Utegration completes acquisition of HPC America

January 21, 2020: Houston, TX – Utegration, LLC announced today that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of HPC America (Heck & Partner Consulting). The acquisition supports Utegration’s focus on utility best practices in regulatory reporting, to help ensure their clients are able to address the everchanging regulatory landscape and increasing numbers of stakeholders and move successfully to the future.

Read the full press release here.

SAP S/4HANA Add-On: HPC DECIPHER for Real-Time Regulatory Financials

HPC America is pleased to announce its latest innovation for utilities on SAP^® S/4HANA: HPC DECIPHER for real-time regulatory financials.

HPC DECIPHER is an ABAP-based software application that runs natively on the SAP Universal Journal. It provides the most comprehensive translation, allocation, adjustment, reporting, and forensics for utilities on SAP S/4HANA or S/4HANA Finance. HPC DECIPHER delivers greater accounting transparency, stronger rate case positions, and improved back-office efficiency.

Key Benefits for Utilities on SAP S/4HANA

• Translates GAAP to Regulatory accounts in real-time, directly in S/4HANA or S/4HANA Finance
• Portions line items to multiple regulatory accounts
• Allocates common costs, such as those from shared services, by utility code
• Generates full Financial Statements with drill down to all regulatory line items
• Eliminates the need for lump-sum journal entries that lose valuable transaction details
• Enables easy, controlled reversal and reposting of regulatory data
• Improves responsiveness to regulatory inquiries, and strengthens rate case positions
• Establishes one version of the truth between GAAP and Regulatory views

Read the full product description of HPC DECIPHER.

Learn More at the SAP for Utilities Conference #SAP4UTL

Utilities can learn more about FERC reporting on SAP S/4HANA and the benefits HPC DECIPHER delivers at the SAP for Utilities conference in Huntington Beach, CA, October 10-11, 2016. Meet HPC America at booth #39 to discuss SAP S/4HANA adoption strategies and alternative approaches to regulatory accounting for utilities on SAP S/4HANA. Schedule a meeting with HPC now.

SAP FERC enhancement project, part 2

A couple months ago, we wrote about a new SAP FERC enhancement project that HPC had begun. We've just completed user acceptance testing in the mock client, successfully resolving the utility's FERC reporting issues. We're now gearing up for the launch of the new solution at the start of 2013.

At the core of our solution is a new way of including cost accounting transactions, mainly for priced labor and related burdens for benefits and payroll taxes, to support the FERC balances. This new approach to FERC reporting aligns the CO reports used by internal managers with the external reports used to support regulatory filings, thus providing one version of the truth for all stakeholders.

Part of our remaining work will integrate HPC Utility Financials Accelerator with some legacy programs that the customer has had in place for FERC reporting since their initial launch of SAP in the late 1990's. We've designed and volume tested a solution that will make their FERC requirements easier to meet as they apply for ISO status in the next year or so.

FERC's rational response to violations

In today's issue of APPA's Public Power Daily there's a brief article by Robert Varela on FERC's "rational responses" to violations and fines, in order not to jeopardize smaller utilities. This is consistent with our own experience with FERC on behalf of clients. We've also seen a similarly constructive attitude from RUS, which offers a bi-annual educational conference on accounting for utilities. Everyone seems to recognize that complying with FERC and other regulatory reporting requirements can be a challenge for resource-constrained utilities; the financial data needed either isn't readily available, or it's there but not in the right format. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a special report on best practices for FERC and NERC compliance. Or take a look at our enterprise solution, which was recently certified by SAP.