Efficiency and accuracy during financial closing are paramount for banks and insurance companies, as time-consuming tasks and human error drain resources and impact profits. Plus, with increased regulatory obligations, remaining compliant is crucial. SAP Fioneer’s Financial Control offers huge potential for streamlining financial close processes with automation, improving data accuracy, and freeing up resources to focus on more strategic tasks.
We explore the benefits of leveraging Financial Control, integrated with S/4HANA, and how this solution helps firms enhance operational efficiency and compliance.
Key challenges banks and insurers face with financial closing
Fragmented systems and disparate data are the main barriers to effective financial closing. Institutions still operating with legacy infrastructure are burdened by manual processes and difficulties demonstrating compliance. Inefficiencies hinder business agility and growth.
A 2023 Deloitte survey found that 47% of financial leaders spent more time on financial close than any other process.
These are just some of the financial close challenges faced by banks and insurers:
- Navigating multiple systems and consolidating numerous data sources
- Manual and error-prone reconciliation and substantiation
- Pressures and complexity of meeting regulatory obligations
- Inefficient task management and accounting standard operating procedures (SOPs)
So, to remain competitive, firms need intelligent process automation, integrated solutions, and a single (reliable) source of truth for data. That’s where utilizing S/4HANA can transform your financial closure operations.
Introduction to S/4HANA and its role in financial closing
S/4HANA is SAP’s powerful ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite that helps businesses integrate core processes and improve decision-making thanks to real-time data processing, enhanced visibility, and advanced analytics. With its built-in AI, machine learning, and automation, combined with a role-based, intuitive interface, S/4HANA’s scalable technology is powering business innovation across industries.
When applied to accounting requirements, S/4HANA’s in-memory database enables seamless data consolidation and real-time capabilities that empower banks and insurers to overhaul outdated systems and processes.
The simplified architecture and automation tools can accelerate financial closure, eliminate data inconsistencies, and relieve teams of resource-intensive tasks. For example, Postbank requires 1-2 fewer days on financing closing and its accounting staff can spend 20% more time on higher-value tasks.
What is Financial Control from SAP Fioneer?
Financial Control is SAP Fioneer’s dedicated product designed to help banks and insurance companies handle the complexities of financial closure. Its integration with S/4HANA provides a centralized solution that streamlines closing processes and improves strategic capabilities.
The foundation of efficient and compliant financial closure is accurate data. Financial Control replaces data duplication, operational inefficiencies, and time-consuming manual tasks with intelligent workflows, automated reconciliation, and improved data integrity that empowers finance teams and delivers value.
Our innovative end-to-end solution consolidates financial data and streamlines account reconciliation, adjustment and substantiation with efficient task and workflow management, backed by a clear audit trail for demonstrating compliance.
How Financial Control transforms financial closing capabilities
We developed Financial Control to meet the needs of financial institutions, helping teams navigate the increasing complexity of financial data processing and compliance. Financial Control addresses key challenges faced by finance teams, significantly reducing manual closing processes and strengthening control and governance, whilst the foundation of S/4HANA eliminates data transfer risks.
The solution standardizes and automates exhaustive reconciliation processes between the subledger, general ledger, and transactional system, giving you a trustworthy and scalable framework for success. Up to 80% of processes can be automated by implementing our platform, based on our estimates.
Benefits of SAP Fioneer’s financial closure software
SAP Fioneer’s direct S/4HANA integration underpins our powerful financial closing software, allowing users to consolidate fragmented systems and transform operational efficiency. Below, we outline the key benefits for banks and insurance companies:
1. Enhance efficiency with real-time processing and intelligent workflows
Financial Control reduces the time to close (by approximately 30%) thanks to intelligent automation workflows and real-time data processing, improving your firm’s agility and enabling teams to complete closure in days rather than weeks.
2. Reduce costly errors with automated reconciliation and data validation
By automating data validation and reconciliation during financial closing, our product helps you eliminate costly errors, inconsistencies, and duplication that occur with manual work, fragmented systems, and disparate data sources.
3. Establish a single source of truth with a centralized, end-to-end solution
Financial Control’s centralized solution provides a single source of truth for data that increases transparency, oversight, and accountability while offering unparalleled data accuracy across reconciliation, adjustments, and substantiation steps.
4. Bolster regulatory compliance
Automatically eliminating data replication lets your finance team report with confidence while Financial Control’s real-time S/4HANA connection provides a comprehensive audit trail, making it easy to demonstrate compliance to internal or external auditors.
5. Improve decision-making and foster growth through advanced analytics
Deploying Financial Control allows you to maximize your SAP S/4HANA investment and get the most out of its powerful automation and analytics tools. Enjoy better decision-making and reallocate resources to focus on growth opportunities.
Summary
S/4HANA presents organizations with a big opportunity to optimize the financial close process, ease pressure on internal resources, and enrich transactional data. SAP Fioneer’s Financial Control product is your one-stop shop for seamless financial closing.
Over 1200 financial institutions trust SAP Fioneer globally, including 50% of the world’s largest insurers. Combining deep financial industry knowledge with advanced cloud solutions, SAP Fioneer offers the best of both worlds – the agility of a start-up and best-in-class technology and expertise.
Unlock S/4HANA’s potential with Financial Control. Enjoy greater operational efficiency and scalability while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. By consolidating systems onto a single platform, you’ll also reduce infrastructure and maintenance costs.
Learn more about our transformational financial close software and see how we can help your business grow.