Consolidate in Near Real Time

Financial reporting for the entity was largely done at the consolidated level. The process required a manual reconciliation and an Excel-based reporting template in order to produce financial statements at each month-end. On average, it took 20+ business days (each month) before senior management was able to review consolidated financial information.

The Overlay team approaches automated consolidations in one of three unique ways. This is dependent upon the underlying processes of our clients:

• The creation & maintenance of a separate “reporting” entity containing only intercompany transactions (inverse). This creates a system-generated “combination” net of intercompany amounts.
• Leveraging data flags native to certain ERPs. This allows for the segregation of intercompany amounts.
• Leveraging our onboarding and Prism process. This allows for certain vendor-customer relationships to be defined as intercompany for exclusion during consolidations.

For this client, the Overlay engineering team leveraged data mapping processes within Prism. Taking this approach made it possible to quickly identify the relationships that needed to be eliminated for consolidated financial reporting.

The client now has the ability to view in near-real time the financial statements and performance for each of the reporting entities on a stand-alone basis. They're also able to view performance at a consolidated level, without waiting 20+ days for the financial close process to complete. Leadership is able to view this intelligence through Overlay's front-end Pulse financial reporting platform.