When I started working in XXX, the company was going through a transitional period with its accounting software SAP. The company had been using SAP for a while but wanted to expand its potential and capability to extract the financial data in real time to adapt to the ever-changing markets they were in. The company had been using SAP for processing financial transactions. However, the extraction of data was always done manually on a spreadsheet. The analysis on the financial data was limited and minimal. No regular management report was produced, and data was not analysed at a detailed level. 

The first part of the exercise was to identify a compatible data house to link up with the current system. We discussed and examined the current capability of the system and the potential requirements in term of financial reporting for the company. The recommendation I was involved in was to create an interactive platform which allowed the user to directly input the required data into the system. It would save inputting time via the central office and the result would be instant. We had to go through a few options in the market and attend several meetings with the providers. The company settled with SAP’s system called Business Warehouse.  

The company decided to purchase the new data house and reporting software attached to the current accounting system. My responsibility was to work with the IT departments linking up the system and making sure the required data was correctly transferred to the data house. This required several backs and forth tests to ensure nothing was missed or obscured by the system. Time was allocated to make sure I had regular meetings with the specialist to ensure the project progressed. 

I also had to identify the company’s requirements regarding reporting and design the report format either manually or working with the IT department to create it on the system. The outcome of the report not only had to be suitable for the finance department but various non-financial stakeholders. Hence, the design had to be user-friendly and easily understood. 

When the system was installed and ready for use. We selected several departments to test out the new system in order to iron out some small mistakes we hadn’t been able to identify during the setting up or design process. The training manual was written by myself detailing how to use the system for finance and non-finance staff. Training sessions were also run by myself to various departments to ensure their understanding and usage of the system. Ongoing support and advice were given to staff from my team and myself.

During the launch process, the feedback from the users helped us to identify improvements needed in the system. I was responsible for taking this feedback to the IT department and working with them to correct any mistakes in the system or modifying it for better usage.

When Lilian started her role as Group Commercial Accountant, one of her main tasks was to change the current manual process of producing financial information for stakeholders to a computerised and automated system. The existing financial information was not sufficient to give the business units or management enough insight of the business to react and make quick decision. She also needed to identify and review the current requirements of the company and redesign the financial reporting, which up to this point was only consolidated at a very top line view, in order to tailor various different needs from the company. 

This was a significant task and time consuming. It also required a cultural change for the company as many of the stakeholders did not receive any real financial information, only the senior management at a top line level. The sales team also had minimal financial information feeding back to them regarding their performance against their budget. 

Lilian took on the task to make the required changes in reporting. She worked with IT specialist to create a new reporting platform so the data can be extracted from our current accounting software to this new platform and produce various financial reports.

I can confirm Lilian was involved in the changes on the accounting system in the company. 

She worked with the IT department in designing the new reporting system and the budgeting system for the business. 

She worked closely with the internal stakeholders to establish the requirement on financial reporting and the budgeting system for both financial and non-financial stakeholders.  

She also involved in testing the system, bringing improvements to the system and training internal stakeholders to use the new system.