Are You Still Reconciling in Excel?

Before technology was able to automate account reconciliations, most calculations and checks were done by humans and required a lot of human interaction with Excel. These account reconciliations would span multiple Excel spreadsheets with an enormous amount of data to sift through. The average time it took for reconciliations back then averaged around 4-5 days with some larger companies possibly taking even longer.

When Oracle's Account Reconciliation Cloud Service (ARCS) was unveiled, it created a huge stir in the finance and accounting world. Now, instead of performing tedious tasks in Excel, finance professionals can easily press a button and automate and complete the account reconciliation in under 30 minutes. This automation allowed companies to save money, time, and other resources in the long run.

The Analysis (Excel vs ARCS)

Excel

The good thing about Excel is, it does not cost much as far as software, and is simple to use. It is a great software for simple reporting, however, involves quite a bit of human interactions, especially for doing Monthly Account Reconciliations. These human interactions are what will cost time and money in the long run.

• Companies usually spend 3 – 5 business days each month for reconciliations
• The average salary of 1 business analyst (BA) is $80,310
• $80,310 (BA Salary) / 2,080 (working hrs/year) = $38.61 (BA hourly rate)
• 4 (avg days spent reconciling) x 8 (work hours/day) x $38.61 (hourly rate) = $1,235.52
• Doing reconciliation in Excel will cost roughly $1,235.52 per month for 1 analyst

ARCs

Oracle's Account Reconciliation Cloud allows auto reconciliation, which minimize the human interaction involved in the Monthly Reconciliation process. We understand many companies do not use EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) softwares because of the cost, however from our experience, companies usually gain back the ROI within the 1st or 2nd year of initial implementation.

• Oracle's ARCS is licensed at $120 per user per month
• Initial implementation cost averages between $15,000 to $25,000 (dependent on company size)
• Usually, companies spend 6 hours each month doing maintenance/updates
• 6 (hours) x $38.61 (hourly rate)= $231.66 + $120 (license cost) = $351.66
• $20,643.48 (average implementation cost) and $351.66 per month for 1 analyst

Break-Even Analysis

Assuming the company is a mid-size one with 2 analysts, the image on the left would show the total time needed to reach the break-even point or pass it.

In the case of this company, we can see that their ROI passed the break-even point after 10 months. Of course, cost is the main advantage of switching to ARCS, but there are many other key benefits, such as Accuracy, Security, and visibility.

3 Pros

Security

Row level security is adjusted according to user type. This way, ARCS allows people to see only needed information while keeping other information private and protected.

Accuracy

The lack of human involvement in computations will allow for less human error mistakes. This will save time and make your business process more efficient.

Visibility

Real time data and pre-configured reports are available and visible at the click of a button. This eliminates a lot of guesswork and uncertainty.

Case Study

Construction & Infrastructure Industry

Our client needed the GL (general ledger) and subledger to reconcile at the group level.

We created profiles for each group and mapped the data to load into their respective groups. We then sent the threshold to auto reconcile if the variance is less than 1,500 for each group.

• Process time improved by 32% (went from 45 hrs/month to 30.6 hrs/month)
• Saved $1,612.80 (original cost was $5,040)
• A total of $19,353.60 savings per year!

FREE CONSULTATION

Schedule your Free Consultation, to see it in action!

Contact Us!

We offer Autonomous Systems for EPM Cloud Applications such as Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS/EPBCS), Financial Close & Consolidations Cloud Service (FCCS), Enterprise Data Management Cloud Services (EDMCS), Account Reconciliation Cloud Service (ARCS), Profitability & Cost Management (PCM) and more.