Save Resources: Stop Wasting Your Most Valuable Assets on Your CAFR

In earlier posts, we’ve introduced you to a revolutionary solution for your CAFR process and how that solution can reduce risk for your organization. Now we’re going to explain how that solution, IBM Cognos Disclosure Management, can help you save resources by leveraging your most valuable asset: your people.

Since most Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs) are produced via a slow, error-prone, manual process, their production comprises a huge drain on personnel resources.

For every recurring report you produce manually, at least one member of your team has to manage all these processes by hand:

  • Collecting data
  • Re-keying data
  • Checking and correcting errors
  • Consolidating data and spreadsheets
  • Formatting reports
  • Managing compliance checklists
  • Distributing documents for review and approval
  • Delivering multiple output types, including Word, Excel, PPT, and PDF

Managing all these tasks with precision requires a huge amount of time and attention, and it usually involves as many team members as a department can spare.

And there’s your problem:  most public sector finance departments already have more tasks at hand than they have hands on deck. Can you afford to spare several or all of your team members to devote ALL their efforts to just one report?

If you’re using a manual process to produce your CAFR, you don’t have a choice: the CAFR must go on, whether or not you have enough resources to comfortably manage it along with all your other responsibilities.  But what if you had a new CAFR process that didn’t drain all your time and people? What if you could automate these manual processes?

Now you can. With IBM Cognos Disclosure Management, you can automate your CAFR production process and do more with less. IBM Cognos Disclosure Management frees up your resources because:

  • Data integration enables you to pull your data from a variety of data sources, including ERP systems, financial consolidation applications, relational databases, OLAP databases, and Microsoft Excel. No longer will you be manually keying and re-keying or checking and re-checking data from multiple sources.
  • Your source data links to your report data.  That means that every number in the final report links back to a single data source, ensuring that there are no conflicting numbers anywhere in the report. Changes made to the source data will automatically cascade through the report, so you won’t have to make meticulous manual updates every time you update your source system.
  • Collaboration and workflow features allow you to track the status of each section of the document.  You can also view and manage due dates and responsibility assignments, so you won’t have any confusion about what has to be done and who has to do it.
  • Variables in text will flow data everywhere there is a reference, and you can use those same variables in subsequent years. This means that the narrative portion of your report, produced in Microsoft Word, will automatically pull the data you need without manual interference.
  • You can use the report from a prior year as a template for your next report. The latest data is automatically loaded into a report template that is pre-formatted, which saves time and lets you focus on editing the document rather than collecting, consolidating, and formatting data.
  • Integrated compliance checklists clearly display rules and validations, making internal and external compliance easier to accomplish and confirm.
  • With multiple output options for the report, you can distribute your report as an Excel spreadsheet, Word document, PowerPoint presentation, Word document, and Adobe PDF at the click of a button.  Now you won’t be scrambling at the last minute to format your CAFR for many output types.

If you’re ready to preserve your most valuable resource — your people — with IBM Cognos Disclosure Management, call us or click the button below to schedule a free consultation.

Questions? Contact Us!

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