by Gary Simon
Financial or statutory consolidation is a specialist activity steeped in complex accounting standards and regulatory reporting requirements that can vary quite significantly across the world. As such, since the introduction of consolidation applications in the mid-eighties, financial reporting has been the preserve of highly skilled teams of specialists frequently working as a separate strand of the finance organisation, creating a 'silo' mentality reinforced by ever more pressing statutory deadlines and complex information needs.

Yet to view statutory consolidation in a 'vacuum' – whose purpose is limited to providing historic reporting for the benefit of governments, regulators and investors is to miss the point. 'Actuals' reporting is the lynchpin of performance management and the gateway to superior business performance.

So why are so many organizations seemingly hidebound by outmoded ways of working?

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Gary Simon is Group Publisher of FSN Publishing Limited and Managing Editor of FSN Newswire. He is a graduate of London University, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a Fellow of the British Computer Society with more than 27 years’ experience of implementing management and financial reporting systems. He is the author of four books, many product reviews and white papers and as a leading authority on the financial systems market is a popular and independent speaker on market developments. Formerly a partner in Deloitte for more than 16 years, he has led some of the most complex information management assignments for global enterprises in the private and public sector.