Automating Flux Analyses

Before ASI

The fifth largest utility company in the United States previously created flux analyses manually by exporting results from the sub ledger for two different periods, lining up the records, and striking a difference. This was a highly manual process that needed to occur during the month-end close window. 

What ASI Solved

The customer now runs these flux analyses automatically inside of ASI. These analyses provide much more than the prior method, which only showed the difference between the two periods. ASI shows the detailed drivers, including dollar amount impact, that make up the difference between the two periods. During a recent month-end close meeting, the Manager asked if any changes were made to rates that period that would have driven differences with the prior period. The verbal answer from the team was “no,” but a quick look at the ASI flux analysis showed dollar impacts related to changes in rates. A quick email confirmed that rates were changed in that period. This type of visibility was not possible to obtain in the tight close window without ASI. Not knowing this information would have resulted in a wrong end result answer, but having this information timely allowed the team to fix the issue, and re-process before finalizing the close.