Management reporting is a frequent source of concern for many businesses: board members and senior managers can receive inconsistent reports from all corners of the business, in a range of formats and spreadsheets; and reports are often out of date and compiled with differing criteria and definitions. The process can be slow and frustrating, and managers often spend more time trying to locate accurate information than on developing strategy based on an analysis of reliable data.
When business structures or priorities change, managers and analysts struggle to match and compile data into new formats, and in the rush to meet new requirements and deadlines, spreadsheets become error-prone and the reports become unreliable.
To address these issues, one single solution is needed to bring together all the data and metrics, and hold it in a common structure with common definitions and calculation rules. The system should be easy to maintain and flexible enough to respond to constantly changing and evolving business requirements.
All the data should be available for reporting and analysis through a user-friendly interface, and the reporting tool should provide complete control over which data is used and where. Analysts should be able to use the same system to drill down and through the data, creating custom views and reports with whichever combinations and comparisons of data they need.
TCM uses rapid application development and OLAP technology to develop business models which exactly match the reporting and analysis requirements of individual companies. The models can contain financial and non-financial data from any area of the business, and can be imported from any source system using TCM’s channel process.
TCM models can hold multiple versions and types of data, including current and previous year actual results along with current budgets and forecasts. TCM can also include multiple forecast versions, including rolling forecasts that are automatically updated at the end of each reporting period. Scenario modelling data, next year’s budget, strategic plan data and even restatements of historic data can also be included in a TCM model.
TCM also simplifies currency conversion, using multiple exchange rate types and rules. Using the inbuilt intelligent rules engine, subtotals, allocations, KPIs and ratios can all be calculated, consolidation adjustments can be processed, and the data can be consolidated in multiple hierarchies.
Reports are created using a TCM Excel function, which can populate any cell in the spreadsheet with any value from the model. This function can be linked to any other cell or range in the spreadsheet, and can be combined with all standard Excel functionality and features to produce dynamic, customised reports.
Data can also be sent from any spreadsheet cell into the TCM model, simplifying and streamlining the capture of non-system or very disperse sets of data.
With the power of OLAP technology and TCM’s extensive features, businesses can quickly implement an integrated, enterprise-wide reporting solution, delivering customised dashboards and scorecards to key decision-makers and reliable management and functional reports for more detailed analysis.