Better prepared for S/4 Hana with Continuous Accounting

Continuous Accounting provides comprehensive transparency at all times, takes the peak workload out of the closing process, and increases data quality.

The basis is a highly automated record-to-report process, on the one hand to speed up the processes and on the other hand to ensure a much higher level of security in the figures.

However, continuity in accounting will only be achieved when all manual processes have been eliminated and the reconciliation of table data from a wide variety of sources is old news.

This applies not only to the optimization of existing ERP and CPM/EPM environments, but especially when switching to a new financial system.

Especially when switching to SAP S/4 Hana, for example, companies have the rare opportunity to climb very elegantly to a much higher level of automation in accounting.

The conversion to S/4 is a complex task. And when you take this complex step, you ultimately want to achieve an optimal result.

And this is where continuous accounting and process automation come into play, which should be initiated and implemented even before the actual changeover.

But what exactly are the requirements and where do you start? The first step is to choose an automation solution that is tailored to the closing process.

One therefore also speaks of a purpose-built solution. The following aspects are important: The automation solution should have all the necessary interfaces and functions, such as a closing calendar, substantiation, matching and automated journals, ideally within one environment.

In addition, a reliable financial close layer that also includes a high-performance sandbox environment is desirable. Because only with this can new processes, balance and transaction reconciliations, journal management procedures and group-wide accounting steps be simulated and tested securely and without problems in accounting and IT.

The next step is to transfer as many manual processes as possible to the automation solution. Until the changeover, many companies use manual lists - mostly Excel - for data reconciliation and transfer of data from ERP systems to their CPM/EPM systems.

A finance control and automation platform eliminates the need for this and consistent process automation of financial close processes can be achieved - even before the conversion to S/4.

Finally, the optimized and automated processes with the new financial system are either transferred from the existing ERP system to the new one or run in parallel for a certain period of time.

It is therefore advisable to rely on a solution that can operate ERP independently. The result: manual, time-consuming diligence using lists is eliminated and the financial experts can focus on analyses, reporting or advising management.

In addition, the financial managers now work with up-to-date figures at all times and with a much lower risk of error. Continuous Accounting gives companies full transparency in the closing process at all times, which was previously not possible due to the many manual steps involved. The integrity of reports and financial statements is increased and ensures that the books are closed more quickly.

Modern systems make the migration to S/4 much easier and they work with any system landscape. It doesn't matter whether you worked with SAP ERP or SAP R/3, Oracle or Microsoft Dynamics before the changeover.

They thus close the gap between ERP or S/4 Finance and CPM/EPM solutions. If automation is already in place before the changeover to S/4, the finance and accounting function is well prepared and will benefit from a new work experience after the changeover, as the manual reconciliations dubbed as diligence work are no longer required. At the same time, this leads to greater attractiveness in the workplace and opens up the opportunity to attract and retain interesting employees.