Back office finance processes

Focusing on any projects within the back office finance environment with specific focus
on the following process areas:

Procurement to pay

This is the process of initial purchase of items / stock / services to the matching of
supplier invoices and payment. As an example this may include purchase requisitions
process, the raising of purchase orders, receipt of goods or services, logging of
supplier invoices, 3 way matching of invoices to orders and receipts and scheduling of
payment runs.
It may also include invoice logging and query management so that all data is captured
and managed at the earliest opportunity. It may also include document management
and approval workflows to minimise paper chasing and senior management time.

Billings to collect

This is the process for recording sales orders for customers to shipment, billing, debt
collection and finally payment allocation. Again this may include query management
for recording and managing customer queries.

Fixed asset management

The process for registering, managing and depreciating business assets. This will include
recording additions and disposals as part of the procure to pay and billings to collect
processes respectively as described above.

Management accounting and reporting

The process for reporting on the results of the business usually on a timely basis.  
The most common form of management reporting is monthly management accounts
but it can also include daily sales reporting - for example.
Management accounts reporting usually includes a statement of fact re historical
results (profit, balance sheet, cash flow) as well as forecasts for sales (pipeline) and
financial data (profit, balance sheet and cash flow).

Legacy operational data feeds

Any finance back office process is only part of the overall operational process for a
business. Any business that has been in operation for a number of years will almost
certainly have a number of different processes and systems built up out of
necessity that have to operate together. If a business is lucky, the processes and systems
are one and the same such that the finance system is also the operational system and
effectively management all the business processes.

But this is far from the norm! So the crucial issue here is how the finance system / process
interacts with other business processes.

Project management - what is it?

This service can be provided at any stage in the project live cycle from the pre
planning stage to part way through project implementation. We can fix a 'broken' 
project that is not delivering results or is stuck in user acceptance testing - to quote
just 2 examples.

A typical project lify cycle consists:

Project initiation

A recognition that 'something' needs to be done to fix an issue or replace a process
or system. It can form part of an overall strategic change for a business and the scale
of the project is determined by the need.

Project initiation includes the creation of the terms of reference (the objectives and
measures of success) as well as appointment of project manager and owner.
The project owner may be a project steering committee or a senior manager.
In either case, the project owner will sign off on the successful completion
of the project.
The manager may be external to the business or from within the business.
If from within the business, the manager should have the requisite skills and
have experience in the process area covered by the project. If external, just
project management expertise is required.

If the project manager is external, the team should be appointed from within the business
and from relevant process areas affected by the project. Whether the team is full time or
they keep the day job is a decision for the project board and depends on the size of
the project.

Project planning

This will include the creation of the project plan and agreement on project communications.
The plan may be created using MS Project but once created and signed off by the project
owner, this will be referred to as a reference only.

The project plan should identify all stages of the project, actions required and owners of
actions. It should identify timescales for completion as well as significant milestones
for completion. The plan will effectively identify the resource requirement.

FPC would not recommend project communications consisting of an updated weekly
MS Project plan. The best form of regular project communications would be:

External - weekly project report, 1 page wonder consisting of sections on planned actions,
issues and achievements. Circulated to project owner and departments affected by the
project.
Internal - weekly report but also, more crucially, weekly face to face meetings between the
project manager and the project team.

Project management

The simple bit! Once the plan is in place, resources agreed and appointed / recruited,
communications agreed, the project should start! Regular communications and project
team meetings as well as appropriate co operation and / or allocation of resources
from within affected departments will ensure success.

Project completion

This will include sign off by the project owner that project completed against critical success
factors and key milestones as well as against deliverables.

Continuous improvement programme

Once complete, all projects should be passed onto a continuous improvement
program to capture the need for further changes as required.

Project management - typical services provided

The services provided to clients to date have included:

Fix 'broken' projects

These projects have either failed to deliver results and / or are stuck in the project
life cycle. FPC have successfully managed previously 'broken' projects to completion for:

Purchase order system implementation including roll out to all operational sites.
Payroll / HR system implementation for all businesses within a group.

New projects

These are brand new projects that have started either at project inition or planning.
FPC have successfully managed the following projects to completion on time and to budget:

Implementation and roll out across a business group of a replacement finance system.
Implementation of off shoring process of finance back office activities.

For more details, please see case studies page.