Cost Flow Streamlining for Utilities on SAP

For utility companies running the SAP ERP, HPC America is pleased to announce a new service that improves cost transparency, job estimation accuracy, and operational metrics monitoring. Based on our 20+ years of experience in utility financials, HPC Cost Flow Streamlining delivers the ideal mix of direct cost assignment, allocations, fixed overheads, and final cost settlement to help Accounting, Rates, and Operations perform their work more effectively with SAP software.

This service, typically completed within 3-6 months, minimizes SAP cost assessment processes that are often applied to expense and capital work but are confusing and difficult to explain--let alone plan for. HPC Cost Flow Streamlining replaces opaque allocations with transparent, easily understood overheads that enable project managers to plan and monitor the cost of work more accurately and consistently. Cost Flow Streamlining is available to utilities on ECC 6.0 and S/4HANA Finance.

Learn more about HPC Cost Flow Streamlining for utility companies on SAP.

SAP FERC Implementation with HPC UFA

Another utility company has selected HPC America to implement a best practices FERC regulatory accounting solution in its SAP system. This latest project will strengthen the utility's preparation for and position in rate cases; reduce reliance on processes outside the ERP; and optimize the use of internal and PM orders—all while minimizing disruption to field operations.

To modernize its regulatory accounting configuration and support future growth, the utility has selected HPC Utility Financials Accelerator (UFA), which is certified by SAP as powered by the NetWeaver® technology platform. HPC UFA improves the trace functionality and reporting capabilities of the legacy SAP FERC solution—which HPC had originally created for Pacific Gas & Electric and then sold to SAP in the mid-nineties—and also provides advanced recasting and budgeting features for regulatory reporting on SAP. HPC UFA will allow the utility to go live with its new FERC solution in time for 2015 reporting.

In addition, the project includes replacement of an extensive assessment process with an overhead-centric model that will improve transparency of labor burdens for benefits, payroll taxes, PTO, supervision, engineering, A&G transfer to construction, and store expense burdens on material issues. HPC advocates this design to minimize reliance on difficult-to-understand assessments, improve the predictability of estimating job costs, ensure that shared costs are applied as fairly as possible across WBS elements, and increase the efficiency of the month-end close.

New Overhead Cost Model in SAP Delivers 99.9% Faster Monthly Close

We recently wrapped up a project for a customer that was dissatisfied with its process for assessments (allocations) in SAP, which was slow, complicated, and, to put it bluntly, a real computing resource hog. In fact, the legacy assessment cycles took about 36 hours to run, so there was great room for improvement.

HPC proposed to implement a more efficient overhead-centric process that would bring the customer's accounting into line with best practices. Our model was designed to meet all reporting requirements by utilizing costing sheets instead of assessments, thereby simplifying current processes and speeding up the month-end close.

During the course of the project, we advised the customer on substitute forms of CO allocations such as overheads for PTO, benefits, payroll taxes, supervision and engineering, corporate A&G, and stores expenses. We also implemented the conversions necessary to change master data, such as order numbers, to include new costing sheets.

The customer now has fixed overhead rates in place for 2014, and overhead cost pools for supervision, customer services and administration. A new Stores Expense burden is applied to material issues from stock.

Overhead applied to PM orders is based on a composite rate of direct labor, and the customer's job estimating software uses that rate to calculate overhead on capital work orders. All orders now get a fair and equitable proportion of overhead, and overhead is applied in a far more timely manner to work orders. Accounting can run overheads after each payroll process is completed in CATS, to give project managers the most up-to-date view of job costs.

What about the impact on the month-end close? Running January showed a dramatic improvement: the assessment process that used to take 36 hours now finishes in just 30 seconds. And the new overheads run for only 10 minutes. Both human and computing resources are freed up considerably.

Stay tuned for a complete case study next month.