The problem

The finance department needed to move the month-end reporting from working day six to working day one, to reduce the delay in reporting to clinical business units (CBUs). Without this the CBUs would be making business decisions based on out-of-date financial information. It enables more timely information to be available for decision making, and finance staff will be able to increase support to managers and budget holders due to the reduced reporting timescale and less time correcting coding and process errors by users.

The challenge

How might we overcome the barriers faced in implementing working day one reporting, so that we can provide timely, up to date and relevant financial information?

The outputs

The tangible benefits from this project include:

• financial positions being available to budget holders earlier so corrective action can be taken sooner
• more timely and relevant information for decision making and reporting
• finance staff able to increase support to managers and budget holders due to the reduced reporting timescale, this allows the team to support bids, business cases, complete Covid-19 reporting and complete deep dive analysis into the data.

The outcomes

The intangible added value is:

• the team spends less time completing transactional processes and can dedicate additional time to support operational front-line teams in understanding their financial results, and supporting them through any required workstreams and business changes
• the Trust can respond quickly and accurately to NHSE&I requests and requirements
• the finance team feels very positive having been able to review and amend processes to facilitate earlier reporting and which means they have more time to give advice and support to clinical and corporate areas with the Trust.