Calculated Accounts from the General Ledger may be imported in their calculated form

Description

This means that data fields such as Net Income, Accumulated Depreciation, EBITA, etc from the general ledger, which are calculated figures from other accounting data, should be transferred without further need for re-calculation. This is useful when reporting actuals, as it avoids differences between the ledger calculation and the CPM tool calculation.

Example Use Case

Scenario: A professional services company uses CPM software for its financial reporting and analysis needs. The company's General Ledger includes various calculated accounts like Gross Profit, Operating Income, etc., which are computed using raw data from their time tracker, purchases, and expenses.

Solution: The CPM software enables importation of calculated accounts directly from the General Ledger. Gross Profit and Operating Income are imported as they are without the need for recalculating them based on raw data. This makes the generation of financial reports faster and more reliable.

Considerations

In some cases, a CPM tool may some to a different calculation for certain calculated accounts based on how data is imported into the system. For example, the CPM tool might adjust Net Income to align with non-GAAP measures (like EBITDA). If there was a reporting need for the proper GAAP Net Income calculation, the CPM tool could not provide it without assistance. In this case, having the calculated account loaded straight from the GL is useful.

That said, it is best to have the CPM be able to calculate these values the same as the GL. That provides a lot more confidence to the user that the CPM tool has the right data, and reporting across platforms is accurate.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Importation Capability: Can your software import calculated accounts directly from our specific general ledger tool?
• Reporting Accuracy: In what situations would the CPM tool come to a different outcome for a metric than the general ledger? What can we do to mitigate that?
• Additions: If we add a calculated count to the ledger, does your product automatically detect and load it in?