ARBURG: Group-wide balance sheet consolidation

ARBURG is leading the processes in the area of consolidated financial statements into the future and has legal obligations, partial financial statements, currency conversions and central consolidation securely and efficiently under control. To ensure that the ambitious project is a success, the pioneer of plastic injection moulding has chosen the IT consulting company IBsolution as its partner.

Switches, plugs and cell phone shells − many everyday items are produced using ARBURG injection moulding machines. The German machine manufacturer is one of the pioneers of plastic injection moulding and has significantly influenced its development. The family-owned company was founded in 1923 and is now one of the world‘s leading manufacturers of injection moulding machines for plastics processing. Flexible robotic systems, manufacturing cells and peripheral equipment complete the portfolio. Whether for micro parts weighing just a few hundredths of a gram or injection moulded parts weighing around 2.5 kilograms − customers from all plastics processing sectors rely on the quality of ARBURG machines. The company has a local presence for customers all over the world via a global sales and service network.

Fast and secure to consolidated closing figures

More than 2,000 employees work for ARBURG at its headquarters in Lossburg and in its subsidiaries in 23 countries. The size of the group presents the company with an immense challenge, particularly when it comes to the annual financial statements. The task is to consolidate the balance sheets of the subgroups and to document all work steps without any gaps. Both country-specific and international guidelines have to be met. Since the individual financial statements are prepared in accordance with the respective local laws, central controlling must standardize the values and adjust them in accordance with the guidelines of the German Commercial Code. This applies to profits and losses, but also to receivables, liabilities and investment income. Many figures have to be revalued. In order to speed up the consolidation of the balance sheets, those responsible decided to introduce integrated software. Controlling should be able to concentrate more on analyzing the overall group result again and provide management with valuable data for corporate management.

ARBURG selected the IT consulting company IBsolution as its partner for this challenging project. “IBsolution impressed us above all with its extensive expert knowledge in the areas of capital consolidation and currency translation. But the cost-benefit ratio was also excellent,” says Andreas Dümmler, Division Manager Information Systems at ARBURG. The software implementation was preceded by several intensive workshops. After IBsolution had worked out all the requirements together with the company’s controlling and IT departments, a detailed concept ensured that the new SAP consolidation software fitted smoothly into the existing IT landscape. In addition, the functions could be tested with real data − a decisive advantage for the correct configuration of the software.

Double-cleansed data basis

The consultants integrated the solution into the existing SAP environment, but also incorporated various third-party systems such as Microsoft Navision/Microsoft Dynamics NAV. IBsolution built the consolidation process in three steps. In the first step, the fixed ledger with the summary table GLT3 prepares the data from SAP ERP Financials for consolidation. To do this, the software creates a list in parallel with the operational postings, in which it enriches and compresses the figures. SAP Business Warehouse (BW) then automatically processes the information from the GLT3 list and the non-SAP systems, prepares it, and brings it into a uniform form. This ensures significantly higher data quality. The software does not access the accounting systems directly, but pulls the values from SAP BW and thus has a doubly cleansed and all-around reliable database.

Convert currencies reliably

For legally compliant accounting in accordance with the German Commercial Code, the financial statements of the subgroups must translate all figures from foreign currencies into euros. Reliable and correct currency valuation was therefore a key issue for ARBURG. With the new solution, the values can be transferred and at the same time exchange rate fluctuations and other changes can be taken into account.

“Previously, the controlling department was faced with the time-consuming task of converting the items using spreadsheets – an enormous effort in view of 33 units and a total of 16 different currencies,” explains Joachim Wössner, the department head responsible for controlling. ARBURG has now replaced this procedure and, thanks to automated processes, will be able to determine the values quickly and reliably in future. As a result, the company also benefits from greater transparency in its foreign business, because the bookings can be displayed both by subgroup and by currency.

More freedom for data analysis

Transparent monitoring opens up new possibilities in process design. For example, the company is no longer dependent on experts for every step of the process. Tasks can be distributed among several shoulders. Employees benefit from the standardized processes and quickly find their way around the systems.

With the help of status monitors, central controlling can track all processes precisely: Which figures are still missing? Where is the process hitting a snag? This division of tasks relieves the controllers. They can increasingly take on a controlling function.“The team has more freedom and can concentrate more on analysis,” confirms Joachim Weiß, Head of Finance and Accounting. Once the data has been entered correctly, the controllers can automatically copy the values into the consolidated financial statements. This makes it possible to create balance sheets more quickly and avoid transfer errors.

Safely meet legal requirements

Already during the implementation phase, IBsolution intensively trained the employees of ARBURG’s IT department in the new software. “Thanks to the good knowledge transfer, we were able to quickly maintain the solution ourselves and provide support,” says Andreas Dümmler. “As a result, we always have reliable, consolidated data and our annual financial statements reliably meet all legal requirements.”