Almost all of them can be covered by leveraging the Standard Functionality provided by Oracle ERP Cloud - but only if the setup is done properly with the German requirements in mind. Topics to be considered

• Document Sequencing

• Audit Trails

• Subledger Postings / GL-Transfers

• Control Accounts

• Fixed Assets

• Discount Calculation

• etc.

In addition, local legislative reports provided as part of the Localization Packages have to be enabled and/or configured.

 

Those ‘configuration related’ topics can be assessed and fixed quite easily in all almost all cases without interfering with the Global Setup Template. 

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Value Added Tax - VAT

Setting up a correct and seamless VAT processing is a more comprehensive task. Therefore, a dedicated Tax Regime for Germany has to be defined & configured in order to ensure that

• the correct TAX Code is automatically derived for the vast majority of transactions

• VAT is properly processed along the entire Procure2Pay and Order2Cash process

• VAT can be reconciled seamlessly and the data required for the VAT Filings are available - ideally without forcing the accounting/tax department to merge various reports from different sources

In addition, a strategy for the VAT filing has to be defined. Especially for entities

• Selling from Germany to customers in other EU countries

• currently filing consolidated VAT reports for more than one entity (‘Umsatzsteuerorganschaft’)

special considerations have to be taken into account. Anyway, handling VAT in line with the German Tax law may interfere with certain configurations of the Global Setup Template.

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German GAAP Reporting vs Enterprise / Global Reporting

One of the most important objectives of a Global ERP Deployment is the ‘harmonization’ of reporting and being able to have instant access to consolidated numbers across all entities generated according to the global reporting standard (usually US-GAAP or IFRS). Nevertheless, the German entities are still obliged to provided their ‘local’ numbers according to local standards (-> HGB and Local Tax).

There are various options on how to achieve this goal. It starts with a fairly simple, manual approach and can be expanded to a very comprehensive, fully automated approach covering all notions and flavours of Multiple GAAP Reporting - even covering the demand for reporting in different currencies.

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Local Business Practises

Beyond the requirements driven by the legislative framework there are also some ‘local best practises’ which should at least be considered in order to increase the efficiency and the buy-in of the local team. Typical areas of the those processes are:

• Management of Bank Statements including Bank Reconciliation andReceipt Application

• Management of Payment Service Providers – PSPs (i.e Adyen, Paypal, Stripe)

• Period Close & Reconciliation (all Subledgers to General Ledgers)

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Training

And last but not least: Training. Almost everyone acknowledges, that a solid key-user and end-user training is key to the success of a ERP Implementation and Rollout Project. However, there are still far to many projects where the training delivery ignores the importance of training. As a result, the local staff is frustrated and especially during Data Migration / reconciliation and the first periods of transaction processing a lot of errors occur – simply because the local staff has not been trained properly on the system. Typical reasons for that are:

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• For the training delivery, global training material is used which does not consider the ‘localization aspects’

• Training is delivered in English only; Trainers are not able to answer German specific questions and sometimes the language becomes a challenge as neither the trainer nor the trainees can communicate fluently about things like

  • Periodenabstimmung

  • Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung

  • Überleitung zur Steuerbilanz

  • Z3-Abzug

etc.

• Training is delivered quite in advance to the GoLive and trainees have forgotten almost everything, once they have to use.

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Our Offering for Oracle ERP Rollout in Germany

We have been helping many International Business - headquartered in the US, APAC, UK – to rollout Oracle ERP Solutions to Germany.

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We can assist you in the areas of

• Local Legislative Compliance

• VAT Processing & Audits

• GAAP Reporting Strategies

• Business Process Optimization for German Operations

• Training Delivery by nativ German speakers (German & English)

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In addition, we offer a ‘Setup Review Service’ for all companies considering or already executing an Oracle ERP Rollout to Germany

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Scope of Setup Review

Setup review of “Oracle ERP Finance” instance  in order to ensure, that the Oracle ERP  can be operated in line with the German GOBD framework.

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