Industry Specialized Services

FS - Financial Services

Infosys F&A BPM services for BFSI covers the entire spectrum of F&A processes in banking and financial services, helping reduce the cost of processing and handle volume spikes effectively using technology and analytics as per our client preferences. Our domain expertise in combination with our BFSI experience helps our clients achieve top quartile performance.

Some specialized F&A processes handled by us include:

• Liquidity reporting: As per IFRS 9, which regulates the accounting treatment of financial instruments and aims to discipline the Liquidity Risk and the effort of the IASB to introduce provisions designated to give relevant and useful information on the entity’s future cash flows.
• F&A systems recon: Operations are Core Banking, including DDA (Checking / Current), savings, credit cards, merchant, and Central Bank (e.g., The Fed in the United States).
• Treasury: Due from (Nostro), Due To (Vostro), EFT (e.g. Fedwire and ACH in the United States), Foreign Exchange, etc.
• Capital: Trades, cash, positions/holdings, derivatives, etc.
• Accounting: Period end close, general ledger, AR/AP, balance sheet, prepaids, loans, suspense, settlement, etc.
• Financial planning and analysis: Monthly flash reporting on AUM and cash flow by asset class and portfolio, AUM reporting by portfolio and asset class, cash flow reporting by portfolio and asset class, business metric system report – P&L, IT costs, headcount, AUM by asset class; monthly, quarterly cash flow and budget forecasts, and fund reporting

Manufacturing

Infosys F&A BPM services for manufacturing covers the entire spectrum of services from pure-play transactional services to higher-end services such as support for Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance, internal controls, taxes – direct and indirect, and GAAP-IFRS convergence. In the process, we have crated outcomes for our clients by reducing the cost of operations, helping them become a world-class finance organization and implementing effective controls. Our domain expertise, in combination with our manufacturing experience, helps our clients achieve top quartile performance. Infosys manufacturing practice contributes to ~25% of revenue for the BPM organization across hi-tech and discrete manufacturing services.

Some specialized F&A processes handled by us include:

Divestiture accounting: This is a specialized accounting service provided during disinvestment or selling of intellectual property rights, corporate acquisitions and mergers, strategic business restricting, and court-ordered divestments. This involves complex accounting maneuvering as a result of setting-up of new finance org-structures, implementation of new ERP, and managing cut-over with the parent organization.

Deductions management: Globally companies are inundated with excessive claims for deductions and chargebacks against receivables. A significant portion of these claims are invalid or written-off. They drain time and resources from marketing, sales, credit, collections, accounts receivables, customer service, and distribution personnel as they need to research and resolve deductions. Major reasons include short shipment, on invoice price issues, off invoice discounts, and unplanned returns. Predictive analytics-based approach involving historical data analysis and implementation of recommendations expedites claim resolution and frees-up locked funds.

Channel incentives accounting includes ensuring that the accounting practices are up-to-date and capable of handling the legal risks that a channel incentives and rewards program exposes the company to. This includes:

• Incentives calculation: Commissions and reports, corrections to sales / commissions files,
• Payment: Manage partner eligibility and ensure timely payment, ensure accurate payments against respective sales for defined programs
• Reconcile / reporting: Reconcile sales data with individual partners’ sales and payments, reporting and analytics for promotion effectiveness, partner network evaluation, etc. Resolve any setup issues such as account setup, sales, etc.
• Onboarding / training: Profile management and certifications, account set-up process for partner onboarding, etc.

Retail, consumer packaged goods, logistics (RCPGL)

Infosys BPM excels in finance and accounting across the industry, offering end-to-end services to our clients. Some specialized F&A process that we deliver for the RCPGL industries are:

Store P&L / profitability analysis: P&L analysis with detailed explanation on the variance beyond threshold shared with the client's management team / controllers assist them in decision making.

Restaurant accounting / common area maintenance accounting: We do pioneering work in accounting services, cash / bank reconciliations, resolving open items within stipulated timelines, inventory reconciliations, accruals and liabilities, and prepaid expenses among other activities.

Rent accounting: For restaurant chains, advance rent paid for the year to be amortized for the next 12 months. If an eatery is closed before the stipulated period, we ensure proper information flows to the Controller's group to recover any rent paid in advance.

Cash in transit accounting: A unique process in the restaurant industry. Eateries remotely located do not have easy access to banks. Hence they record sales in an integrated software, which interfaces with the client's ERP. Once the cash is deposited to the bank, it appears in bank statement on the next working day, and moved to the cash in transit account through a journal posted by the treasury team. This is reconciled with the debit appearing from the site accounting system.

Healthcare, insurance, life sciences (HiLife)

At Infosys BPM, we combine our strong domain expertise, flexible operating model, and integrated IT-BPM solutions to address the changing dynamics of the healthcare industry. Our solutions are designed to:

• Transform operating models
• Improve business performance
• Standardize processes with reduced costs

Some specialized F&A processes we handle include:

Commission accounting: The commission payable to salesperson may be based on a flat fee arrangement, or (more commonly) as a percentage of the revenue generated. Less common commission structures are based on the gross margin or net income generated by a sale. These structures are typically less used, since they are more difficult to calculate.

Energy, communication, utility, services (ECUS)

Infosys F&A BPM services for ECUS covers the entire spectrum of F&A, covering industry-specific activities. Currently, we have partnered with 33 clients in this space to build and develop robust, standardized and digitized processes in conjunction with today's technology need for smarter processes.

Infosys has made the necessary investment in people i.e. by enhancing F&A and industry knowledge of resource through training and certification and technology i.e., Infosys Nia, IoT, analytics, platforms, and developing in-house tools to drive client requirements. Some specialized F&A processes that we handle include:

Royalty accounting: At Infosys, we perform and support our clients in managing end-to-end royalty accounting process (performance royalty, books / journal royalty, patent royalty, franchise royalty, etc.) right from contract creation, author / payee creation, complex royalty calculations, IO validation, royalty advances, sub rights management, releasing royalty statements, reconciliation, and financial reporting. We have also automated Non-Value Added (NVA) steps by process re-engineering and automation.

Revenue assurance: Revenue and margin assurance requires a holistic and collated view of the data across the enterprise, financials, ERP, CRM, and the network. Infosys has vast experience in assessing revenue leakage issues and addressing them through process and systems across the lifecycle of service order entry to collections. Infosys also utilizes a variety of solutions to transform and automate the revenue assurance process using robotics, machine learning, platforms, analytics, and artificial intelligence to reduce human intervention, enhance customer satisfaction, and generate cost savings.

Investment and lease accounting: Infosys support its client majorly in capital and operating lease by assessing and booking the deferred rent, calculating interest calculation, and depreciation based on the asset’s economic life and depreciation method, i.e., straight line or diminishing balance method considering the IFRS standard 16 guidelines.

Project accounting: Project accounting tracks all of the financial components of a project such as budgets, estimates, costs, bookings, billing, and everything in between. The capital and expense projects are created based on the cost and time and material billing methods. Infosys support its customers right from contract creation, project setup, assess budgeted with actuals, partial or complete asset capitalization, and CWIP reconciliations.

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