SAP Advanced Financial Closing

Score7.7 out of 10

16 Reviews and Ratings

What is SAP Advanced Financial Closing?

The SAP Advanced Financial Closing solution helps organizations to meet regulatory disclosure mandates and gain real-time insights to make better decisions and ensure compliance.

Categories & Use Cases

Financial Close

Financial data consolidation
Consolidating data from several entities into a single statement using US GAAP, IFRS or other standards.
Category average: 7.6
Detailed Audit Trails
Tracing changes to data and processes that were run.
Category average: 8.8
Multi-currency management
Ability to handle foreign currency conversions during consolidation.
Category average: 6.8

Customizable Workflows
The ability to adapt the software to complete tasks in a particular order according to business needs.
Category average: 8.5
Journal entries and reports
Ability to enter journal entry adjustments and produce reports showing all journal entries for a specific period.
Category average: 8.1

Pros

Standardizes closing procedures across entities
Provides clear visibility into financial statement status
Increases efficiency and automation for faster closing operations

Cons

Complex initial setup and configuration processes
Challenges with system integration, particularly with legacy systems
Requires significant ongoing maintenance efforts

Petra Keller

Managing Director in Finance and Accounting at Kern AG (11-50 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SAP Advanced Financial Closing supports our financial closing process with monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements. Benefit: Learns the behavior and approval patterns of our controller teams and coordinates agent-based approvals and reviews across time periods

Pros

Existing business processes can be easily mapped in the system
a tool to ensure the quality and timely completion of our periodic financial statements, even as time and resource pressures increase
provides a centralized and user-friendly interface for all departments and employees involved

Cons

Complex setup and configuration
Especially for legacy systems and interfaces
Last-minute changes to closing procedures, charts of accounts, or responsibilities during an ongoing hard close are often difficult to implement without disrupting the entire process

Return on Investment

are ideal for directly supporting strategic business objectives in finance
Shortening closing cycles through automated workflows and real-time data validation
Elimination of Manual Excel Lists

Usability

Alternatives Considered

SAP Signavio Process Transformation Suite

Other Software Used

SAP Signavio Process Transformation Suite, Lucanet, Komda stationary

Nishant Patil

Consultant in Information Technology at GP (501-1000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a consultant, I used it to implement for my clients, its an amazing tool for clients with complex global presense

Pros

Close orchestration
tracking of activities
coordination with users

Cons

Integration with non SAP systems

Return on Investment

reduce our close time by 2 days

Usability

Alternatives Considered

BlackLine

Other Software Used

SAP Cloud ERP (SAP S/4HANA Cloud)

Marina Panadero

Consultor SAP in Information Technology at Imprex Europe SL (51-200 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use SAP Advanced Financial Closing to centrally plan, monitor, and execute our financial closing activities across entities and accounting teams.

Pros

SAP Advanced Financial Closing is particularly strong at standardizing the close process.
It gives very good visibility over the status of the close.
It manages dependencies between tasks very well.

Cons

Initial setup and template maintenance can be complex.
Error handling could be more business-friendly.
Reporting and dashboards could be more flexible

Return on Investment

SAP Advanced Financial Closing has had a positive impact on our business

Usability

Verified User

C-Level Executive in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We as System Integrators evaluate both the SAP Products and the Customer Business Challenges. We advise what is good for the Customer. In the process we recommend SAP AFC (Advanced Financial Close) to help Finance Teams shorten close cycles, improve governance and gain real-time visibility into close actives across SAP and Non-SAP systems.

Pros

Closing Process Templates and Automation for Faster Close
Real Time Monitoring and Analytics for Increased Transparency
Integration Capabilities for Improved Productivity

Cons

Licensing Cost is dampner for SMEs which are on the growth path
Integration Maintenance must improve with BTP & AI
Process Standardisation efforts are initially high and OCM adds to it

Return on Investment

Process Standardisation
Close Automation
Governance and Auditability

Usability

Verified User

Director in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Good tool, is not complicated to execute but still a few things to faciliate the different information and setup needed to give an overall picture. At the beggining the users minimize the usefullness but once they find out the items that solves from them it is adopted better

Pros

Visibility of the tasks
Communication

Cons

error status is of overall the task, not if there were errors in the execution
Clunky to make the definitions to organize the close
Connect better to sync Signavio/SAP Advanced Financial Closing

Return on Investment

About 10 hours from different teams during close time

SAP Advanced Financial Closing

What is SAP Advanced Financial Closing?

Categories & Use Cases