GLENDALE, WI – Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare has cut two months from its normal six-month budget process by switching from manual budgeting to electronic planning software.
“The reporting and ability to analyze, I find, are most useful,” said Connie Debbink, corporate director of Budget and Strategic Financial Planning at Wheaton. “It makes it easy to see the differences before and after the implementation.”
With SAP America’s Business Planning and Consolidation tool – previously known as OutlookSoft’s Corporate Performance Management tool before SAP acquired the company in 2007 – Wheaton was able to make the budget system uniform under an electronic process.
Prior to implementation, each of the 14 departments at Wheaton used different methods to complete a budget. Most were using spreadsheets, making it hard for supervisors to collect them at the end of the day and summarize the hospital’s budget, said Debbink.
It required “a lot of manual intervention and reworking,” she said. “It’s like looking back at a nightmare.”
The BPC has made it possible to load in the volumes of information faster, Debbink said. In addition, all departments are using the same process to request labor, and variable expenses can be calculated easily.
This electronic planning software mirrors the gradual change in responsibilities for the chief financial officer of a healthcare entity.
“The role of the CFO has evolved in recent years from that of (a) traditional corporate controller to one of playing a strategic role in managing business performance, driving profitability and providing critical insight and analysis for better business decision-making,” said Scott Behles, director of global communications for SAP.
CFOs are under pressure to improve efficiencies around important financial processes, freeing up valuable time and resources to focus on higher value-added activities, manage business performance and decision-making and support future growth strategies and business goals, he said.
That’s where products like SAP’s BPC tool come in handy. Wheaton officials see the solution as a “huge improvement.”
“Revenue and salaries are automatically calculated and the budget can be created in two weeks instead of six; it allows you to budget for volumes, different procedures, supplies, expenses (and) FTEs,” said Annette Schiebel, finance manager for Wheaton Franciscan’s north market. “It streamlined a lot of the processes.”