Account Reconciliation: Insights from Rico van Os of Peterson and Control Union

Who are you and what is your position?

"I am Rico van Os and my position is Group Controller at the company Peterson and Control Union. Previously I worked for 7 years as a chartered accountant at EY, where I mainly audited financial statements. Now I work on the other side of the table, where among other things I prepare our financial statements and perform consolidations using CCH Tagetik. I am also involved in transaction matching, which takes place at the invoice level and leads to account reconciliation."

How is your position related to account reconciliation?

"In my position, I am responsible with my supervisor for implementing the CCH Tagetik software package, including setting up transaction matching. We now match at Peterson on variables such as invoice number, amount, entity, you name it. I facilitate account reconciliation by making sure the tool is available to our users and guide users through the process, from completing templates to matching transactions."

Have you ever done a manual account reconciliation yourself?

"No, I've never done that. In my previous role as a chartered accountant, I was mainly auditing financial statements and not account reconciliation, let alone manually."

What do you see as the pitfalls of account reconciliation without software?

"What I see as pitfalls of account reconciliation without software is that manual reconciliation is error-prone. With software we can apply validations when uploading data, for example, such as checking that the amounts in the columns are both negative for revenue lines, rather than one of the amounts being negative and the other positive. These validations are already identified at the front end when uploading data into Tagetik, which prevents errors. In addition, software provides a central database where all data is stored, allowing detailed analysis. For us, since we work at invoice level, this is particularly valuable. For example, we can see how long invoices have been outstanding, even invoices from 2020 that have not yet been paid. This gives us valuable insights that we wouldn't have if we were doing manual account reconciliation. Additionally, given the number of companies we work with, over 150, manual reconciliation would just be unfeasible given the size of our company."

We read in marketing materials that software-based account reconciliation and/or transaction matching saves a lot of time. What are your experiences in practice?

"What I see as the benefits of software-based account reconciliation and transaction matching in practice include a significant reduction in error proneness. Software allows us to accurately analyze data, which helps identify problems and create a plan of action. For example, how will we ensure that old intercompany invoices are paid? We can answer these kinds of questions better thanks to software. Most importantly, using the software stimulates discussions within the group about open positions. Thanks to the software, we can collect and analyze all the data, making these discussions clear and allowing us to find solutions."

What are your experiences regarding the implementation of the CCH Tagetik solution for account reconciliation and transaction matching?

"Our implementation of Tagetik was quite quick. In just 3 months we completed the entire implementation, including consolidation, transaction matching, monthly reporting and more. We were an early adopter, so in the beginning we encountered some bugs, for example the number of lines read in doubled three times. This created some tension and the question of how we would handle this. Fortunately, together with Finext's experts, we solved this challenge within 2-3 days, so the software was functioning properly again.

The implementation of Tagetik has significantly streamlined our process, especially at the transaction matching level. This has contributed to efficiency, including with the external auditors during the financial statement audit. We can now clearly demonstrate what was done, how it was done and what was and was not matched, including the reasons for any discrepancies. This provides a solid audit trail that we can easily provide to our external auditors. The implementation was very positive and fast."

What would you say to a financial professional considering automating account reconciliation?

"I would seriously recommend that they consider Tagetik and further explore the opportunities Tagetik has to offer in this area. It provides real-time visibility, improves the reliability of financial data and contributes to management information. I would also recommend considering not only account reconciliation, but also transaction matching at the lowest level, depending on the needs of the business."

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