Plastics Manufacturer Financial System Automation
Customer
Plastics manufacturer with about 150 employees.
Challenge
Create custom financials that the user can setup and revise without continued support from the IT department. The results should pull data from the corporate G/L database, allow for complex formulas, and output to Excel while maintaining the formulas within the output results. This tool would have to accommodate many different financials including: Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Manufacturing Overhead, Selling Expense, G & A Expense, and R & D Expense, Significant EBIT, Aged Accounts Receivables, Prepaid & Reserves, Orders & Sales by Product Line, Sales Analysis, Backlog Analysis, and Public Compliance Costs. Reports would have to be compiled for specific divisions and conversely consolidated across three separate corporate entities. Budget figures and Best/Worst comparison can be optionally built into each financial report.
Solution
Provide a custom program that would allow financial forms definition to accommodate any account range, plus/minus subtotal previous lines, percentage formula or reference another financial report line item. Output must be to Excel with imbedded formulas converted from the setup mechanism into formulas Excel will process. This allows the accounts to revise numbers and make corrections and adjustments on the spreadsheet and see the overall results before committing them to the G/L system.
Results: This solution was implemented in 2003 and continues to run today. It has required very few improvements because it is so comprehensive and easy for management to use and maintain even has their business changes and grows their financials can be further customized without the involvement of I.T.
