Record to report (R2R) is a finance and accounting management process that involves collecting, processing, analyzing, validating, organizing, and finally reporting accurate financial data. R2R process provides strategic, financial, and operational feedback on the performance of the organization to inform management and external stakeholders. R2R process also covers the steps involved in preparing and reporting on the overall accounts.
This function helps to assist the companies in the preparation and submission of various statutory reports that require in-depth and specialized domain knowledge. This process enables companies to consolidate global performance across various channels and create global income statements and balance sheets. This provides visibility to various channel heads to understand and comment on the key variance drivers with reference to plans and past years' performance. All the activities from recording to reporting of transactions are included in the "Record to Report" process also known as "R2R", “Account to Report”, “A2R”, General Ledger, “Finance & Accounting” process. People with extensive training/experience with knowledge of client/country-specific requirements are important for building an effective “Record to Report” process.
The record-to-Report process is an end-to-end process that includes, general accounting, sub-ledger accounting, tax compliance, regulatory compliance, financial analysis, and reporting and interacts with the functions of budgeting and forecasting and internal and external audit. It includes all subsequent activities after the recording financial transactions related to the financial close consolidation, through the external reporting of the Company’s financial results. The R2R process ends with the completion of account reconciliations of balances generated during the financial close process.
The four core steps in the record to report process are
The processing cycle is where the majority of data required for the Record to Report process is generated. The R2R process begins when recording occurs in a general ledger singly or jointly on Management GAAP and Statutory accounting basis. This step happens once the maintenance and closure of sub-ledgers are completed. Recording transactions includes documenting revenues (by invoices or sales receipts), and entering purchases (in the account payable account) and expenditures (in the check register). This step sometimes also involves high-level accounting tasks, such as recording sales orders, tracking prospective customers, and projecting sales opportunities and cash flow.
To record and classify a transaction to appropriate accounts, a proper understanding of the accounting equation is and accounting standards and practices is a must. Calculating and summarizing transactions in a traditional accounting system is a tedious process and automated accounting frees accountants from these repetitive tasks by calculating and summarizing hundreds or thousands of individual transactions and generating reports to satisfy a variety of stakeholders.
Once the processing cycle is complete, the next cycle is to close the books. Closing of Management GAAP books is done following the common R2R Organizational Global Closing Calendar along with the closing of statutory accounting books. Close Cycle is the elapsed time for posting transactions to the general ledger and financial reporting systems through locking down the general ledger.
The consolidation cycle is the next pivotal step in the Record to Report process and this step allows companies to perform eliminations, reconcile intercompany balances and produce the data required to generate financial statements by entities. The consolidation cycle must address both internal and external reporting needs. Consolidation and elimination include completion of within and outside own Business eliminations, intercompany reconciliations, and other post-close activities leading to final financial statements at the consolidated “Consolidating Entity” segment level.
The reporting cycle is the formal process of data gathering, assimilating, performing analysis, and distributing the results. Throughout a leading practice close and consolidation cycle, management is receiving reports that address key indicators and statistics. The key to this process is the flow of the information necessary to provide accuracy in an efficient manner. This would include information from all source systems and sometimes requires a support process to accomplish it. Reporting cycle includes submission of financial data and commentary to the Organization’s Corporate Headquarters, external reporting, and government reporting.
The accounting system records the economic data about business activities and events, the next logical step is to prepare the business reports and provide them to the stakeholders according to their informational needs. The double-entry system enables accountants to prepare some standard reports like trial balance, profit and loss account, and balance sheet. Accounting reports are based on generally accepted accounting standards and these reports are powerful tools to help the business owner, accountant, banker, or investor analyze the results of their operations. Stakeholders use accounting reports as a primary source of information on which they base their decisions. They use other information as well. For example, in deciding whether to extend credit to a company, a banker might use economic forecasts to assess the future demand for the company’s products. The banker might inquire about the ability and reputation of the managers of the business.
The accuracy and integrity of the financial statements largely depend on the efficiency of transactional bookkeeping activities. People with extensive training/experience with knowledge of client/country-specific requirements are important for building an effective “Record to Report” process. This function helps to assist the companies in the preparation and submission of various statutory reports that require in-depth and specialized domain knowledge. This process enables companies to consolidate global performance across various channels and create global income statements and balance sheets. This provides visibility to various channel heads to understand and comment on the key variance drivers with reference to plans and past years' performance.
In this article, we will describe how to determine if an account needs adjustment entries due to the application of the matching concept. Learners will get a thorough understanding of the adjustment process and the nature of the adjustment entries. We will discuss the four types of adjustments resulting from unearned revenue, prepaid expenses, accrued expenses, and accrued revenue.
GL - Different Type of Journals
Two basic types of journals exist: general and special. In this article, the learner will understand the meaning of journalizing and the steps required to create a journal entry. This article will also discuss the types of journals and will help you understand general journals & special journals. In the end, we will explain the impact of automated ERPs on the Journalizing Process.
Defining Organizational Hierarchies
A hierarchy is an ordered series of related objects. You can relate hierarchy with “pyramid” - where each step of the pyramid is subordinate to the one above it. One can use drill up or down to perform multi-dimensional analysis with a hierarchy. Multi-dimensional analysis uses dimension objects organized in a meaningful order and allows users to observe data from various viewpoints.
Different Types of Organizational Structures
Modern business organizations run multiple product and service lines, operate globally, leverage large number of registered legal entities, and operate through complex matrix relationships. To stay competitive in the current global business environment, they must often develop highly diverse and complex organizational structures that cross international borders.
GL - Unearned / Deferred Revenue
Unearned revenue is a liability to the entity until the revenue is earned. Learn the concept of unearned revenue, also known as deferred revenue. Gain an understanding of business scenarios in which organizations need to park their receipts as unearned. Look at some real-life examples and understand the accounting treatment for unearned revenue. Finally, look at how the concept is treated in the ERPs or automated systems.
What is a Business Eco System?
The goal of a business is to generate capital appreciation and profits for its owners or stakeholders by engaging in provision of goods and services to customers within the eco system/framework governed by respective laws(local/international). The eco system involves various entities that the business works with for delivery of a product or service.
There are two commonly used methods of accounting - Cash Basis and the Accruals Basis. Understand the difference between accruals and reversals. Recap the earlier discussion we had on accruals and reversals and see the comparison between these two different but related accounting concepts. Understand how the action of accruing results in reversals subsequently in the accounting cycle.
Team-Based Organizational Structure
Team-based structure is a relatively new structure that opposes the traditional hierarchical structure and it slowly gaining acceptance in the corporate world. In such a structure, employees come together as team in order to fulfill their tasks that serve a common goal.
GL - Review & Approve Journals
Review and Approval mechanisms ensure that the accounting transaction is reasonable, necessary, and comply with applicable policies. Understand why we need review and approval processes, what are they, and how they are performed in automated general ledger systems. Learn the benefits of having journal approval mechanisms in place.
In this article we will focus on and understand the accounting process which enables the accounting system to provide the necessary information to business stakeholders. We will deep dive into each of the steps of accounting and will understand how to identify accounting transactions and the process for recording accounting information and transactions.
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