CODA-Control

INTRODUCING: A REVOLUTION IN FINANCE

Today's finance professionals need to do more, with less. You are under pressure to deliver on regulatory compliance (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley) and contribute to enhanced performance management, as well as streamlining your business processes and preparing for other challenges in the pipeline – from International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to delivering, monitoring and reporting on Corporate Responsibility initiatives.

THIS ALL REQUIRES A RADICAL NEW APPROACH...

...CODA CONTROL

CODA has combined its experience and unique insight into the finance function with exciting developments from Microsoft, to deliver a revolutionary collaborative solution to major issues facing today's accounting and finance professionals.

Capitalizing on proven Microsoft technology, CODA-Control streamlines and automates processes, making them more visible, repeatable, controlled and auditable. This new solution consists of a powerful task modeling engine that combines with a range of specific applications for key business activities – for example:

• Regulatory compliance reporting (CODA Compliance) and
• Financial reporting (CODA Collaborative Close) or
• Even broader based strategic activities, such as corporate responsibility programs. Better still, it hooks into your existing IT infrastructure – maximizing the return on your investment.
• It integrates seamlessly with leading finance and analytic applications, including CODA's.
• And, in addition to CODA's advanced task modeling engine, it harnesses productivity features in Microsoft® Office 2003. This unique combination enables all the stakeholders and participants to collaborate with each other far more easily and efficiently and to complete essential business activities more effectively.

JUST THE REVOLUTION YOU NEED FOR...

...MORE SECURE COMPLIANCE

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has made managing corporate information a key challenge for senior IT and finance professionals.

• Compliance with this and other emerging acts and regulations means that CFOs have to show how information is collated, recorded, altered and approved.
• They have to assess and report on the effectiveness of their own internal control structure. With CODA Collaborative Compliance, the processes involved in regulatory compliance reporting are streamlined and coordinated using dedicated websites and straightforward forms, all of which are saved, along with every task, action and submission of information, whether from an individual or an automated routine.

...MORE CONTROLLED PERIOD CLOSING

Controlling and – often – shortening the time to close are major factors in some organizations.

• CODA Collaborative Close helps, by formalizing the individual tasks within period close and making information from the finance system readily available.
• It addresses the issues of collaboration and teamwork through its shared website, where all the tasks for each close are viewed.
• As the implementation progresses, finance professionals can identify bottlenecks, which can be addressed either by making use of additional functionality in the finance system or by re-engineering particular tasks, for example: inter-company reconciliation, bad debt provision or invoice entry.

All in all, it's exactly what you need to ensure the finance department can spend less time adding UP your bottom line and more time adding TO it.

CODA-Control integrates seamlessly with leading finance and analytic applications, including those from CODA, and harness productivity technologies introduced in Microsoft® Office 2003 to deliver:

• A quickly deployed, simple to use implementation of YOUR best practice model for a given financial process
• A team site dynamically built within Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint™ Services that pulls together the tasks, the people, the supporting documentation and the necessary choreography to ensure the process is completed in a compliant and efficient manner
• Rapid system adoption leveraging existing Microsoft® Office skills and existing back office applications
• The framework to ensure repeatability and consistency of process completion but in a way that promotes continuous process improvement
• Complete visibility to current process status, % completion, current hold-ups, task assignments, etc.
• Complete audit trail of tasks, documents, commentary, etc simply accessible to you and your auditors via intranet URL

For example: During the period close the CODA Control website dynamically reflects the data in your finance system and automatically generates forms both for predictable, regular activities involved in period end and for any unexpected variances – as soon as any occur. CODA's specially developed task management system drives and co-ordinates the tasks, ensuring that disparate processes all come together in one place:

• Tasks can be dependent on values within source financials systems, or can offer those values for review.
• The forms are automatically directed to the relevant managers and designed to assist and encourage swift completion.
• Reviewed and/or calculated results can be posted back into the consolidated results.

This is a major step forward from today's simplistic workflow systems. It enables you to specify not only the tasks but also the sequence in which they are to be carried out. Plus, the system has the in-built intelligence to check against your business rules and systems, only initiating the tasks that are actually required for that period. As each task is completed, and then approved by the finance department, the relevant data is automatically posted to the back office systems(where appropriate) and the period end website updated accordingly. Where the task has others dependent on it, its completion also triggers the next task or tasks in the sequence.

CODA CONTROL DELIVERS:

• VISIBILITY: The team site gives an instant picture of which tasks are complete and which need attention. It enables rapid drill-down to more detail on each one.
• REPEATABILITY: To ensure each iteration of the activity is approached consistently, the tasks on the website are modeled on the organization's specific detailed processes. Not only can each be modeled on the one before but it can also be continuously refined and improved to reflect best practice.
• CONTROL: Control and efficiency are improved by formalizing and coordinating the individual tasks and making information from the finance system readily available. Bottlenecks or delays can be identified swiftly and action taken to solve the problem - for example by reallocating a 'stalled' task.
• AUDITABILITY: Stricter regulatory compliance means that CFOs need to show how information is collated, recorded, altered and approved. With CODA Control, every task, action, submission and amendment of information relating to a financial process (whether from an individual or an automated task) is recorded, stored, and auditable.