Reporting process

by Gilberto Gamboa

Challenge

I received a promotion of being the Regional Controller, along with my actual position of

Country CFO. The main responsibility of this new position was to weekly report the results

for the week and estimate the final results of the month of 4 countries and consolidated

those.

When I was receiving the position, I went to visit my colleague, former Regional Controller,

who was promoted to Country CEO and now had interest conflicts of being the controller.

The process to consolidate the information of the 4 countries was that the country controllers

sent him an email with the main figures for the week, he forwarded those to his country

accountant who consolidated it, the accountant sent him the consolidated report and he

finally reported to the headquarters. The whole process took almost a full business day to

complete.

Given that my responsibilities as Country CFO demanded more attention because my

country had more operations, I decided to change the process in order to reduce the

duration and to ensure standardization in the format, and actually, reduce the human

intervention, making that the country controllers work directly in the consolidation file.

Selection

Having in mind that there was a different kind of users of file, I select some of those to

determine what was the main important things to take into account in the moment of the

process of the information and the reading of the same. In that sense, we form a group of

the country controllers, country CEOs, IT guys, and people from the headquarters to find the

best solutions possible.

Application

For the first lunch, we focused on the consolidation process in order to avoid the copy-paste

processes and reducing the manual intervention so, we build an online application where all

the controllers fill the figure of their respective country, along with the comments. During the

first week of the first stage, we sent the new report along with the old one, and after the

meeting with the headquarters team, we ask for a post-meeting review of the new format, all

the assistants provided their comments and suggestions that were the input for the next

report.

For the second lunch, we focused on the feedback received from the assistants to the review

meeting, we adjust the report and we were able to eliminate the old one. The final report

included all the suggestions received but the best of all is that reduced the time investment

from about 36 men hours to around 8, without missing any valuable information and

including new data that the stakeholders appreciated so much.

Insight

With the application of the learning launch tool, the controller’s team along with the main

stakeholders identified different assumptions and designed tools to test these assumptions.

On the other hand, we found probable requirements from headquarters, expecting to find

that a more agile approach that improved the workflow, reduced the time investment of

everyone in the team and that both our team and the key stakeholders were very satisfied

with the results of the exercise and the new report.

The final report was slightly different from what we anticipated, but the differences were

more related to form and a few topics to be included in the report.

Approach

Despite that, the team was not used to design thinking tools, they were able to work with the

learning launch that was the appropriate tool. The team needs to review the insight gained

from our first two launches and continuously evaluate this insight and new ones into future

launch designs, especially taking into account that the full automation of the reports will take

at least 4 years more according to the ERP implementation plan of the headquarter.


Reporting process by Gilberto Gamboa Challenge I received a promotion of being the Regional Controller , along with my actual position of Country CFO . The main responsibility of this new position was to weekly report the results for the week and estimate the final results of the month of 4 countries and consolidated those . When I was receiving the position , I went to visit my colleague , former Regional Controller , who was promoted to Country CEO and now had interest conflicts of being the controller . The process to consolidate the information of the 4 countries was that the country controllers sent him an email with the main figures for the week , he forwarded those to his country accountant who consolidated it , the accountant sent him the consolidated report and he finally reported to the headquarters . The whole process took almost a full business day to complete . Given that my responsibilities as Country CFO demanded more attention because my country had more operations , I decided to change the process in order to reduce the duration and to ensure standardization in the format , and actually , reduce the human intervention , making that the country controllers work directly in the consolidation file . Selection Having in mind that there was a different kind of users of file , I select some of those to determine what was the main important things to take into account in the moment of the process of the information and the reading of the same . In that sense , we form a group of the country controllers , country CEOs , IT guys , and people from the headquarters to find the best solutions possible . Application For the first lunch , we focused on the consolidation process in order to avoid the copy - paste processes and reducing the manual intervention so , we build an online application where all the controllers fill the figure of their respective country , along with the comments . During the first week of the first stage , we sent the new report along with the old one , and after the meeting with the headquarters team , we ask for a post - meeting review of the new format , all the assistants provided their comments and suggestions that were the input for the next report . For the second lunch , we focused on the feedback received from the assistants to the review meeting , we adjust the report and we were able to eliminate the old one . The final report included all the suggestions received but the best of all is that reduced the time investment from about 36 men hours to around 8 , without missing any valuable information and including new data that the stakeholders appreciated so much . Insight With the application of the learning launch tool , the controller ’s team along with the main stakeholders identified different assumptions and designed tools to test these assumptions . On the other hand , we found probable requirements from headquarters , expecting to find that a more agile approach that improved the workflow , reduced the time investment of everyone in the team and that both our team and the key stakeholders were very satisfied with the results of the exercise and the new report . The final report was slightly different from what we anticipated , but the differences were more related to form and a few topics to be included in the report . Approach Despite that , the team was not used to design thinking tools , they were able to work with the learning launch that was the appropriate tool . The team needs to review the insight gained from our first two launches and continuously evaluate this insight and new ones into future launch designs , especially taking into account that the full automation of the reports will take at least 4 years more according to the ERP implementation plan of the headquarter .