Using Accounting Intelligence Today

1. Using Accounting Intelligence Today Antonio Elinon Caratrel Consultants Pty Ltd

2. Agenda • Enterprise Architecture (EA) to Business Intelligence (BI) to Accounting Intelligence (AI) • Accounting Intelligence versus Business Intelligence • Why Datamart4Excel • Questions/Break • Datamart4Excel Demonstration

3. Is Business Intelligence Part of Enterprise Architecture? • Enterprise Architecture considers all systems that leverage the resources of EA • BI, ERP, end-users, and accountants all interconnect through their usage of enterprise data • Without architectural planning, these interconnections could easily fail – reflecting as a failure of EA itself • There are ways to architecturally plan the interconnection between BI, accountants, and enterprise data

4. Business Intelligence is Here • Has been around since DSS (decision support systems) and MIS (management information systems) • Commonly used for competitive intelligence • Uses data gathered from a data warehouse or a data mart via ETL (extract-transform-load) • ETL cost is typically 75%-80% of BI development

5. What is Accounting Intelligence • A specialist form of business intelligence • The general name for the set of technologies used to extract, analyse and present information from accounting and ERP applications Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_intelligence

6. Accounting Intelligence vs Business Intelligence • AI - specifically designed to analyse data from specific ERP systems • BI - more general tool that can be applied to any application that uses a database

7. Accounting Intelligence vs Business Intelligence • AI - no staggering of data in a data warehouse or OLAP cube • AI - extracted directly from the ERP at the time that a query is run (real-time) • BI - typically involves a batch process to extract data from live source, and stored as denormalised via ETL (extract-transform-load)

8. Accounting Intelligence vs Business Intelligence • AI – leverages the structure of the chart of accounts • AI - dimension structures can be automatically created based on business unit hierarchies or any part of account code as stored in COA

9. Accounting Intelligence vs Business Intelligence • AI – query means information returned is up to the second real time data • AI - accounts can be corrected and a fresh trial balance viewed immediately • AI – uses aggregation in accounting systems performed by the ERP when new journal entries are posted (no need for cube rebuild)

10. Accounting Intelligence vs Business Intelligence • AI – no ETL therefore much simpler to install, implement and maintain • AI - inquiries and reports typically created by end users rather than software developers

11. Accounting Intelligence vs Business Intelligence • AI - no need to separately audit both the accounts themselves and separate data warehouse and ETL process • AI – compliance easier for many companies – SOX, IFRS

12. Advantages of AI • Ensures that an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is the single source of all operational reporting and analysis • Can be relied upon to give accurate and secure information • Out of the box solution, much quicker to implement than BI

13. Advantages of AI • No data warehouse, no staged data to audit • Data returned in real time • Data is not a snapshot of yesterday or last month

14. Some Disadvantages of AI • Applied only to specific ERP systems, such as JDE, Oracle E-Business and SAP • Cannot integrate data from outside the ERP system Datamart4Excel does not have these disadvantages!

15. Why Datamart4Excel • The Problem of the Accountant • Implications of the Problem • The Solution

16. The Problem of the Accountant • Under-powered data analysis capabilities in tool of choice • Excel versus web-based solution • Proliferation of tools for accountants • Locking proprietary objects (formulas/buttons) in spreadsheets • Difficult to transport and reuse reports • Extending work flow process

17. Implications of the Problem • Unable to use the full potential of Excel • Excel and non-Excel toolsets • Proliferation of Excel objects with proprietary links • ROI on ERP spend • Decrease in productivity • Impact on functional work and ability to guide the business

18. The D4E Solution • End-user tool that uses only options and menus already in Excel • Providing data mart capabilities with unlimited filtering and unlimited combinations for data retrieval • Workflow process unchanged

19. The D4E Solution • Simplify access to data sources • Provide easy-to-use but powerful parameter prompts • Translate Excel actions to SQL commands to access data

20. Questions/Break

21. DEMONSTRATION

22. List of GL Transactions - Menu

23. List of GL Transactions – Parameter Prompts

24. List of GL Transactions - Results

25. Get GL Balances – Parameter Prompts

26. Get GL Balances – Results

27. Get GL Transactions with selected columns

28. Get GL Transactions with selected columns for Pivot reporting

29. Pivot Report of GL Transactions

30. Get GL Balances using Macro Script

31. Refresh User-Written Report

32. Refresh User-Written Reports via Script – multiple reports

33. Summary • Full Data Mart capability for Accounting Intelligence • Full use of Excel – high fidelity formatting possible • Reports and spreadsheets are transportable with no proprietary formulas • Only tool used is Excel • Can be used to generate countless reports simultaneously

34. Questions