The Accelerated Financial Reporting Management (AFRM®) is a module of OnBase, a world class Enterprise Content Management System from Hyland Software, Inc.
Organizations using AFRM® are able to get real time visibility into all their accounting close activities. They are also able to actively manage their processes, assure completeness, improve communications, lower audit costs and continuously improve their processes.
Control compliance, whether Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Model Audit (MAR) or other, can be scheduled and monitored on a periodic (monthly, quarterly or semi-annual basis).
Real-time management of activities.
With AFRM® you see the real time status of every type of task in your close. No more waiting for each team member to update the checklist, or for a close meeting to get status updates. Every step of a process is monitored for example, when a preparer sends a reconciliation for review, the system records that this reconciliation is now in review, automatically and in real-time.
Want to see where problems are developing? You can sort and filter tasks by a wide variety of criteria. Which tasks are behind schedule? Which preparers or reviewers have too many tasks? With the ability to see issues early, you can address them before they have a major impact on the close schedule. You can reassign tasks on the fly to keep the entire team on track.
Want to know the status of a specific task any time it changes? Just set an alert. You can get an email informing you that the task has been started, sent for review, sent for additional review, posted or completed. Alerts are completely configurable by each user to meet the specific needs of that user. If a user needs to be notified when four steps are complete before they can start a tax provision, they can set that specific combination of alerts. Real-time configurable notification is available to every user.
Easy access to all supporting documents and real time desk procedures
AFRM® is a task-centric system. One of AFRM’s® guiding principles is that all information needed to complete or audit any task is presented together with the task. When you start, review, or audit a task, everything you need is presented to you. Approved templates, desk procedures, supporting documents, as well as all supporting documents from prior periods are located within each task. No more searching in the file share or hard copy binders. You never have to worry about where to store or find documents or how they are named. All supporting documentation (including e-mails and screen shots) are named and stored automatically and locked down when the task is approved. You never have to look for a supporting document or try to figure out which version of a file was the final version. All of the final approved supporting materials are presented to you when and where you need them.
Manager of financial reporting and accounts payable Seth Linebrink discusses his search for a software able to help track individual processes.
Dashboards provide a configurable view of all close activities at three levels
User/Preparer view: AFRM® gives you complete visibility of the status of your tasks, as well as those of your co-workers. Each team member is provided with the information needed to self manage and to cross manage and communicate the status of close items, which is key to building more efficient teamwork and creating a sense of priority and manageability around late items and issues.
Manager view: The manager view enables real-time management decisions. Which items have exceptions that indicate a greater potential for errors? Which items are late, or in danger of becoming late? What activities are awaiting resolution? With real time information at your fingertips, you have actionable data to help decide where assistance is needed and to support decisions that will get the close back on track. Managers need to be able to determine who needs help in order to gain maximum efficiency from each team member and ensure an effective close. AFRM® gives you that real-time visibility – all of the time.
Executive view: Executives gain an increased level of confidence in the quality of the financial reporting because they can see not only the status of the close, but they can also see the review and analysis being completed. What historically has been a “black-box” exercise supported by qualitative assessment of the close status is now fully visible real-time status supported by the underlying data. Financial reporting is all about confidence in the quality of the work.
