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Financial Consolidations and Planning Analytics

Last updated: 27 May 2025

Financial Consolidations and Planning Analytics

Although IBM Planning Analytics is well-known for its strengths in planning and business analytics applications, it is also a powerful platform for financial consolidations and financial reporting. The following are key requirements of any financial consolidation solution that the combination of Planning Analytics and ControlWORQ address:

Data Acquisition from Diverse Systems

Consolidation solutions with Planning Analytics always require some amount of data acquisition from multiple ERP systems to support a common financial reporting structure. Planning Analytics can easily extract or import exported data from ERP systems through its Turbo Integrator ETL tool. The tasks involved typically include:

  • Identifying source data: Any data that is part of the consolidation must be identified along with the method used to access that data. This can be an iterative process, which Planning Analytics is well suited to handle.

  • Mapping data: Data from multiple ERP systems typically doesn't share a common chart of accounts. For financial consolidation and reporting, source data will typically be mapped to a common chart of accounts in Planning Analytics. This process is made easy through Planning Analytics and its Turbo Integrator ETL tool. Many customers perform subconsolidations in Planning Analytics or stage data from local ledgers prior to mapping to the consolidated structure, providing rich reporting for local ledger users and robust controls when mapping between ledgers and the consolidated model.

Currency Translation

Planning Analytics's Rules capability ensures that currency translation can be implemented to any level of complexity, from simple translation using average and ending rates to full FASB-52 translation.

Journal Entries and Audit Trails

Journal entries are a key part of the consolidation process. ControlWORQ allows authorized end users to post journal entries directly to their Planning Analytics cubes. Controls in ControlWORQ ensure that journal entries cannot be posted until they are balanced (total debits equal total credits). A detailed audit trail of all posted transactions is maintained in a SQL Server relational database, which can be reviewed using standard, pre-built reports, and additionally reported on using relational database reporting tools like IBM Cognos BI.

Intercompany Eliminations & Reconciliation

Once ControlWORQ has been configured to work with your organizational structure, intercompany balances can be reviewed and reconciled to ensure accuracy. Balances within configured tolerance can then be eliminated through journal entries created automatically by ControlWORQ.

Reporting

Data in Planning Analytics can be reported on using many different applications, including Planning Analytics Perspectives and Excel, Cognos BI, Planning Analytics Web, and WebWORQ. Financial reports can even be distributed automatically using QueBIT's ReportWORQ product.