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Financial Shared Service Centre in the Netherlands Reduces Paper-based Reconciliation, Review, and Approval
Overview
The largest Financial Shared Service Centre in the Netherlands, with over 400 professionals, Accounting Plaza helps organizations grow their core business by providing flexible HR and Finance back office applications and services. The Accounting Plaza Shared Service Centre processes over one million salary slips and over four million invoices a year. In addition to helping businesses optimize central office processes, Accounting Plaza provides consulting services. Accounting Plaza enhances client processes to improve workflow, productivity, financial transparency, and decrease operational costs. Accounting Plaza has been recognized and rewarded consistently since 2004 for its process improvement capabilities.
Challenges
Accounting Plaza required a general ledger reconciliation and certification solution to provide to its main client Ahold, an international group of food retail and food service companies that operate under their own brand names in The Netherlands, but also with brands in the United States and other parts of Europe. Brands include Albert Hein, Albert, Etos, Gall & Gall, Stop and Shop, Giant Landover and more. Accounting Plaza is providing Accounting and HR-Services for Ahold Europe (Netherlands and Central Europe). Accounting Plaza wanted to move to a paperless office, eliminating the need to provide hard copy documents for review. Additionally, Accounting Plaza wanted a vehicle for account reconciliation storage, one that would be accessible for the peer review process and internal and external audits. The system needed to be available enterprise-wide and provide transparency to all account reconciliations, including approximately 2,500 general ledger accounts. Users of the system would include personnel at Accounting Plaza, Ahold (reconcilers, reviewers, and approvers), and Deloitte (auditors performing annual audits). When AssureNET GL is successfully implemented for Ahold (Netherlands) and Ahold Central Europe, Accounting Plaza will use the system for all other suitable clients.
Objectives
- Reduce paper-based reconciliation, review, and approval
- Enterprise-wide application that improves communication over distances, providing real-time information from any location at any time
- Support for a variety of balance sheet reconciliations
- Workflow management that allows prioritization
- Proactive identification of current and potential compliance issues
- Real-time reporting via dashboards, standardized templates, or customized reports
- Built-in controls to support data integrity
Capabilities Provided
Accounting Plaza began implementing Trintech’s AssureNET GL for general ledger reconciliation and certification in February 2007. To date, five business units for Ahold are using the system: Gall & Gall (Q3 and Q4 2007), Etos, Etos NS BV/CV and SpA (Q4 2007). Gall & Gall successfully completed its first closing period using the application in October 2007. The other business units are using AssureNET GL for year end closing at this date (January 1, 2008). Accounting Plaza has plans to implement four more Ahold business units by the end of Q1 2008.
Testimonial
“AssureNET GL helps Accounting Plaza reconcile balance sheet accounts more efficiently. As a result of standardization and centralization, Ahold can monitor how reconciliations are being reconciled, reviewed, and certified from any location at any time.” - Mikel Fernandes Mendes, Project Leader, Afdeling CoE
