Intranet Solutions for Finance and Accounting

Overview

Finance and Accounting staffs have various responsibilities for coordinating and supplying financial information to other departments including the following:

• Preparation of financial statements• Tracking fixed asset cost and disposition• Coordination of audits• Managing the budgeting process• Controlling money transfers (A/R, A/P, Loans, etc.)• Performing projection analysis• Conforming to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)

With these responsibilities, significant challenges exist for compiling, managing, and disseminating this information across the enterprise.

Challenges

In most instances the accumulation of information and the required interaction between people extends far beyond the finance and accounting staff. Collaboration with other internal functional areas of the business as well as externally with vendors, customers, and auditors pose challenges related to having the right information available at the right time.

Much of the information is paper based with volumes of supporting information stored in filing cabinets. Diverse systems and tools are commonly used such as budgeting software, excel spreadsheets, and transactional systems. Collecting data and extracting information for analysis and timely decision making can be difficult and time consuming.

An Intranet solution can streamline, secure, organize, and consolidate information to assist the finance and accounting department in presenting and communicating this important information.

The Intranet Solution

An Intranet provides a secure, central point for collecting and publishing financial information. It also provides a vehicle for online transaction processing, ensuring rapid updating of information and availability of accurate and timely information. As a result, an Intranet enables managers across the company to track financial performance and maintain effective control. Intranets also permit external business partners, shareholders and analysts to have limited access to financial data to build tighter relationships with these constituencies and provide them with timely, accurate information.

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Finance and Accounting Uses

Financial ReportsPublish financial data on a secure, controlled internally accessible web site.

Policies and ProceduresA central location for corporate policies and procedures related to finance and accounting.

BudgetingPublish historical and planning budgeting data, including projected and actual spending.

Asset ManagementPlace complete inventory of current assets online for review and update, allowing managers to assess the current distribution of assets.

Expense ReportsAllow employees to submit expense reports via email or electronic forms on secure web sites.

Unit Reporting and ForecastingAllow operating units or channel partners to report financial information and forecasts online in a secure manner.

Accounts Payable/Receivable SupportAllow customers and vendors to access payment history and status information.

PayrollAllow employees and managers to submit payroll information online, including withholding changes, automatic deposits and time sheets.

Benefits from Intranet Deployment

• Makes valuable information available throughout the enterprise while providing security for sensitive or confidential information.

• Eliminates the cost of printing and distributing information. • Updates and distribution are faster because the information is centralized.

• Accelerate and improve process for development of new budgets.

• Managers can make informed decisions on asset redeployment, addition and retirement.

• Reduces paperwork and costs associated with reimbursing expenses.• Validates input to reduce errors.

• Makes available up-to-date financial information for better-informed decision making.

• Leads to faster collection of receivables. • Leads to a higher level of customer satisfaction.• Assists in promoting closer relationships with vendors.

• Provides a higher level of efficiency in submitting information.• Easier and faster for employees and managers to make changes when status changes.• Up-to-date payroll information is available for payroll processing, minimizing errors due to out-of-date information.

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Weidenhammer Intranet SolutionsIn today’s world of instant access to information, Weidenhammer provides services and solutions that improve organizational communication, collaboration, and workforce productivity through the establishment of web-based gateways. Through a combination of industry and technical expertise, and leveraging “best of breed technology” from partners such as Microsoft and IBM, Weidenham-mer has assisted hundreds of clients in delivering improved business performance and functionality in the areas of Portals and Intranets. Weidenhammer provides solutions that help connect people, processes, and information, ensuring that information reaches recipients quickly, through the most appropriate medium.

Microsoft Office SharePoint TechnologiesMicrosoft Office SharePoint Technologies provides a single, integrated location where employees can efficiently collaborate with team members, find organizational resources, search for experts and corporate information, manage content and workflow, and leverage business insight to make better-informed decisions.

SharePoint Technologies provide services that enhance:

> For more information, visit our website at www.hammer.net.

• Collaboration - Allow teams to work together effectively, collaborate on and publishdocuments, maintain task lists, implement workflows, and share information.

• Search - Quickly and easily find people, expertise, and content.• Document management – Including integrated records management, version control,

and Web content management.• Workflows and electronic forms - to automate and streamline your business processes.• Information worker access - to critical business information, data analysis and review,

reports to make more informed decisions.

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