GNM_RCS_Financial_Reporting_FS

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• 1. .Introduction

     1. Purpose

GNM makes financial commitments to contributors by entering into commissions and contracts with them, and also committing to royalty payments, expense payments and other payments to contributors.

Although RCS does not record and manage budgets it does record financial information that is useful for financial analysis, especially for month-end and year-end reporting in areas such as accruals and prepayments.

• 1. Scope

This document is intended as a high-level document outlining the main financial reporting available within RCS. It is not a detailed functional specification from which the system could have originally been developed.

Separate Technical specifications document the implementation of these functions.

• 1. .Accruals

At every month-end in the GNM financial calendar an accruals report is required from RCS listing all financial commitments made during the month that have not been sent as payment instructions to Oracle AP.

The figures from this report can be added to the main financial reporting from the Oracle eBusiness Suite in order to get an accurate picture of the month’s editorial expenditure.

The main features of the accruals reports are:

• • All fees are converted to GBP; and

  • Fees are listed individually, including all 8 chart of accounts segments, along with the supplier details and payment type.

• 1. Editorial Commissions & other payments accruals report

This report lists all commission and expense payments that are yet to be sent to Oracle AP (as of the last date in the period) that apply to the period being reported on.

The report lists accruals for the last financial period although a different period can be selected in the parameter screen if needed.

The report is produced by a batch job and is emailed to the requestor in csv format and can be loaded into Excel.

• 1. Editorial Contract accruals report

This report lists all contract fees that are yet to be sent to Oracle AP (by the last date in the period) that apply to the period being reported on.

The accrual amount in this report is calculated by comparing the period that the fee covers, and the number of days that this period overlaps with the financial period, calculating a pro-rata value.

The report lists accruals for the last financial period although a different period can be selected in the parameter screen if needed.

The report is produced by a batch job and is emailed to the requestor in csv format and can be loaded into Excel.

• 1. Syndication accruals report

This report accrues the amounts owed to GNM against syndication contracts, where the invoice instruction has yet to be sent to Oracle AR.

As with editorial accruals, the calculation works out the proportion of the fee to be accrued based on the number of days overlap between the financial period and the period the fee covers.

The report lists accruals for the last financial period although a different period can be selected in the parameter screen if needed.

The report is produced by a batch job and is emailed to the requestor in csv format and can be loaded into Excel.

• 1. .Prepayments

At every month-end in the GNM financial calendar a prepayments report is required from RCS that lists all early payments (pre-payments) made during the month that have been sent as payment instructions to Oracle AP.

The figures from this report can be offset against the financial reporting from the Oracle eBusiness Suite in order to get an accurate picture of the month’s editorial expenditure.

This report lists commission prepayments over the last calendar year although a different start date can be selected in the parameter screen.

The report is produced by a batch job and is emailed to the requestor in csv format and can be loaded into Excel.

• 1. .Forecast report

GNM Finance department forecast contract spend on a quarterly basis. As specific report is available in RCS to help with the forecasting. It lists the details of all current contracts, totalling all scheduled payment instructions, for each chart of accounts combination, by month for the next 12 months. If there are any periods beyond the contract end date the report predicts the spend in those months by applying any RPI increase to the pervious rate.

The report is produced by a batch job and is emailed to the requestor in csv format and can be loaded into Excel.

• 1. .Transaction list

The Transactions list is a screen in RCS that shows all payments that have been scheduled for a given supplier. The user selects the supplier they wish to see when the screen opens. This screen enables a user to see all types of payments to a supplier in a single list.

Each payment is shown with its unique id, description, currency, fees, chart of accounts codes, originating reference (contract, commission, expense or royalty) and a status field that describes the processing that has occurred against the transaction including any reason for delays in the payment being processed.

Once in the screen the user can switch to look at different suppliers.

• 1. .Spend analysis

The spend analysis reporting allows a user to request a report on expenditure: the user can decide what to include in terms of rows shown and columns included.

In the first instance the user may restrict the report by any or all of the following:

• • Reporting group (a pre-defined group of cost centres);

  • Any or all of the eights chart of accounts segments;

  • Supplier name; and

  • The user who entered the original payment.

Next the user can choose any or all of these payment types to include:

• • Commission payments;

  • Spike fees;

  • Contract payments;

  • Contributor expenses;

  • Staff expenses;

  • NCS payments (now obsolete in RCS); and

  • Syndication royalties.

Then the user can choose to include any combination of the 25+ pre-defined columns that are available for this report.

Finally the user enters the period over which the report is to be run. Lists of standard periods e.g. financial periods, are available to make this easier.

Prior to requesting the report the user can name the report criteria selected and save it for future use i.e. effectively defining a report they will be able to run again.

The report is produced by a batch job and is emailed to the requestor in csv format and can be loaded into Excel.

• 1. .Delayed payments

The delayed payments report lists commission and expense payments that have not been sent as payment instructions to Oracle AP because they are delayed.

The payment status (including reason for any delay) is shown in the report for each payment listed and mirrors the status shown in the screens.

This report can be run for one cost centre or all of the cost centres the user has access to.

The report is produced by a batch job and is emailed to the requestor in csv format and can be loaded into Excel.

End of Document