Chart of Accounts Design

Although you may not think of it this way, your general ledger database is a “high-tech” tool - a data warehouse with five dimensions:

• time (fiscal period and year)
• organizational entity (business unit)
• natural account (object account)
• sub-account (subsidiary account)
• ledger type (e.g., actual, budget, statistical)

This database requires an up-to-date coding structure, i.e., your chart of accounts (COA), to be effective. If your company has not redesigned its COA within the last five to eight years you most likely are experiencing two or more of the following:

• Your functional managers depend on their own month-end reports
  to explain operating results and make little use of the month-end
  financial reporting package.
• Your financial analysts are handicapped by a lack of reliable,
  relevant detail when performing their studies.
• The key entry of ledger data into spreadsheets at month-end
  is a major and error prone activity.
• There is a two to five day delay between the final ledger closing
  and issuance of your complete month-end reporting package.

GL Associates has been helping companies of all sizes for over 15 years with the redesign of their ledgers to speed closings and improve financial reporting. No consulting firm of any size has a more experienced team performing this work. Our long list of satisfied Fortune 500 clients demonstrates this point.

Please contact us if you would like further information about our Chart of Accounts design services.