code
The successful transition to OneStream revolutionized Source Code's financial reporting.
Subway
Subway collaborated with MindStream Analytics for the NetSuite Analytics Warehouse implementation.
UPenn
MindStream Consulting and AppCare team members are proud be working side by side with UPenn university in accomplishing this implementation and along with continuing our AppCare services after go-live.
USG
USG was an Oracle Hyperion customer realizing that it needed more specialized support for its various Oracle Hyperion applications.
Vantiv
Dividing a hyperion planning application, expanding the hyperion footprint to forecast on the business? Customer categories.
Versant Health
Versant Health engaged MindStream to help resolve the challenges they were experiencing with their consolidation, close, and financial reporting processes.
Virginia Space Authority
The MindStream team implemented the Standard + Workforce NetSuite Planning & Budgeting.
WeWork
MindStream Analytics determined that the best solution was to implement Oracle Essbase Cloud as part of the Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) platform-as-a-service
WindStream
Innovative use of essbase to streamline and connect hyperion financial management for enhanced financial analysis.
XY Planning
MindStream Analytics, well-versed in addressing such challenges, presented a comprehensive Netsuite solution for XY Planning.