Certificate In Fast Closing Monthly And Year End Accounts

Certificate In Fast Closing Monthly And Year End Accounts Finance and technology integration, including best practice processes for faster, better quality decision-making and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)

20 – 23 October 2013 • Fairmont Hotel, Dubai, UAE

Top 5 Business Benefits 1. Improve the quality of the financial data in your company and group finance function 2. Adopt best practice for group reporting and consolidation policies and processes 3. Improve your processing ability, particularly on inter-group transactions 4. Use cutting edge techniques to save time which you can use for analysis and evaluation 5. Provide data more quickly, enabling a shorter reaction time for management Register today and d receive your Take away a CD including additional case studies, Fast Close materials, templates and information about EPM systems and technology

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The George Washington University School of Business, IIR Middle East’s Academic Partner, is dedicated to excellence: in its teaching and research about management, in the public and private sectors, within the United States and internationally.

The school has a 75 year history of preparing men and women for leadership in both the public and private sectors. Known internationally for its dedication to academic excellence, the school draws students from all parts of the United States and around the world.

Beyond first class teaching and scholarship, the school’s faculty offers practical experience in the issues and challenges confronting business and government. Its research centres link faculty and students with US and international business and government organisations. Recent distance learning initiatives have expanded the school’s global reach.

Course Requirements And Certificates Delegates must meet two criteria to be eligible for an IIRME/ GW Certificate of Completion: 1. Satisfactory attendance – delegates must attend all sessions of the course. Delegates who miss more than two hours of the course sessions will not be eligible to sit the course exam 2. Successful completion of the course assessment Delegates who do not meet the criteria will receive an IIRME Certificate of Attendance. If delegates have not attended all sessions, the Certificate will clearly state the number of hours attended.

Course Assessment Your assessment for this course will be based on your participation in, and the documented results of, the workshop sessions held during the course.

Who Should Attend?

This course is designed for those involved in finance, accounting, financial control, finance and information systems, financial accounting, administration, financial consolidation and external reporting.

T: +971 4 335 2437

F: +971 4 335 2438

About Your Expert Course Directors Klaas van de Geest Centre Consulting, The Netherlands Klaas van de Geest is an expert in the area of group reporting and consolidation. He has broad experience in best practice around “Fast Close” and the implementation of EPM applications. He has worked in this area for more than 20 years and was managing the performance management practice at IBM Business Consulting Services (formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting) before he started his own consulting practice.

As a project manager he has been involved in various implementation projects of management information, group reporting and consolidation systems, including reporting on multi-GAAP, IFRS and Fast Close. He has worked in the corporate centres of organisations across all sectors.

As a subject matter expert Klaas has published various articles around fast close, consolidation, reporting and IT technology and was the author of the trainings: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard and corporate centre analytics. A yearly fast close survey is released to monitor progress in the Dutch market. As founding member of BPM International he was also one of the developers of the improve close methodology Mercury and fast close training.

Peter Van Egmond Peter is an expert in the area of group reporting and consolidation. He has broad experience in best practice around “fast close” and the implementation of EPM applications. He has worked in this area for more than 12 years and has worked for ‘Big Five’ consulting firms before joining Centre Consulting.

As a project manager he has been involved in various, implementation projects of management information, group reporting and consolidation systems, including reporting on multi-GAAP, IFRS and fast close. He has worked in the corporate centres of organisations across all sectors.

As a subject matter expert, Peter is being asked by clients to assist in developing their EPM strategy and has given training and was coauthor of training courses on fast close, consolidation, reporting and IT technology. As a managing consultant at his company, he was also one of the developers of the improve close methodology Mercury and fast close training.

Would you like to run this course in-house?

The in-house training division of IIR Middle East Tel: +971 4 407 2624 • Email: CTS@iirme.com www.iirme.com/cts

W: www.iirme.com//fastclose

Certificate In Fast Closing Monthly And Year End Accounts 20 – 23 October 2013 • Fairmont Hotel, Dubai, UAE Course Timings: Registration for this event will commence at 07:30 on Day One. Course sessions will start promptly at 08:00 each day and end at 14:30. There will be two short breaks for refreshments at appropriate times and lunch will be served at the end of each day’s sessions.

Course Objectives By attending this course you will develop an in-depth understanding of fast close processes, policies and systems and how to improve your current close processes and systems to achieve world class fast close goals. You will improve data quality and free up your finance staff to focus on activities that add greater value to your organisation, such as business partnering, focusing on business forecasting and budgeting and participating in new project initiatives.

The course is comprehensive across the whole supply chain of information needed to achieve consolidated financial results. It will cover both fast close principles applied to the closure of your company’s local ledgers as well as the process of consolidation across the multiple companies making up your group. You will also cover the appropriate best practices in quality control in recording transactions in the subsidiary, closing the books monthly and performing the group wide consolidation.

Furthermore, the course will include skill building that will allow you to identify necessary improvements and measure resource needs and time lines for components of a closing process across the total information supply chain.

There is no doubt that the faster availability of data will have a knock-on efficiency effect throughout the organisation: • More effective performance management based on better quality data • Cost savings through better and faster decision making • Free up expensive finance resource from the “actuals close treadmill” to allow better and faster forecasting and more effective partnering with your business functions Please Note: This course does not focus on a particular industrial sector and addresses the generic issues that are attached to closing and reporting issues at both the legal entity, divisional and group levels and across all the main reporting cycles, the close of actual results, the budget and forecast.

Course Methodology Practically Focused With Numerous Case Studies In addition to real client situations throughout the course, there will be consideration of detailed case studies where you will cover in depth real projects that have achieved significant improvements in close cycles and quality of reporting.

These case studies will include: • An effective approach to accelerating the close in a shared service centre accounting for 40 separate accounting units, in the oil industry.

What is best practice in the ledger close and how can you work with your accounting teams to achieve significant improvements • Focusing on improving the divisional and group consolidation processes in a global logistics company. How can you set about cutting the reporting cycles by 50% without investing heavily in new consolidation systems. The challenge of process and policy tuning to achieve reporting excellence

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Moving from half yearly financial reporting to quarterly external reporting and monthly actuals reporting, including monthly balance sheet consolidation, significantly accelerating the reporting cycles and freeing time within the finance function to introduce effective quarterly rolling forecasts, better budgeting and value based management The challenges of introducing fast close in a group of companies operating in developing countries where finance skills, practices and policies are focused on individual company accounting with a tax authority focus. This case study looks at the additional challenges of introducing fast close and group reporting principles to companies in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Far East where the key principles of accruals accounting, group ownership, inter-company accounting are not well established. In this case using experience from an Eastern European natural resources group

Above and beyond these case studies, the course will also include a “live” case study from one of the clients the course leaders are working with in the region.

Real Insight Into Technology Solutions To Assist The Close During the course you will have the chance to understand and actually view key elements of technology to assist the close process. This will include: • • • • •

Technology for managing and monitoring the local close process of your ledger systems Technology for maximising the effectiveness of your transaction recording and local ledger close Inter-company transaction processing, recording and reconciliation between counter party subsidiaries across the group Effective tools for consolidation and group reporting across the legal, management, budget and forecast consolidation processes Effective tools for extracting and mapping data from general ledger systems into consolidation, aggregation and reporting systems

This will give you a clear view of how this technology can be used to accelerate the close process, improve the quality of transaction recording, help produce fast and effective group consolidated results. The course will also give you a clear view of the cost and benefit of introducing these types of technologies and the impact they can have on your close processes.

Register today and receive your FREE copy of Steven M. Bragg’s ‘Fast Close – A Guide to Closing The Books Quickly – 2nd Edition’

T: +971 4 335 2437 F: +971 4 335 2438 E: register@iirme.com W: www.iirme.com//fastclose

Certificate In Fast Closing Monthly And Year End Accounts 20 – 23 October 2013 • Fairmont Hotel, Dubai, UAE Course Outline Introduction: Fast Closing As A Project And Methodology For Improvement • Objective setting • Understanding the internal and external benefits and advantages of fast close • Setting up and managing a fast close project • An overview of a proven methodology for executing fast close projects • External benchmarks from Europe and the USA that help us understand what is a “best practice” close and consolidation processes • Creating and exploiting internal benchmarks • Why sponsorship matters for a fast close project • Stakeholder management • The holistic view to fast close projects Case Studies • The ultimate benchmark, the virtual close – how did Cisco achieve its virtual close?

• The European ultimate benchmark – how Novartis International AG set the European standard for excellence in the close process The Diagnostic Process – Understanding The “As-Is” And Identifying The Opportunities For Improvement • The tools and techniques needed to improve the close cycle during the diagnosis phase – Process mapping – Critical path analysis – Root cause analysis – Blueprint development • Deliverables from an “as-is” analysis • Mapping and documenting current processes • Brown paper mapping • Driving out issues and opportunities for improvement • Utilising benchmark learning to drive out additional issues and opportunities • Evaluating opportunities for improvement and deciding which to implement • “Quick wins”, “slow burns” and rejected opportunities • The critical path, process dependencies and gap analysis • Cost and benefits analysis Case Study • Fast Close in a Oil and Gas company: Local close initiatives Design And Implementation Approaches • Designing the new processes • Developing the road map for achieving excellence in fast close and group reporting – Prioritisation of projects – Cost benefit of projects and programmes • Deliverables from the “to be” analysis phase – Documenting the new processes, the blueprint – Creating the new critical path • The pilot process for testing the blueprint • Implementing irreversible fast close and how to ensure continuous improvement • Organisational opportunities and the impact of other finance related projects (e.g. shared service centres, outsourcing, post merger/ acquisition integration) • Project resource and change management for fast close projects • Project structures for implementation – The group wide project – The subsidiary project – Major process re-design from the corporate centre (global group chart of accounts, integrated management and legal reporting) • Key success factors for fast close projects Case Studies • Fast close and group reporting excellence in an East European group where many subsidiaries are in developing countries with limited accounting experience – the challenges and the outcomes • Finance re-design at a European CPG group: How to implement a new standard reporting platform with all supporting applications and processes?

Implementing The New Process • Planning the transition (the method) • How to create the implementation plan and estimate the resources • Finalising the business case and seeking investment approval • Involving the operating companies, divisions and front office staff • Implementing quick wins • Training and education • Systems updates • Monitoring and measuring the close process • Dealing with obstacles and objections • Making the change stick (mastery) and how to drive continuous improvement • KPI for the close process, selecting and implementing Case Study • How a UAE based corporation is driving through significant improvements to its group reporting processes, including accelerating the consolidation and close process Systems And How They Can Be Used To Support Fast Close General Ledger And Local Transaction Systems • How these systems can facilitate fast close • Process monitoring and management • Walk through systems architectures and package options • Choosing the right systems options for your organisation • Implementation issues and where they fit in the roadmap Group Reporting And Consolidation Systems • How these systems can facilitate fast close • Introduction of the concept of Enterprise Performance Management • Integration with transaction processing and other systems • Close process monitoring and management • Walk through systems architectures and package options • Choosing the right systems options for your organisation • Implementation issues and where does this fit in the roadmap Inter-Company And Other Specific Areas Of Best Practice And How Systems Can Help • Inter-company specialist packages • Compliance and governance software • The finance portal • Web based training and education for finance • Other areas where technology can help • Implementation issues and where they fit in the roadmap Case Studies • Implementing new EPM applications to support integrated strategic planning, financial planning and Financial reporting and the required BI tools for analytics • Sharpening the approach to inter-company processing at a multinational company in the telecommunications industry •

Brief and focused demonstrations of key features of the software that can be used to achieve a fast close (ledger business process management, consolidation, integration and inter-company)

Workshop Sessions – This course will include a number of workshop sessions at appropriate times focusing on the following different aspects of fast closing: • The challenges you face in your company • The key objectives you want from the course • What the benchmarks mean for your company • Process mapping exercise and review • Converting issues identified into opportunities and categorisation of the opportunities • Developing the roadmap for a example group reporting programme • Developing extracts of a blueprint to articulate key new process steps • Designing the implementation plan • Group finance portal – contents and considerations • Dealing with obstacles and objections • How to use the technology described to achieve success in fast close Review, Course Summary And Close

T: +971 4 335 2437 F: +971 4 335 2438 E: register@iirme.com W: www.iirme.com//fastclose

Certificate In Fast Closing Monthly And Year End Accounts 20 – 23 October 2013 • Fairmont Hotel, Dubai, UAE FIVE WAYS TO REGISTER IIR Holdings Ltd. P.O Box 9428 Dubai, UAE

+971 4 335 2437 +971 4 335 2438 register@iirme.com

www.iirme.com/fastclose

DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE FOR 2 OR MORE PEOPLE CALL – +971 4 335 2483 E-MAIL – a.watts@iirme.com WEB BC4991 Event

Course Fee Before 4 August 2013

Course Fee Before 25 August 2013

Final Fee

US$ 3,895

US$ 4,395

US$ 4,695

Certified In Fast Closing Monthly And Year End Accounts 20 – 23 October 2013

WOULD YOU LIKE TO RUN THIS COURSE INͳHOUSE?

Course fees include documentation, luncheon and refreshments. Delegates who attend all sessions and pass the final day examination will receive an IIRME/GW Certificate of Completion.

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