For more than a decade, CFOs and their finance organizations have struggled to add a strategic dimension to their day-to-day operations. However, as the volume and complexity of transactions grow, finance functions remain mired in a transactional focus. Furthermore, in today's challenging economy, CFOs are charged with prioritizing work that impacts the achievement of a company's goals for profitable growth.

To achieve financial excellence, CFOs must effectively answer key strategic questions: Is cash available for acquisitions or to fuel innovations? Are the right controls in place to ensure Sarbanes-Oxley compliance? Is the company efficient – and strategically effective – in the right areas? Is growing costing too much?

Study Scope

Business performance benchmarking for financial excellence has been leveraged by over 650 companies, and includes the following studies:

• Finance
• Financial compliance
• Finance shared services

Example Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Finance	Financial Compliance	Finance Shared Services
Finance costs as a percentage of revenue Finance FTEs per $ billion revenue Time to close the books Days sales outstanding (DSO) Uncollectible accounts receivable write offs	Cost per control Days per internal audit	Headcount and transaction costs Cycle times Error rates Service level agreement ( SLA ) violates

Example Insight

Best practice: The general ledger and downstream financial systems are integrated in such a way that account data is up-to-date and synchronized at all times.

Participation

Participation in benchmarking is free of charge. Register now to participate in benchmarking and for more information. If you have general questions regarding SAP benchmarking program initiatives, contact us at benchmarking@sap.com.