Managing finances in higher education can feel overwhelming, especially with constantly shifting regulations and the need for timely, accurate reporting. If you've ever found yourself buried under spreadsheets or caught in endless manual updates, you're not alone. Many institutions face the same hurdles. That's where OneStream comes in—a Corporate Performance Management (CPM) platform that brings together Consolidation, Financial Planning, Reporting, and Analytics, all in one place. In this blog, we'll dive into how OneStream can simplify financial management for higher education, helping institutions meet their goals while staying compliant.
The top finance challenges in Higher Education
Higher education institutions, particularly universities, navigate an increasingly competitive landscape. The pressure to modernize financial processes stems from:
- Regulatory Pressure:
Compliance with the Higher Education Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) and Financial Reporting Standard 102 (FRS 102) demands detailed financial analysis that surpasses traditional reporting methods. - Tight Reporting Deadlines:
Institutions must adhere to mandates from the Office for Students (OFS) to publish statutory accounts within 5 months post-year-end—a challenging timeline for complex organizations. - Manual Processes and Errors:
Traditional methods involve manual data handling in Excel, which is time-consuming and prone to errors, especially when analyzing endowment and restricted reserves.
How OneStream Transforms Financial Reporting in Higher Education
1. Automating Complex Financial Analysis
OneStream tackles some of the most intricate aspects of financial reporting, particularly in the areas of endowment and restricted reserves analysis.
- Endowment and Restricted Reserves:
Universities must present financial results across three categories: unrestricted, restricted, and endowment funds. Manually tracking these categories in Excel is labor-intensive and increases the risk of errors. OneStream automates this process, allowing institutions to save time and improve accuracy. - Flow Dimension:
This unique feature of OneStream simplifies the complexity of disclosing endowment and restricted reserves by linking balance sheet items with specific movements like additions, disposals, and transfers. For instance, it ensures that newly received endowments are correctly allocated without manual intervention.
2. Customization with User-Defined Dimensions
OneStream enhances flexibility with its user-defined dimensions, allowing institutions to tailor the platform to their specific financial reporting needs.
- Tailored Reporting:
The platform includes eight customizable dimensions in addition to commonly used ones like entity, account, and scenario. These dimensions help categorize income statement transactions, ensuring accurate reflection of all financial data in the reserves analysis. - Enhanced Data Integrity:
By automating complex tasks and leveraging these dimensions, OneStream drastically reduces the risk of errors, making the financial reporting process more reliable and efficient.
Streamlining Consolidation and Group Reporting in Higher Education
OneStream simplifies the consolidation of financial data, even across multiple entities within a university, by offering:
1. Simplified Consolidation
- Multi-Entity Management:
For large universities with multiple departments or campuses, consolidating financial data can be daunting. OneStream enables the creation of individual transformation rules, ensuring that all trial balance data is correctly analyzed and allocated to the appropriate group structure. - Dynamic Reporting:
The platform’s capabilities allow for dynamic group reporting, eliminating the need for constant review and change, thereby improving the efficiency of financial operations.
2. Automated Intercompany Eliminations
- Efficiency Gains: OneStream automatically eliminates intercompany transactions from both the income statement and the endowment and restricted reserves analysis. This automation significantly reduces manual workload and enhances the accuracy of financial reports.
Key Benefits of OneStream for Higher Education
1. Time Savings
Automation:
OneStream automates time-consuming, manual processes that traditionally relied on error-prone spreadsheets, allowing finance teams to focus on more strategic activities.
2. Improved Accuracy
Data Integrity:
The platform enhances the accuracy of financial reporting by reducing dependency on Excel and manual data entry, thereby minimizing the risk of errors.
3. Regulatory Compliance
Compliance:
OneStream’s bespoke automated solutions ensure that institutions meet the stringent requirements of SORP, FRS 102, and OFS.
Conclusion: A Future-Ready Solution
As higher education institutions face increasing regulatory pressures and a rapidly changing financial landscape, the need for modern, automated financial management tools becomes more critical. OneStream offers a comprehensive solution that not only improves the efficiency and accuracy of financial reporting but also ensures compliance with regulatory requirements. By automating complex tasks like endowment and restricted reserves analysis, OneStream empowers finance teams to focus on strategic decision-making, ultimately driving better financial outcomes for their institutions.
About AMCO Solutions
AMCO Solutions is a global leader in providing end-to-end business services for EPM and ERP solutions, with a particular focus on the OneStream platform. As a OneStream Diamond Partner, AMCO has a proven track record of delivering successful financial transformation projects in higher education, including at Cambridge University. With a global presence and a team of dedicated professionals, AMCO is your trusted partner in financial transformation.
Ready to take the next step?
Our OneStream implementation experts at AMCO are here to guide you forward. Book a meeting with us to explore how this unified platform can transform your higher education institution's financial processes.
Request a personalized demo and see the difference firsthand.
Our OneStream implementation experts at AMCO are here to guide you forward. Book a meeting with us to explore how this unified platform can transform your higher education institution's financial processes.
Request a personalized demo and see the difference firsthand.
