Transforming Finance Operations with Touchless Record-to-Report by Redwood

⇨ Automation enables organizations to bypass manually intensive processes such as performing and posting automatic journal entries (like accruals and adjustments), overseeing currency revaluations, and removing the need for manual reconciliations (such as those for intercompany and bank accounts).

⇨ Redwood’s solution enables extensive automation across the record-to-report (R2R) process, automating up to 90% of close processes that across the entire financial close journey, including those within and outside of ERP systems.

⇨ The automation capabilities also extend beyond traditional R2R processes, enhancing operational efficiency in areas such as goods received/invoice received (GR/IR) and bank reconciliations, addressing broader data-matching needs.

Organizations still face significant challenges in manually gathering and processing unstructured data from various sources to effectively manage and refine vast quantities of information for a multitude of enterprise-level activities, a process that is time-consuming and removes people from higher value-added tasks that they could otherwise be applying their expertise to. However, advanced technologies and innovative software platforms are available to not only automate these manual activities but also improve them. An excellent example of such a process if the record-to-report (R2R) process, a crucial aspect of financial management that relies on precise, up-to-date accounting data for generating required reporting. If you consider the multitude of corporate entities that have to effectively close their books in such a short timeline before the group can do consolidation, then the task of closing the books is an area that is ripe for automation.

Automation enables organizations to bypass manually intensive processes such as performing and posting automatic journal entries (like accruals and adjustments), overseeing currency revaluations, and removing the need for manual reconciliations (such as those for intercompany and bank accounts). It also facilitates the orchestration of the multitude of tasks that need to be performed across the close so that the steps are all performed and in most cases, automated, in the sequence that they are intended to be performed.

Redwood’s solution enables extensive automation across the record-to-report (R2R) process, automating up to 90% of close processes that across the entire financial close journey, including those within and outside of ERP systems. This includes intricate tasks such as open PO accruals, data retrieval, communication with requesters, and journal updates in the ERP system. Automation covers the entire R2R spectrum, including balance sheet reconciliation, intercompany accounting, transaction matching, close management, and integration with non-ERP applications like HR and Payroll. Redwood offers a comprehensive suite of R2R solutions that work independently and synergistically, providing flexibility in adoption and rollout. These solutions include close checklist management, journal entries, intercompany reconciliations, etc. Organizations can choose between on-premises and cloud-based deployment, allowing for adaptability to specific needs. The automation capabilities also extend beyond traditional R2R processes, enhancing operational efficiency in areas such as goods received/invoice received (GR/IR) and bank reconciliations, addressing broader data-matching needs.

Case in point – plugging the automation gap

Arla Foods, a leading dairy cooperative owned by 9,400 farmers in Northern Europe, faced a challenge in standardizing business processes across its operations following mergers in Germany and the UK. The company aimed to ensure uniformity in financial controlling, balance sheet reconciliations, intercompany accounts, and month-end adjustments, while also seeking to shorten the period-end close by at least two days for better month-end oversight. By partnering with Redwood Software for its record to report  automation solution, renowned for its deep SAP and ERP integration capabilities, Arla was able to harmonize its processes and data quality fully.

The strategic implementation of automation allowed Arla to reduce the month-end close time by 30%, from 10 days to 7 days, surpassing its goal by a day and enabling real-time monitoring of the close process across its financial units. This automation led to the earlier closure of production orders, enhancing the quality and efficiency of the closing process. With 98% of the financial close-related processes automated, Arla’s finance and accounting teams could shift their focus to higher-value tasks, thereby significantly improving data integrity and reducing employee effort by up to 50%. This transformation not only fostered trust in the data’s accuracy for critical analysis but also ensured comprehensive audit trails and governance, giving Arla complete visibility into the actions and approvals within its financial operations.

Automation streamlines manual tasks, enabling finance teams to complete closing processes more quickly and with reduced stress. Redwood’s solutions enable organizations to ensure that every task in the close process is executed properly and in the correct sequence, with defined accountability. Moreover, these solutions provide accounting teams with deeper insights into the closing process, allowing them to pinpoint both high-performing areas and those in need of enhancement.

Redwood will participate in Sapphire Orlando (June 3-5) and Sapphire Barcelona (June 11-13) as Gold sponsors.