Ubisoft 2012 Annual Report Download - page 183

Governance and Internal control
2012
178
1.8.3 INTERNAL CONTROL OF THE PRODUCTION OF FINANCIAL AND
ACCOUNTING INFORMATION
The internal control procedures relating to the production and processing of financial and accounting
information are mainly implemented by the various accounting and finance departments.
1.8.3.1 FINANCIAL STATEMENT PRODUCTION AND CONSOLIDATION PROCESSES
The financial statements of each subsidiary are drawn up, under the responsibility of their manager, by
the local accounting departments, which ensure compliance with local tax and regulatory constraints.
These financial statements are subject to a limited review for the interim financial statements of the
key subsidiaries and a complete audit carried out by the auditors for the majority of the subsidiaries for
the year-end financial statements.
Reporting of accounting information, in standardized monthly reports, is carried out on the basis of a
schedule established by the consolidation department and approved by the administration department.
Each subsidiary must apply Group procedures for the recording of accounting data to monthly
reporting, interim and annual financial statements and quarterly forecasts.
The reporting of subsidiaries is established according to the accounting policies of the Group, which
are formalized in a Group policies manual distributed to all the subsidiaries. The consolidation
statements are subject to an audit or a limited review with regard to this accounting policies manual of
the Group.
The subsidiaries’ accounting information is uploaded, reconciled and then consolidated in a central
software solution, HFM from Hyperion, under the responsibility of the consolidation department. This
software supports automatic verification and consistency checking of flows, the balance sheet, specific
line items in the income statement, etc. It also allows fast, reliable data reporting and is designed to
make the consolidated financial statements secure.
The Company has taken measures to shorten the process of producing the consolidated financial
statements and make it more reliable. For example, the consolidation department has drawn up
procedures, which are updated periodically, enabling subsidiaries to optimize understanding and
effectiveness of the solutions, and to guarantee the standardization of published accounting and
financial data:
 Drawing up a Group chart of accounts;
 Implementing automatic mapping between the corporate financial statements and the
consolidated financial statements;
 Drawing up a user manual for the consolidation statement;
 Drawing up a consolidation manual;
 Drawing up an accounting policies manual.
The consolidation department also carries out ongoing monitoring so as to track and anticipate
changes to the regulatory framework applicable to Group companies.
1.8.3.2 ORGANIZATION AND SECURITY OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
With a view to continually improving its information system and in order to ensure the integrity of
accounting and financial data, the Company continues to invest in standardized solutions and
procedures, to meet the requirements and the constraints both of the local teams and of the Group.
More and more major subsidiaries are integrated in PeopleSoft - Oracle, for the accounting and
management of operational flows (procurement, manufacturing, logistics, etc.). This centralized
application, which uses a single database for all subsidiaries, allows the sharing of frameworks and
transaction formats (product database, customer and supplier files, etc.). This ERP is installed in US
production, support and distribution subsidiaries and in the EMEA distribution subsidiaries in order to
meet the issues relating to growth of activity.