Ubisoft 2014 Annual Report Download - page 206

Governance and Internal Control
2014
201
The objective is to ensure the correct application of recommendations and guidelines established
within the Group.
1.8.3 INTERNAL CONTROL OF THE PREPARATION OF FINANCIAL AND
ACCOUNTING INFORMATION
The internal control procedures relating to the preparation and processing of financial and accounting
information are mainly implemented by the various accounting and finance departments.
1.8.3.1 FINANCIAL STATEMENT PREPARATION 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 country-specific 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 existing Group procedures to the recording of accounting
data for 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 Group accounting policies
manual.
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 preparing the consolidated financial
statements and to 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 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 invests in implementing and updating IT solutions and
procedures to meet the requirements and the constraints both of the local teams and of the Group.
Most of the 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, allows the sharing of frameworks and transaction formats (product database,
customer and supplier files, etc.). This ERP was installed as an attempt to respond to issues relating
to growth of Ubisoft’s activity.