Cape-based finance budgeting and product development specialist idu Software has broadened the functionality of its comprehensive financial budgeting and management information system (MIS) software, idu Concept, with the release of Version 3.3 of the software. It now includes employee-based budgeting, reporting enhancements, extended online analytical processing (OLAP) capabilities and online profile viewing.
Designed to streamline the budget and forecast capture and reporting processes, idu Concept is a Web-based packaged solution designed to remove the iterative process inherent in spreadsheet-type environments. The architecture of the software and the intuitive nature of the client front-end provide maximum transparency in the budgeting and reporting process, enabling line management to have more accountability for the financial reporting process without the complication of typical accounting environments.
"In addition to grade-based budgeting, idu Concept Version 3.3 also includes a dynamic employee-based module that enables companies to budget person by person," says idu MD Kevin Phillips. "The new module also makes provision for a number of administrator-defined statistical fields which allow the inclusion and analysis of specific details of staff members, such as the ability to analyse current and future staff numbers by gender, race and other categories as required."
The module allows definition between generic salary types and the splitting of individual salaries across cost centres for improved financial management. It also allows the cost centre manager to manipulate specific fields in a person`s salary package, such as travel allowance and medical aid, according to monthly planning, while other fields remain set parameters, such as UIF.
Version 3.3 uses Crystal .NET as the reporting platform for flat-based reports, with enhanced OLAP functionality embedded at all levels of the front-end, enabling administrators to distribute data via HTML format to users who have access rights to the data. Such information can be anything from photographs of the company organogram to press cuttings, news releases, graphs or pivot tables.
"The idu Concept system is designed to empower users to take ownership of budgets, forecasts and expense management for their cost centres. Security in the system ensures each manager has access only to the areas and cost centres required," says Phillips.
The reporting environment of earlier versions of the system gave cost centre managers access to all reports available on the system. Version 3.3 includes profiles for reporting and OLAP services which allow the administrator to limit the reports available to individual users.
The online data viewing enhancement uses profile identification to enable the administrator to define the look and feel of the front-end to display which data columns can be viewed by users. The application creates a view of the data, which is saved as a profile and then assigned to users.
The front-end of the system has been enhanced with a budget sign-off facility that allows users to indicate when a budget is complete. Managers can then view at a glance which budgets still require work before completion. The budget capture of any cost centre can be reviewed online by management and adjustments made by the cost centre manager by toggling the status of the cost centre from complete to incomplete and vice versa.
Idu Software enjoys significant market share across all market sectors. "Much of our success has grown on the back of the benefits derived by the 250 companies using our suite of products," says Phillips.
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