Improving the financial statements review process of reporting & analysis department in a shared services entity of a global energy firm

• Main Author: Casuga, Ian Risty C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Financial statements; Financial statements, Unaudited; Accounting
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/6439; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_masteral/article/13515/viewcontent/IAR_Ian_Risty_Casuga2_Redacted.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Financial Reporting process is an integral part in the Finance department of ABC Group of Companies, a global energy group. It summarizes the quarterly financial results of the company that are published for stakeholders’ use. Relevant to this process is the preparation of commentaries and variance explanations to give context to the numbers. This action research addressed the issue of incomplete commentaries provided by the Finance Analysts and Specialists during the work day 6 review of Financial Statements. This is by making sure that commentary preparers understand the end-to-end financial reporting process and by establishing several measures to improve the financial review process. I work as a Financial Reporting Senior Specialist in Manila shared services entity of ABC Group of Companies. I manage the monthly consolidation of financial results of the Chemicals portfolio of businesses in the U.S. and the end-to-end financial reporting activities. Together with my collaborators, our team conducted two cycles of action research. In the first cycle, we implemented the following interventions: (1) Additional Loading schedule for Data Load, (2) Educate the Chemicals North America Reporting and Analysis team with the Commentary Preparation and Variance Analysis and (3) Improve the template currently used in the Financial Statement Review process. To further improve the financial review process, we conducted the following interventions during the second cycle: (1) Document in a standard work instruction the basics of commentary preparation and variance explanations and the flow of financial information to different systems used in the company, and (2) Establish a working backup system between the Finance Analysts and Specialists. These interventions established a clear guidance of what is required from the Finance Analysts and Specialists and had given them a better understanding of the end-to-end process, resulting in better work performance.