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E&Y cuts admin costs with time and expenses suite

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25th Dec 2005
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Fee-earners within Ernst & Young's UK partnership now record their activities in six-minute increments on an Extensity time and expense management system supplied by Geac.

The system represents a major breakthrough for Geac Extensity, which was formed in February this year when Canadian enterprise software developer Geac acquired Extensity, a leading player in "employee relationship management" software. Geac's UK user base has shrunk since its heyday in the 1990s and the addition of Extensity gives it a new angle to attack major firms such as E&Y. Other global companies that use Extensity software for travel and expenses and time recording include Cisco systems, AT Kearney and Fluor.

According to E&Y projects director Alastair Munro, the new software gives the firm better control by allowing it to identify the most frequent travellers and whether they are using preferred suppliers. That information can help the firm negotiate better discounts, he said.

"The replacement of manual processes has enabled us to record more information; analyse and use it more effectively; enhance our service to staff and customers, and most notably, improve our cash flow by speeding up our invoicing processes."

The online system links both to E&Y's PeopleSoft HR system and a Business Objects management information suite. Around 5,000 of E&Y's UK employees are billable staff such as auditors and tax specialists and they use Extensity to record every six minutes of their billable time and enter all expenses. The software enforces underlying business rules and allows the firm to recover more time for each client served, along with all charge-back costs.

Invoices are issued throughout the month instead of waiting for an end of month run, which has already improved cash flow. For clients, the extra narrative information within invoices gives them better visibility over what they are being billed for every month.

Using the new system, E&Y claimed that 98% of all timesheets are submitted by a Friday evening deadline, making it possible to review weekly assessments against individual targets available every Monday morning. This data can be used for staff appraisals and the "self-service element has significantly reduced admin for the firms HR and finance departments.

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By tom123
16th Jul 2003 12:34

The horrors
The thought of 6 minute blocks of time makes me glad that I am a management accountant not an auditor!

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Richard Murphy
By Richard Murphy
20th Jun 2003 14:53

That's one in the eye
for those who don't believe in time sheets

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