SAP Business Objects Planning and Consolidation

SAP Business Objects Business Planning and Consolidation (SAP BPC) SAP offers a state-of-the-art Planning and Consolidation software that meets all your needs in budgeting, planning, consolidation and reporting.

SAP BPC features a standardized administration tool for Planning and Consolidation. A homogeneous Excel-based user interface is utilized for creating planning data, uploading or reporting of financial data, and reporting for internal and external purposes.
SAP BPC is available either as a SAP BW based or Microsoft SQL based solution, thus enabling the additional utilization of SAP BW reporting and other BW tools (e.g., unified Master data collection and financial reporting data), promoting the integration of your IT systems.
Using the Microsoft SQL based solution enables non-SAP companies to capitalize on the solid and easy to learn SAP consolidation tool.

Comprehensive solution for planning and budgeting with SAP BO Business Planning and Consolidation

SAP BPC fully supports top-down and bottom-up planning for financial and operational tasks, to further a smooth and on-time financial closing. BPC enables you to conduct strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting, planning consolidation and intuitive and easy reporting.
The implementation cycle can be kept short, because your department is able to customize the tool according to your changing needs, without the hassle of calling in an external consultant. A highly flexible data model and the possibility of directly accessing legacy systems makes for a clearly laid-out planning. You are even able to add or receive comments for reported or planned data. Using the well-known Microsoft frontend tools eases the introduction of this innovative software.

Internal and external reporting with SAP BO BPC

SAP BPC supports all your processes, leading towards an integrated internal and external group reporting. Repetitive processes like reporting data and validations are managed through Business Process Flows (BPF), so no task is forgotten and users will have performed all necessary steps.
A rule-based consolidation enables you to adapt your consolidation processes to your changing needs. All consolidation tasks like currency translation, intercompany elimination, legal consolidation, validations and the like are handled using these rules. The flexibility offered is unique and certainly one of the most interesting features of this solution. SAP offers a Starter kit with predefined rules, making it easier to develop you own rules and to keep the implementation cycle short.
Internal and external reporting uses BPC for Excel, Word and PowerPoint. Depending on the version (Microsoft or BW based) enhanced reporting possibilities through the use of BW or BO reporting is available. The system allows you to run a reconciliation of intercompany accounts before actually consolidating the data, based on group accounts.

SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation (BOFC)

Financial Consolidation is a rule-based tool for statutory and management consolidation. The rule-based approach offers a higher degree of flexibility compared to previous SAP consolidation tools. The consolidation process runs completely autonomously and can be annotated.

The tool offers the complete functionality of a consolidation system: financial reporting data, validations, currency conversion, statutory consolidation and reporting of consolidated financial data. The Packagemanager and an associated report allow easy tracking of the delivery process. A separation into distinctive data pools allows for an easy consolidation by different accounting standards or planning requirements. Minimal time and effort has to be expended to calculate various consolidation scenarios wholly. A complete audit trail is ensured through Audit-IDs, so you can easily track data delivery and calculation.

Reconciliation of intercompany transactions is an inherent feature. A more detailed reconciliation on the invoice level is available through SAP BusinessObjects Intercompany, a web based, interactive software.

SAP offers a Starter kit which encompasses predefined rules, making it easier to develop your own rules and keeping the implementation cycle short. The tool can be used without the need to install further SAP software and can be maintained by specialists within your department without calling in external consultants.

Reporting with BOFC
The introduction of quick and comprehensive reporting is simplified by pre-configured reports readily available in your system, considerably shortening your implementation cycle. Available right from the start, are reports for statement of financial position, statement of comprehensive income, equities and movement schedules. They allow for a quick though detailed insight in your consolidated data. Their intuitive handling makes for an easy maintenance by your department.

Enhanced dynamic reporting capabilities, e.g., utilizing drag and drop functionality, are offered by SAP BusinessObjects Cube Designer (prior releases: Extended Analytics). You can extract data from both BOFC for Microsoft SSAS Cubes and SAP NetWeaver BW InfoCubes.

The drawing shows Crystal Reports and Dashboard Designer (Xcelsius) as an example for frontend reporting. However, the use of BEx-Tools and the special Extended Analytics Tool (EPM Add-in for Microsoft Excel, the former EA Analyzer, MS-Excel based) are available.

Further, a UBmatrix interface offers reporting of consolidated data in XBRL-Format.

SAP SEM-BCS - Strategic Enterprise Management – Business Consolidation

Optimal preparation of your consolidated financial data
SEM-BCS enables you to close your statement of financial position according to various financial reporting standards (IFRS, US-GAAP, SWISS GAAP FER, etc.) in parallel while still letting you use common settings for all standards. The use of parallel hierarchies makes it easy to achieve sub-group and consolidated group views, as well as segment analyses and restatements.
Additionally, matrix consolidation enables internally defined organizational units (such as profit centers) to be consolidated and presented in management reports, either individually or together with their legal units. The functionality of the matrix consolidation is unique and exists in this rendition only in SEM-BCS.

High level of data quality/audit functionality coupled with simultaneous streamlining of closing processes (fast close)
Thanks to individually defined validation rules and procedures, with optional local responsibility for coordination of inter-company transactions, data quality can be enhanced while simultaneously reducing the close time - especially due to the high degree of automation of the consolidation measures.

The consolidation processes are all controlled via a monitor designed according to the traffic-light principle and featuring wide-ranging status administration functions. In conjunction with the consistent implementation of the document principle, this leads to a high level of transparency and traceability in your consolidation process and all associated postings.

Future-oriented technology
Thanks to the multidimensional data storage in the SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW), data is available for OLAP-compatible reporting (Online Analytical Processing). This not only lets you realize latest-generation reporting solutions, it also lets you compare data with other SEM components. Thus it is possible, for example, to consolidate data from SEM-BPS (Business Planning and Simulation) in SEM-BCS and to compare it with actual data.
SEM-BCS further provides an external interface to the taxonomies of XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Lan-guage), an emerging XML-based standard to define and exchange information on financial performance.

Extensive analyses
The CubeServ Group employs a team of outstanding specialists for realizing professional reporting solutions based on SAP Business Explorer, which in turn is based on SEM-BCS. The adjacent graphic gives you an overview of the SEM-BCS reporting options that exist in addition to the Excel frontend.

Comprehensive functionality
SEM-BCS is characterized by a high degree of automation, whereby even complex consolidation processes (such as those associated with consolidation of investment) can be displayed according to levels and posted and updated automatically. If the consolidation postings trigger any deferred tax effects, these can also be generated by the system. Finely adjustable authorization scenarios and multilingualism are given as well. Further functionality is regularly provided in Enhancement Packages, which expand on existing functionality.

High level of integration
As an alternative to the manual input of financial statements in local or group GAAP (HBI or HBII), you can extract data from local accounting systems. This is possible not only with SAP R/3 (and/or ECC systems), but also with applications from other providers. Plus, data can be migrated from SAP planning applications.

Open for individual demands
The data model can largely be defined by the customer, including various data categories (e.g., budget, plan, forecast). Also individually configurable are the reporting period and the chart of accounts, including attendant sub-posting assignments such as transactions types for breakdown/flow presentations.

Terminology and Objects in SAP BPC

Application Set

An application set is the starting point for creating any application in SAP BPC. It can be described as a functional area designed to include the applications associated with a segment of the business.

Dimensions

Dimensions represent the entities of a business (e.g., accounts, company codes, and categories); they represent the master, text, and hierarchy data for each of the business entities. Dimensions belong to the application set in which they are configured. It is very important to note that dimensions cannot be used or shared across application sets.

Secured Dimension

A dimension can be marked as secure for an application. When a dimension is marked as secure, specific read and write access has to be granted to users who use the application so they can access the data.

Properties

A dimension is designed to include properties, which provide additional meaning to the dimension. For example, an account dimension can include an account type property to indicate the type of account (whether it is an income account or an

expense account). You can use property values can be used as a selection criterion for reporting.

Dimension Members

The data points associated with a dimension are referred to as dimension members.

Each dimension member record represents master, text, and hierarchy data associated

with the key of a dimension. A dimension member can store hierarchical

relationships with another dimension member in the same dimension, which is very

useful for reporting hierarchical relationships between data. There is no restriction

on the number of hierarchies you can create.

Application

An application is a repository that consists of several dimensions and is used to

meet your planning, consolidation, and reporting needs. The application is configured

based on the specific needs of the business. It is where you interface to plan,

consolidate, and report data.

Data Manager Package

SAP BPC provides standard out of the box functionality to execute common tasks

required for planning and consolidation such as currency translation, intercompany

elimination, and so on. These tasks are executed via a data manager package.

User

A user is an individual who can use the applications in an application set.

Team

A team is a group of users and is created based on the users’ roles. For example, all

of the developers can be grouped together and identified as a team.

Tasks

A number of activities that you can perform in SAP BPC are known as tasks.

Examples of tasks are creating an application set, running a report, configuring

security, and so on. Users are granted access to specific tasks based on their role

in the organization.

Task Profile

Several tasks can be grouped together and included in a task profile. Task profiles

can be assigned to a user or to a group of users in a team.

Member Access Profile

The member access profile identifies data-level access to an application and is relevant

only for dimensions that were identified as secured dimensions in the application.

For each application that includes dimensions marked as secured dimensions, the

member access profile is configured to identify the read and write access available

to users for each of the secured dimensions.

Object Created in SAP Sap BPC Business object Planning and consolidation   Be Planning and Co Planning and Consolidation	SAP BI(Business Intelligence)
Application set	InfoArea An application set in SAP BPC is equivalent to an InfoArea in SAP NetWeaver BW. When a request for an application set is initiated in the SAP BPC frontend, an InfoArea is created in SAP NetWeaver BW with InfoObjects and InfoCubes under it. In SAP BPC, objects added under an application set are not shared across other application sets. In SAP NetWeaver BW, objects created under an InfoArea can be shared by objects in other InfoAreas.
Application	InfoCube An application in SAP BPC is created with respect to an application set and is used for storing transaction data. When a request for creating an application is initiated in SAP BPC, an InfoCube is created in SAP NetWeaver BW
Dimension	InfoObject A dimension in SAP BPC is equivalent to an InfoObject in SAP NetWeaver BW. It is created under an application set and is used for storing master data. Examples include account, product, and customer Dimensions.
Property	Attribute A property is equivalent to an attribute included in an InfoObject and is dependent on the dimension under which it is created. Example: A customer dimension may include a property called “customer group.”
Dimension member	Master data record The dimension member is equivalent to master, text, and hierarchy data in SAP NetWeaver BW.
Master data to store text and hierarchy data	In SAP NetWeaver BW, an InfoObject should be enabled to store text and hierarchy data for an InfoObject. In SAP BPC, a property with the technical name DESCRIPTION is automatically created as a property when creating a dimension to store text data. In SAP BPC, you can create a hierarchy when entering data for a dimension in the Excel worksheet by including the column PARENT(Hn), where n is the number of hierarchies for the dimension.
Unsigned data	Key figure Only one type of object is used for recording quantitative values for transaction data in SAP BPC: unsigned data. This object is equivalent to a key figure in SAP NetWeaver BW.

Relationship between Objects Created in SAP BPC and SAP NetWeaver BW

SAP BPC INTERVIEW SKILL

1How Plan Functions in the SAP BPC,is it any Std Function available at NW . if THERE WHAT those?
2How many types of Consolidations(Legal/Management)
3.Wht is the type of Dimensions is used statutory consolidation?
4.How you do Budgeting and wht the Road map?
5.sales,revenue Planning Process(PCM)?
6.How define the IFRS strategy in Financial Business?
What is the BPF ,When to be Use?
6.how is more effective the Work Status?
7.where execute the process of sales planning?
8.why do u need inter company elim ? what kind of parameter to used?
9 when inter company elimination how investment to be raise different Vendors(Companies,Pub,Prt,Inc)
10.what is Reconciliation Account Tran formation?
11. when to be use BADI And how it is Best to run the R/3?
12.What kind of GAAP Analysis will Work ,when Barrier moving across the Regions?
13.if error is : Config Sql ,what is the error when it is invoke?
14.What is Sarbanes-Oxley product help teh BPC?
15. what is CAPEx ?,
16.What kind of Optimization is More Effective the generating report from SAP BPC?
17.why do u need properties does have BPC,where will define ,why need?
18.how Direct versus Indirect Subsidiaries and the impact on the method of consolidation BPC?
19. Can you Explain the different types of Consolidated Reports
A) Trail Balance vs Balance Sheet $ Income Statement
B)Important Sections of a Balance Sheet
C)Important Sections of a Income Statement
20. Difference between Balance Sheet and Income Statement Eliminations?
21.When a dividend should be eliminated &How a dividend is booked?
22.What parts of a finance organization utilizes financial consolidations?
23.Relationships/Ownership/Groups/Consolidation Methodology ?
24.Why do u need Process chains and how do break when we need adhoc report in sales/revenue planning?
25.) Doing a full process, system goes through 16 steps. The first 15 run fine. Step 16 called Result shows done in 00:00:00 and fails. Only shows a red bullet with a white X and the word fail. There is no error message to tell me what is failing so I have no idea why the step is failing. Suggestions?

26) On the Print and Option sheet of dimension members, how are these populated? When I process the dimension, no changes are made to these sheets.

27). SAP BPC Issue MS version problem.
In BPC, In App Set( App Shel) i have 3 applications.
1) Finance 2)Rate which are in built samples in BPC.
3rd is "My Application" created by me.

Now my problem is: From BPC-Excel in Session Information:
i clicked on C.V :"Application not Set" link. and a window appeared asking to select application from drop down. But is not displaying only "Finance" and "rate" sample applications but not "My Application" which is created by me.

How to resolve the issue?

28) All my non-prod systems (ECC6, BI, SolMan) are running on a VMWare host without any problems. Windows 2003 Server, MS SQL2005 Enterprise have issue not connecting the DB? How to solve?

29) how can config the SAP BPC report Adobe Format ?

30)What is the configuration of th physical server on which VMs run In BPC ?
31)How many VMs with which configuration ?
32)Where is the Data stored. Is it in local disk or SAN ?
33)How many NIC cards are there and how they are configured for the VMs?
34)How are the database servers configured for this VMs IN sap bpc ms version ?
35))What is the Manufacturer Consolidation,How to maintain the Profit in the Organisation ?
36)What is difference Between the BPC 7.0 TO 7.5?

Difference Between Optimizing applications(Lite,Full)

SAP BPC Optimizing applications
When you create new application sets and applications, only a small amount of data exists. As the amount of data you maintain grows over time, we recommend you periodically run the optimize function to improve performance.
Two types of optimization exist — Light and Full.
Light Optimization compresses and indexes the stored data and updates database statistics for system processing.

Lite Optimization


Is a maintenance process similar to the BW InfoCube performance maintenance tasks of index rebuild, statistics rebuilds, and compression.

This process deletes the infocube indexes and moves records from the F to the E fact tables.

This process compresses/collapses the records with the same key

Additional zero suppression is possible (manually adjusted in process chain)

Updates the infocube statistics



There is no set recommendation as to the frequency, however it is generally recommended that these (index/statistics) tasks be executed after the load process to provide satisfactory performance for reporting and input schedule updates.

“There is no rule of thumb for how often to run optimizations. The need can vary depending on the characteristics of your hardware environment and your application.”

As best practice:

When new application sets and applications are created run a Full Optimization.
Lite Optimization doesn’t take the system offline, and can be scheduled during normal business activity (e.g. after a data load)
Full Optimization need the system to be offline so they should be run at down-time periods – for example after a month-end close.
• Full Optimization performs the same operations as Light Optimization. In addition, it checks the NetWeaver BI data model and, if the data model can be improved, improves it. Running a full optimization could take a long time when a large volume of data exists.

Full Optimization


This process essentially rebuilds the application in its entirety. The process creates a new application and copies the data to the new application.

This process is a RESTRUCTURING of the BPC application data model

How does the system determine if a full optimization is necessary?

The algorithm looks at the size of the dimensions and the dimension members. If the dimension tables have <20% size of the fact table and as many line item dimensions are used, then the system will give a message “Optimization not required at this time”.


If the InfoCube needs restructuring – do it, then perform lite optimization

if not, perform a lite optimization

why does the infocube technical name change with the Full Optimization?


Optimize an application by choosing Select Optimize Application from the Manage Applications action pane, then choosing one or more applications and a type of optimization to perform.

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC)

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC):

Features include:
• Legal & management consolidation
• Currency conversion
• Inter-company eliminations
• Multi-tier allocations
• Journal entries
• Reports including P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, and Fixed Assets
• Standards-compliant including IAS, IFRS, FASB, GAAP
• Sarbanes-Oxley compliance
• Logic
• Reports

Most reports in BOP (Business Object Planning) can be replicated exactly in BPC using EVDRE and EVGET functions. Other reports may require some modification in format in layout - however to date, we have not found any reports that cannot be replicated. Input schedules - A key design issue relates to how workbooks can be replicated in BPC. BOP uses the concept of SPM's which provide a powerful way to create variable length input sheets and flexibility. To a large extent, spread rules can be replicated using BPC's Spread data option. BPC provides variable length input sheets using its EVDRE formula. Workflow - BPC uses more sophisticated workflow than BPC - BOP's workflow can be replicated and then enhanced in BPC. Non-validated dimensions - BPC has no concept of non-validated dimensions, i.e. all dimensions must be validated. Therefore the data form design requires to be amended to allow for this type of functionality.

SAP BPC's consolidation features in greater depth:

Currency conversion
SAP BPC enables multinational companies with global entities and subsidiaries to easily – and in real-time – calculate currency exchange rates and perform conversions for any number of denominations. With SAP BPC, converting your data from Euros to Dollars to Pesos takes seconds, not hours.

Inter-company eliminations
Understanding transactions from an inter-company perspective is vital to the integrity of your consolidated statements. This may result in the elimination or re-allocation of any number of your inter-company transactions. SAP BPC provides the tools you need to automate this normally time-consuming process, easily adjusting to the frequency, duration, and amounts of your custom-defined elimination requirements.

Journal entries
Manual and automated adjustments are an integral part of the periodic financial close process in today’s complex consolidation and reporting environment. SAP BPC provides complete support for flexible journal entry, reporting and tracking to meet your complex consolidation requirements.

Unified financial & management reporting
With SAP BPC, certifying your financial (and even operational) performance is now easier than ever. SAP BPC provides any number of standard and custom report templates enabling users to self-generate their reports quickly and easily—without IT or administrator assistance. A full spectrum of report types is available including P&L, Ebitda, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, Equity, and Fixed Assets.

Complex ownership structures
Multinational enterprises face a unique set of consolidation and reporting challenges due to their oft-complex ownership structures. SAP BPC effectively addresses these challenges by providing the ability to report multiple ownership entities by time period, as well as the ability to make automatic adjustments for multiple ownership consolidation methods.

Multi-tier allocations
In order to ensure the accuracy of your financial information, you may need to allocate numbers throughout and across your organization. For example, you may need to re-distribute certain manufacturing costs to R&D. With built-in financial intelligence, SAP BPC can dynamically manage any type, number or measure of allocation.

Data integration (ETL)
With built in data integration and management capabilities (ETL), SAP BPC allows you to tap virtually any data source to access, capture and map your actuals data. Typical data sources leveraged by SAP BPC customers include: General ledger systems such as JD Edwards, Great Plains, and others; ERP systems such as SAP, Oracle, and PeopleSoft; transactional data from CRM, SCM, and other systems; and data from spreadsheets and other financial management products.

Compliance & Sarbanes-Oxley
SAP BPC provides an effective, secure process framework that ensures the highest level of accuracy, reliability, and consistency throughout the whole of your performance process—from budgeting and forecasting through financial close and reporting. Industry experts such as Gartner contends that performance software—like that from SAP BPC—can help in meeting the stringent requirements as set forth by Sarbanes-Oxley including report certification, process control, and faster reporting cycles.

SAP BPC: A comprehensive consolidation solution
Thousands of business users rely on SAP BPC every day to manage their most critical financial consolidation and reporting requirements. Key benefits and features of SAP BPC include the following:
• Unifies consolidated results on both a legal and management basis
• Shaves days and weeks from the financial close process
• Enables regulatory compliance such as Sarbanes-Oxley
• Provides a single, centralized view of operational and financial performance data
• Consolidates data in real-time from any number of general ledger systems and charts-of-account tables—creating a single COA structure
• Provides clear, transparent financial statements and reporting including P&L, cash flows, and balance sheets
• Compares budget-to-actuals data from a single application including assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses
• Automates the inter-company elimination process, providing clear transparency into corporate transactions at all levels
• Manages any number of currencies, performing conversions, allocations and eliminations as needed; supports currency triangulation
• Patented Microsoft Excel integration for intuitive data management and reporting
• Supports all reporting standards including GAAP, FASB, IAS

GAAP

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)

The term "GAAP" is an abbreviation for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). GAAP is a codification of how CPA firms and corporations prepare and present their business income and expense, assets and liabilities on their financial statements. GAAP is not a single accounting rule, but rather the aggregate of many rules on how to account for various transactions.

When preparing financial statements prepared using GAAP, most American corporations and other business entities use the many rules of how to report business transactions based upon the various GAAP rules. This provides for consistency in the reporting of companies and businesses so that financial analysis, Banks, Shareholders and the SEC can have all reporting companies preparing their financial statements using the same rules and reporting procedures.

The rules and procedures for reporting under GAAP are complex and have developed over a long period of time. Currently there are more than 150 "pronouncements" as to how to account for different types of transactions, ranging from how to report regular income from the sale of goods, and its related inventory values, to accounting for incentive stock option distributions. By using consistent principles, all companies reporting under GAAP report these transactions on their financial statements in a consistent manner.
The various rules and pronouncements come from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) which is a non-profit organization that the accounting profession has created to promulgate the rules of GAAP reporting and to amend the rules of GAAP reporting as occasion requires. The more recent pronouncements come as Statements of the Financial Accounting Board (SFAS). Changes in the GAAP rules can carry tremendous impact upon American business. For example, when FASB stopped requiring banks to mark their assets (loans) to the lower of cost or market (i.e. value of a foreclosed home loan). the effect on a bank's "net worth" as defined by GAAP can change dramatically. While generally neutral, there is some pressure on the FASB to yield to industry or political pressure when it makes its rules.
GAAP is slowly being phased out in favor of the International Accounting Standards as the global business becomes more pervasive. GAAP applies only to United States financial reporting and thus an American company reporting under GAAP might show different results if it was compared to a British company, that uses the International Standards. While there is tremendous similarity in between GAAP and the International Rules. the differences can lead a financial statement user to incorrectly believe that company A made more money than company B simply because they report using different rules. The move towards International Standards seeks to eliminate this kind of disparity.

Consolidation Factors

Consolidation Factors

The element of corporate combination which have been identified as likely contributors to a net increase in market value may be categorized as either

"Operating" or "finacial”.

On the operating list would be counted the following:

1) Opportunities for economics of sales or other direct effciences in manfactring:

2) the enchanmcent of competivitate sales positions through augmented monopoly power or the appeal of more

complete product line:

3) a complementarrity in research and basic technological expertise relating to new products:

4)A convenient fit of scarce managerial skill leading to greater administartive effiency.

It seems unarguable that if indeed one or more of these conditions is present in the joining of two enterpries ,

the aggregate profitability of the two will rise ,as should the consequent market value of teh surviving firm.

on the other hand,there has been considerable skepticism expreseed in the literature as to the frequency with

which such benifits are accesible in practice.

1)Random Server Proliferation

2) Physical co-location of system

(Server and Sotrage)

3) Storage consolidation

"Legacy" consolidation of smaller applications

4) Like-workload Consolidation

5) Last and Bravest choice

Mixed workload consolidation

A financial statement which covers a holding company and its subsidiaries is called consolidated Finacial statement.

4.1Background on market power

4.2. Static market power analyses – effects of market concentration on prices and profits

4.3. Dynamic market power analyses – effects of M&As on prices and profits

4.4. The external market power effect

This study examined coping strategies and situational stressors as predictors of employee distress and turnover following an organizational consolidation. Six coping strategies were used: action planning, positive reinterpretation, acceptance, seeking emotional social support, intention to quit, and using alcohol or drugs. Two stressors, the extent to which a unit was affected by the consolidation and consolidation-related stress, were used. Two indicators of distress, mental distress and somatic complaints, were measured at three time periods: three months prior to, shortly after, and six months after the consolidation. The coping strategies were assessed three months prior to and in response to the consolidation. Findings indicated that intention ro quit and consolidation stress predicted mental distress while positive reinterpretation, use of alcohol or drugs and lower unit impact predicted somatic complaints shortly after the consolidation. Six months later, the main predictor of mental distress and somatic complaints was use of alcohol and drugs Turnover best predicted by a pre-consolidation indicator of intent to quit and a post-consolidation indicator of lack of acceptance of the consolidation.

Ensure data integrity. Financial Consolidation allows you to decrease cycle time and improve accuracy by automating the loading, consolidation, and validation of data from multiple organizational units. It also determines the most efficient consolidation paths for you. Because the data and changes are consolidated in a central, secure database, you instantly arrive at a single version of the truth not easily attained using spreadsheets. The application also features built-in calculations for the accurate handling of currency conversions, group ownership, and variances.

Support compliance. Using Financial Consolidation's journal entry capabilities, you can adjust data for consolidation issues, regulatory reporting, and management requirements. The application automatically handles exchange gains and losses, and eliminates consolidation adjustments such as minority interests, joint ventures, intercompany eliminations, and allocations. It also allows you to control the percentage of subsidiaries and associate enterprises that are rolled up, and the rate at which it happens. Financial Consolidation provides a complete audit trail on all consolidation adjustments, allowing you to review changes and providing the transparency needed to satisfy internal and external auditors.

Bringing speed, accuracy, agility, transparency, and insight to the process, BPC Financial Consolidation simplifies the tasks associated with consolidation so finance leaders can spend more time analyzing results and guiding the business—leading to greater return on investment and low total cost of ownership.

Consolidation Factors in Business Planning

Consolidation Factors in Business Planning

organizations large and small have initiated or continued data center consolidation projects. Unlike some other IT initiatives, the benefits from this exercise are clear and well-documented, and include both economic and operations advantages. the unanticipated side effects of data center consolidation and consider a proactive strategy for mitigating those risks prior to completion of the product.

Risk Factor 1: Information Risk

Data center consolidation represents an incredible concentration of information on an infrastructure that’s highly accessible. Remember that not all data is created equal, with some being much more sensitive than others. However, because the economics of the new data center are so compelling, there is now a much broader variety of data within it. research, financial information, and intranet content, and you have terabytes of growing and disparate information all residing within the same data center. The capacity of the new data, along with the continued, rapid growth of information, challenges its ability to be effectively controlled.

Risk Factor 2: Asset Risk
Which assets contain the sensitive information? Great question, especially when we mix in server virtualization and storage area networks (SANs). The benefits of the afore-mentioned technologies are great, but it remains a challenge for most organizations to identify assets which contain some of the critical information we highlighted in Risk Factor 1. This is a major compliance challenge, as identification of critical assets is just as important as identifying the data which they contain.

Risk Factor 3: Access Risk

Organizations often have a vast array of not only authentication techniques, but also of authorization methods. Depending on their information, different assets might require different access methods, which may in turn be incongruous with other technologies in place. To overcome access challenges, numerous technologies are thrown at the problem. These include but are not limited to router access controls, virtual LANs, firewalls, single sign on (SSO), intrusion detection, etc. Whether the information is distributed, concentrated, or virtualized, getting the policy in place for managing access remains a challenge.

Risk Factor 4: Audit Risk

Aggravating these challenges are the ever-increasing audit requirements.It doesn’t matter whether you’re a privately held entity not controlled by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or if you just have sensitive information, you’re going to have to prove that you have the requisite controls in place and that they’re working. Even within a consolidated data center, collecting information is difficult, especially since audit information may have to be correlated with other information outside the data center. Activating specific auditing functionality within point products might not only result in large log files and trigger a number of events, but may in fact impact operational and transactional performance as well.

Moving forward, it’s imperative for a broader array of stakeholders to be involved in the up-front efforts to tackle the risk factors. Though technology is evolving to address these issues, it does not preclude the need for cross-functional planning and a candid assessment of requirements.