A solution implemented for the purpose of rolling financial forecasting and group accounting makes highly efficient use of automation
Hamina Energy is a diverse and modern energy company that is owned by the City of Hamina. The company is a pioneer in renewable energy and energy gases, with a special focus on wind power, bioenergy and the development of the LNG market.
Hamina Energy wanted to find software that would support both financial planning and group accounting. The company chose Tabella Business Tools software supplied by Invenco (now part of Innofactor). The co-operation and the Tabella deployment project kicked off in August 2021 with an efficient start-up meeting, followed by the customer providing the necessary basic information to establish the environment.
In the first stage, the companies of the Hamina Energy group were created in Tabella, complete with their cost center structures. To support reporting and monitoring, a project dimension was also created, along with a counter company for the purpose of automatic eliminations in group accounting. In parallel with the creation of the basic structures, an integration with the customer's Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system, to facilitate the downloading of actual accounting figures, and income statement and balance sheet reports were created.
The company carried out a restructuring process to separate its electricity network business, gas network business and district heating business into separate companies in the same fall as the Tabella solution was deployed. Due to the restructuring moves, the Hamina Energy group wanted to use Tabella for group accounting as quickly as possible. This was successfully accomplished, and the group prepared its consolidated financial statements for 2021 using Tabella. The customer's ERP system also needed to be adapted to make the overall solution as highly automated as possible.
The ERP system now has dedicated accounts for intra-group items, and the logic in the system also identifies the matching company for each intra-group transaction. As the specifications in the ERP system deviate from the counter-company logic used in Tabella, the integration converts the ERP system's identifiers into Tabella counter-company codes. This enables the automatic elimination of intra-group transactions in Tabella.
As the group accounting and financial planning project progressed, Invenco's consultants created reports in Tabella to support rolling 18-month forecasts. The customer's administrator users received training on the use of the solution at the beginning of October, to enable them to transfer existing forecasts into Tabella. The customer's administrator user later copied the forecast for use as the budget for 2022.
The transfer of forecasts and budgets from Tabella to the company's BI reporting system was automated to enable up-to-date and versatile reporting. In January 2022, Invenco's consultants trained the end-users in the customer's various companies on entering rolling forecasts. The users sign on to Tabella using Single-Sign-On (SSO) technology, which means they do not need to maintain separate passwords for the system.
The group's joint ventures were also created in Tabella to establish a complete group structure for the preparation of the consolidated financial statements. The automated consolidation of joint ventures is supported by a standardized feature in Tabella, which enables the consolidation of income statement and balance sheet items according to the applicable share of ownership. Dedicated units were also created for manual group functions, voucher entry and the eliminations of joint ventures.
Separate reports were created to facilitate the validation of intra-group items, in addition to which Tabella's standardized intra-group item validation tool is also used. The big picture can be viewed on the group consolidation sheet in Tabella, but all other Tabella reporting functions are also available at the group level. Budgets and forecasts can also be produced on a consolidated basis.
Principal Consultant Anna Lehto, who worked as a project manager in the project, is satisfied with the close co-operation between the parties:
"The project was extensive, but it was completed in a smooth and agile manner thanks to the customer's active participation and clear specifications. Regular follow-up meetings and using the iterative approach in close co-operation with Hamina Energy ensured that the project made continuous progress, while deviations were identified and changes made in a timely manner."
The project also went well from Hamina Energy's perspective.
"I'm very pleased by the fact that Tabella has met our financial planning and group accounting needs. The deployment process went smoothly, taking into consideration the changes that came with our organizational restructuring," says Chief Financial Officer Sanna Lahti from Hamina Energy.
"The service-mindedness demonstrated in the project by Invenco's consultants, and their in-depth expertise in both financial processes and the software being deployed, played a key role in the success of the project," says Controller Oili Joukainen from Hamina Energy.
Close co-operation with Hamina Energy is continuing, with the next step being to pilot the deployment of an investment planning tool on Tabella and the monitoring of planning by comparing plans to actual outcomes. The aim is to develop a balance sheet forecast, which is an important report for the group's business planning. In addition, the customer's administrator user is preparing a cash flow statement on Tabella with the support of Invenco's consultants. The aim is to achieve a solution that is as highly automated as possible, as this will enable the customer's administrator users to maintain the system as independently as possible.
The following solutions, among others, are part of the overall solution implemented for Hamina Energy:
On June 30, 2022, Innofactor acquired the entire share capital of Invenco Oy, a privately owned company specializing in data solutions. As of July 1, 2022, Invenco Oy's name was changed to Innofactor Invenco Oy. Invenco's employees continue their work with the new company. The roles and duties of Invenco's experts remained unchanged.
Please refer to our stock exchange release for more information on the acquisition.
Stock exchange release: Innofactor acquires Invenco"I'm very pleased by the fact that Tabella has met our financial planning and group accounting needs. The deployment process went smoothly, taking into consideration the changes that came with our organizational restructuring."
Sanna Lahti
Chief Financial Officer
Hamina Energy
