Areas of Use

Quickly applicable solutions for all planning areas

Financial controlling:

Current developments (e.g. IAS, US-GAAP) show that financial controlling is becoming increasingly important to many companies. One of the main strengths of CORPORATE PLANNER software is its ability to provide integrated finance planning. When changes in sales figures occur, the payment profiles of customers or with respect to suppliers are altered, new initiatives in employee management are made or future investments have to be planned, all these decisions have complex effects on profit/loss figures, cashflow and the balance sheet. With CORPORATE PLANNER, an integrated planning model was developed, which takes all of these interdependencies into account. All areas of financial controlling are dynamically linked with each other, giving a closed, self-consistent system. This standard model does, however, offer a high degree of flexibility, leaving enough room for individual modifications. The internal consistency of the integrated system remains intact.

Cost controlling:

Classification of data, for example by cost centre, cost type, or cost carrier; definition of cost share distributions

Sales controlling

Definition of multiple views, e.g. by region, product, sales rep, etc. The views can be automatically generated, data need only be imported once, quick identification of "hits" and "flops" etc.

Company controlling

Consolidation of data from several companies, subsidiaries, branches, profit centres; combination of P&L calculations, balances of heterogeneous subsidiaries or associated holding companies; consolidation of debts, elimination of internal turnover, and much more e.g. investment controlling with dynamic (capital value, annuity, interest rate, amortisation) and static (income/expense, break-even quantity, profitability) methods, profit margin calculation, loans and repayments, etc.

Information gathering

You can display your company data in a clear, categorised manner in various, freely-definable tree structures. The tree's "root" ("parent field" on the left of the screen, e.g., "Profit/Loss") divides into more detailed branches ("subsidiary fields") the further right you move in the tree structure. At the same time, the lower screen area shows you the values contained in the data streams for whichever field you have chosen (e.g., a Budget-Actual comparison) and their variances. Simply click on the field which interests you, and you can immediately see the results for any time span you care to choose!

Planning and Budgeting

Working with a rolling, multiple-year planning period, you can freely define a number of data streams to suit your own planning methods (e.g., Budget, Alternative Plan, Forecast, etc.) for evaluation, planning and analysis. You can plan using Top-Down and Bottom-Up techniques, or a combination of the two. Budgeting can be done comprehensively, using last year's trends together with seasonal adjustments, and incorporating carry-over effects. You can also define your own weightings.

Controlling and Analyses

• Budget-Actual comparisons
• Projected results
• Variance analysis
• Break-even analysis
• Liquidity projections
• Drill-down techniques
• 80/20 pareto analyses
• Key ratio analysis and systems
• Exception reporting
• Goal seeking
• Profit margin analysis
• Trend analysis
• Investment and loan planning

Simulations

"The 3% salary increase comes into effect in May, and we expect material costs to rise by 10% from August. What will this do to our end-of-year profit, and what countermeasures can we take?" CORPORATE PLANNER's versatile Simulation Manager allows you to see the effect of possible changes and compare combinations of different "What if...?" scenarios in all areas of your organisation, allowing you to make decisions quickly and effectively. The results of your simulations can be added to your planning database by mouse-click or discarded as you wish.

Reporting

You can create your own individual reports, such as balance sheets, liquidity plans, P&L, etc., or ad-hoc reports. Need for action in particular areas can then be easily recognised. Individual analyses, standard and/or variance reports are available immediately in the form of report templates, which are delivered as part of the standard example files. Reports can also be grouped together, e.g., according to subject matter, position or department.

Graphics

Use the intelligent, flexible graphic system to present your data in 2- or 3-dinmensional form. Simulated data can also be displayed alongside the original values, giving you a clear "before and after" comparison.

Data transfer

Data in a client-server system can be imported from all main database systems, such as Oracle, Informix, SQL-Server, DB2, etc. You can also use freely-definable ASCII or Excel accounts files to create your cost centre structure automatically before importing the data. You can import using the MS-Excel COM-interface and from applications using standard ODBC drivers. Spreadsheets and graphs can be exported to MS Office products like Excel, Word and PowerPoint using Windows extended metafiles!