Converting to Sarbanes-Oxley, international accounting standards, and other regulations, have put enormous pressure on finance departments. Developments in technology mean that users and stakeholders expect data to be delivered instantly and without errors.

New regulations, including fair value (volatility) thinking, are driving the focus on reporting accuracy, timeliness, transparency, and budgeting and performance management.

Maintaining a high-quality financial reporting structure raises concerns about:

• Late delivery of information
• Inconsistencies between internal and external reports
• Manual intervention, increasing the number of errors
• Outdated processes
• Lack of transparency.

KPMG's Global Advisory Services team works with the firm's clients to develop their finance departments. We look in detail at the reporting infrastructure and the demands made on it. We help clients take a balanced approach to satisfying immediate and future requirements, while working to keep development costs down.

How KPMG Can Help

KPMG firms can help with both short and long term issues. Our initial approach may be to help clients with:

• Meeting new accounting standards
• Coordinating systems following a merger, acquisition, divestiture, or restructure
• Coping with new applications
• Transition to a financial shared services center.

In the longer term, we can take a look at broader strategies. We can help finance departments take advantage of new processes and technology and achieve a balance between performance, risk, and control.

Our tools and methodologies help clients align finance objectives more closely with their broader business growth.