SAP Month End Close using BEST

Reduce your SAP Month End Close with BEST.  Over the last few months BEST has launched a number of new SAP Modules BEST GL Recons, BEST GL Clearing and BEST Debtors Remittances which support and relate to SAP Month End Close activities.

Your month end close in SAP can be a time-consuming process that is exacerbated by tight, high pressure reporting deadlines. Take the pressure off with BEST General Ledger  Software which delivers GL recon automation and standardisation to reduce time spent on your month end close.

We have built these SAP Modules because SAP itself does not cover these areas adequately. So far we have met with and demoed to over 80 different organisations in various streams of business on various versions of SAP up to S4 Hana 1809. Our SAP Modules compete directly with solutions such as Blackline and Trintech but our Modules are in SAP so you do not need extra systems and as you are directly in SAP your data is real-time.

Whilst meeting with these various companies I have been surprised how each business has a different area that is causing them grief in their SAP Month End Close. Even when the businesses are in the same field such as Retail, on the same SAP version and have similar turnover, they each have their own individual “pain”. So it is clear that when businesses are in the same field and use the same software it does not mean they operate the same way.

Initially I thought the varying challenges the businesses face would prove to be an issue for our SAP Modules, however after each demo every business has indicated its interest in at least one or more of our SAP Modules to improve their SAP Month End Close process and thus their own business. Different businesses in the same field with the same software have often requested different SAP Modules as their challenges have been different as indicated previously.

So how can our 3 new GL SAP Modules benefit your organisation at Month End Close?

BEST GL Recons in SAP

BEST General Ledger Reconciliation Software in SAP delivers GL reconciliation automation and standardisation to reduce time spent on your month end close.

The benefits of automating your month end SAP GL Reconciliation process, versus a manual process, are numerous:

• Save time and money
• Complete General Ledger Reconciliations in SAP faster and more efficiently by automating the Reconciliation process within SAP.
• Assign risk categories to your GL Recons in SAP to ensure appropriate focus, approvals and reporting are applied to your high-risk areas.
• User defined tolerances assist to identify document and account anomalies that require escalation and mitigation.
• Reduce the amount of time spent on low risk, low transaction value accounts.
• Ensure your skilled Finance resources time is spent on the recons where the focus is required, such as high-risk areas and query resolution.

Achieve efficiencies:

• Define approval strategies as per your requirement to ensure high risk areas are appropriately reviewed and approved all within SAP.
• With the use of comprehensive Control Reports, you can manage your month end from one central point to:
• Review outstanding GL Recons and approvals to measure completion.
• Drive out action to complete outstanding tasks.
• Review and manage reconciliation anomalies such as tolerance breaches or queries raised.
• Identify and manage your high-risk reconciliations and any mitigating actions required.
• Existing SAP Authorisations are used for viewing and preparing reconciliations within SAP.
• Any adjustment journals to be processed use SAP standard transactions as per your authorisations framework.
• No interfaces or connectors are required to third party systems – it’s all within SAP.

Standardised & compliant:

• Bring standardisation to your organisation across business units, divisions and locations for your SAP month end close.
• Bring accuracy to your reconciliations through standard processes and clearly defined approval lines.
• For any required adjustments, use SAP standard transactions within your existing SAP Authorization framework.
• Ensure compliance across your SAP month end reconciliations and approvals with full audit trails and change history.
• Provide assurance to both internal and external parties for Audit purposes.

Go completely paperless:

• Your Balance Sheet reconciliations are now paperless and are all stored within SAP.
• GL reconciliations for any historical date are always available.
• GL recon approval is online in SAP – no printing and signing
• You’ll also save on paper costs.

BEST GL Clearing

Clearing GL Account open items in SAP can be a tedious and time-consuming process. With the BEST GL Clearing Module open item clearing in SAP can now be done automatically with large volumes across multiple companies and account types, without having to post additional entries, make mass changes to references or change any configuration. This enables a smoother month end close.

• Why clear open items in SAP? The benefits of managing your open items in SAP are numerous:
• Clearing open items allows for the actual reconciling items on the account to be revealed, allowing for a better understanding of the balance on your accounts.
• Month end GL reconciliations can be completed faster at month end when accounts are cleared efficiently and regularly.
• Reduced open item counts result in better system performance within SAP such as:
  • Improved reporting performance.
  • Faster forex revaluations.
  • Faster screen loads.
• Cleared items can be archived in line with your archiving strategy.
• SAP upgrades and data migrations are easier with less open items.

BEST GL Clearing Module Benefits

Time & Cost Savings

• Accounting staff can now spend their time focussing on unreconciled items – instead of expensive resource time being wasted clearing GL Account open items in SAP.

Efficient & Automated

• The BEST Clearing Module combines the flexibility of SAP standard manual clearing with the power of automation and programmatic tools to enable you to manage your SAP open item accounts.
• Clear open items in SAP across multiple company codes and multiple account types in automated batches – something not possible in standard SAP.
• Processing of additional journals and mass changes to references are all common, time-consuming practices associated with manual clearing in SAP. These processes are now unnecessary when using BEST GL Clearing.
• All functionality of the GL Clearing Module is all performed within SAP, from the selection and matching of open items through to the posting of the clearing documents. This is all done using existing user SAP authorizations and client specific configuration.
• Clearing batches created can be processed immediately or batched to be processed in the background at user defined times.

BEST Debtors Remit

BEST Debtors Remit complements BEST GL Clearing and is designed to help you allocate customer remittance payments accurately and automatically to your customer accounts.

If you are spending large amounts of time manually allocating lump sum payments to your detailed customer line items, then this module can help save you time and ensure you have accurate and up to date customer account and statement balances at month end.

All SAP Certified BEST SAP Modules come in one Software Package so you can take one initially and “switch” the others on further down the line. 

If your SAP Month End Close could do with some improvements, please contact us for a Demo as I am sure we can help you reconcile@bestsapcbi.com.