Are you considering outsourcing your financial consolidation?
Preparing consolidated financial statements in today's globalized world of increasingly complex reporting requirements, tighter reporting deadlines, and a lack of skilled resources may pose a challenge for many companies.
To meet your stakeholders' or financial markets' demands, your company may be considering full or partial outsourcing of its reporting and financial consolidation processes.
What needs to be considered prior to outsourcing financial consolidation?
When contemplating full or partial outsourcing of your organization's reporting and financial consolidation, several crucial questions must be addressed.
Among them are the following:
Compliance
Do you know what laws, regulations, and guidance regarding accounting and finance your company must comply with?
Is your company exposed to foreign laws and regulations?
Do you have processes, in-house resources, and know-how in place to monitor changes and ensure ongoing compliance?
Staff and expertise
Is your company facing challenges in recruiting and retaining accounting professionals due to the increased demand on the labor market?
Does your company have sufficient in-house financial expertise?
Is it financially feasible for your company to maintain full-time, in-house financial resources?
Data quality
Do you have the critical financial information to make the right business decisions available in the required quality and within the required time?
Do your company’s international subsidiaries have disparate accounting GAAPs?
Do your group companies apply different charts of accounts?
Do your subsidiaries use different accounting currencies?
Do you have efficient processes and adequate controls for quality assurance in place?
Efficiency
Does your company depend on Excel, or does it use a reliable consolidation software?
Does your company face higher demand for agility in financial reporting?
Is your company required to prepare the consolidated financial statements within a shorter timeline?
Our contribution to outsource your financial consolidation
Scalable service scope, which can be adjusted to the specific needs of your company
Expertise in assisting with complex accounting transactions and disclosure requirements in accordance with Swiss GAAP FER, IFRS, or US GAAP
Suite of tools and methodologies to ensure smooth and efficient compilation of consolidated financial statements
Experienced project managers who ensure an appropriate level of project communication, identification, and resolution of issues, meeting deadlines, and alignment of responsibilities
Audit support
Your benefits
Consolidated financial statements pragmatically tailored to the individual needs and characteristics of your company
Streamlined and uniform consolidation process
Increased control in the preparation of consolidated financial statements with an audit trail
Support in achieving compliance with Swiss GAAP FER, IFRS, or US GAAP accounting and reporting requirements
Short communication channels
Highly skilled resources available for agile project approach
Quick and easy access to a wide range of expert knowledge within KPMG across all disciplines and services
Our approach to financial consolidation-as-a-service
KPMG's Accounting Advisory Services for Corporates team will partner with you to tailor our services to your company's individual requirements.
Typically, our financial consolidation engagements include the following steps:
Our team provides both the methodology and experience to effectively evaluate your current consolidation process and assist in facilitating the implementation of the necessary modifications if required.
Thereby, redundant tasks are detected and avoided. You will thus experience a smooth transition that allows for increased productivity and a satisfactory consolidation solution.
Phase 1: Analysis
- Kick-off workshop
- “As-is” analysis of the current consolidation process, data, reporting requirements and challenges
- Establishing of project management organization
- Compilation of project plan
Phase 2: Design
- Preparation of mock-up financial statements under consideration of the applicable reporting requirements
- Design of the consolidation process
- Design of group reporting package
- Definition of the data requirement list
Phase 3: Delivery
- Compilation of the consolidated financial statements incl. notes
- Preparation of audit trail documentation
- Accounting support with special transactions, where required (e.g. first-time financial statements, mergers and acquisitions, adoption of new accounting standards, etc.)
- Audit support to discuss issues on hand with your group auditors
Phase 4: Debrief
- Debrief session with improvement observations
- Review and adjustments to internal control system (ICS) (optional)
- Planning of interim and annual financial statements preparation (optional)