FSC - General Accounting

Being responsible for Fixed Assets Accounting for the majority of MCC countries we benefit from a wide range of experiences, among which we look for the best solutions and create standards through effective and high-quality work.

Fixed Assets Accounting service is covering process areas in truly E2E approach, monitoring the entire life cycle of an investment, from involvement in creating effective rules related to investment orders, picking up invoices for capitalization, defining and creating asset master data, monitoring, and registering all asset movements, running, and posting depreciation, to processing of asset disposal due to asset sales or scrapping. All month-end closing procedures – such as depreciation, reclassification, revaluation, and final sub-ledger reconciliation - belong well to this Solution together with relevant standard ICF controls. We operate following group IFRS guidelines as well as local GAAP and local Tax requirements. We demonstrate high-level proficiency in the most effective usage of the SAP Asset Accounting module and provide VBA solutions for performing mass transactions. We partner with our customers in the implementation of the standard process flow for fixed asset capitalization which is the fundament for further process automation. The creation of standard asset categories and application of those asset categories from the moment of order creation (or from the moment the investment proposal is created) is an enabler for efficient setup of the process resulting in the elimination of communication reiterations and automation of asset capitalization.

We also provide support to local operations in asset inventory processes by providing standard reports on existing assets, identifying differences based on reports from physical stocktaking, and processing inventory results.

Optionally we can also extend our support to the investment proposal workflow taking over rule-based activities like e.g. formal verification of the investment request, verification of budget availability, reassignment of the investment budget, etc.

With the introduction of IFRS16, we became specialists in the group in the management of lease contracts in the SAP RE-FX module. Our solution covers the E2E process from contract analysis, maintenance of contract data in SAP RE-FX, posting into SAP FI including interface reconciliation, to the preparation of respective Tagetik notes. We developed and implemented practical automation solutions which significantly reduce manual effort in this process.

By fully understanding dependencies between different accounting areas, our general ledger specialists are committed to ensure effective and efficient month-end closing with full real-time transparency on the progress and completion level during the whole process. Our internal tool – SSC Board – which contains the complete detailed list of all month-end closing activities with clear deadlines assigned, allows us, but also the local team, to follow up very closely on completeness and timeliness of the closing and to take immediate corrective actions if required.

Our scope is covering all standard tasks which need to be completed before closing the books in the local financial system as well as the full standard reporting package required by the Group and to be reported in One BW and Tagetik. Most common activities relate to calculation and posting of accruals and provisions, preparation and posting of standard journal entries of a different type, verification of open items on respective balance sheet accounts, preparation, and posting of allocations/distributions (or execution of allocation/distributions cycles) and reclassifications. Within the

Group reporting package, we prepare the necessary information for the balance sheet, P&L, and notes positions, take care of the upload and solve validation errors. We also provide all additional standard reports which the local team uses for the MEC including the preparation of the PBC list for the auditors.

As the deadlines are tight during the closing, we focus our improvement initiatives on effective organization of the process looking for opportunities to eliminate from the closing tasks those which do not necessarily need to be executed during the closing period. Another potential area for optimization is the proper sequencing of tasks and right deadlines for single closing milestones (e.g. deadline for issuing invoices, deadlines for sub-ledger closings, etc.). Close cooperation with the country team is the key to the realization of this improvement potential.

Automation solutions supporting calculations and postings of most repetitive journal entries allow to additionally increase the speed and gain time in this challenging period.

Another important area with improvement potential is the preparation of the Group reporting package. The ultimate target should be that all transactions are registered in the local financial system in such a way that generation of input for One BW and Tagetik does not create the necessity to do any manual corrections in this input. We provide advice on what and how should be changed to get rid of those manual corrections.

We understand accounting standards as well as your country specifics very well and form a team you can rely on.

Within the intercompany package, we offer truly cross-sectional process management which reaches from the request for invoicing to data upload into Tagetik / One BW.

Preparation and processing of invoicing requests, no matter if recurring or ad hoc, is, wherever possible, based on standard templates.

We strive for unification, to populate standard information, and use effects of scale.

Requests are linked with rulebooks - to eliminate human errors and gain efficiency we automate the data-upload and launch robots while performing postings.

After invoices are issued (AR-side), we post them immediately to the recipient books (AP-side). We call it “parallel-posting” and are currently able to do it for ~60% of all issued invoices. It is our target to reach 100% within the next 2 years. It means no more invoices sent around, no time-lags during postings, no differences between balances.

Thanks to the fact that we provide our services to all MCC-countries and the biggest cross-divisional companies from our Group, we practice proactive open items monitoring.

All those steps contribute to more and more smooth reconciliation during the (pre)quarter-end closings. Elimination of differences and validations is not a formality yet, but one day we will reach this level of excellence.

Our Intercompany Service Package also contains preparation of Standard Transfer Pricing documentation (Master File and Local File). The documentation is based on OECD standards and is prepared for MCC-countries (in a form of a standard template – however leaving space for country-specific adjustments due to local legal requirements).

The calculation of 3 TPM (3 Transactional Pillar Model - pre-defined model at Group level) is performed regularly within its framework. It’s made of modules which have strategical meaning for the Group: IT Services, Business Services, Umbrella Brand License and Own Brand License.

FSC calculation activity covers not only quarterly invoicing events, but also forecasts, budget and MTP events, as well as True Up recalculation once a year. Parallel posting is implemented for 3TPM invoicing process, meaning simultaneous AR- and AP- side bookings take place.