1. Objective and Scope

The objective of this procedure is to describe the specific actions required when starting a new year to be carried out by the BFC Admin team. 


2. New Year's additional activities

2.1 BFC Production quarterly backup (subject to Internal control)

Beginning of January, BFC IT team asks BFC Admin team to inform the dates for the BFC production database quarterly backups (performed by AWS team).



In order to be able to determine the appropriate dates, BFC Admin should consult Solvay's Financial Calendar published in  https://www.solvay.com web site - Investors → Calendar, Events, Presentations.





and propose as back up dates the week end before each quarter/year earnings announcement. 

2.2 BFC Administration calendar

The BFC Admin Calendar is a planning for the year covering all BFC Admin activities as well as Group's deadlines and milestones related to reporting cycles. Other events, such as Group financial press releases/dashboard publications or quarterly back ups of BFC Prod done by IT, should also be included in the calendar. 


This calendar must be prepared at the beginning of January and aligned with GAR Financial Accounting Closing calendar as soon as it is available in Aodocs.

To prepare the calendar the following methodology should be applied: 

  • 1st - Identification of weekends and Belgium public holidays; 
  • 2nd - Identification of key dates for BFC Admin activities applying the rules below: 

WD-9 - ACTUAL1-TAX package generation - Q1, Q2 and Q3

WD-4 - ACTUAL2 Period opening to allow GAR Conso team to anticipate the posting of its top entries - monthly

WD-3 - GAR List check - to check there are no missing updates /missing info for the companies that have been acquired, merged, sold or liquidated in the last month - monthly

WD-2 - ACTUAL2 & ACTUAL3 package generation - ACTUAL2 monthly and ACTUAL3 quarterly in Q3 and Q4

WD-1 - ACTUAL(REEL) Exchange rates update - monthly

WD1 - Scopes + Consos definition + Consos runs scheduling update - monthly

WD1 - ACTUAL0 packages massive lock + consos definition +consos run schedulings update - quarterly

WD4 - ACTUAL2 publication (exception in December and January - WD5) - monthly

WD5 - ACTUAL0 packages massive unlock - quarterly in Q1, Q2 and Q3

Hard Close Tax - package generation in the 2nd week and publication in the 3rd week of October - dates to be checked in GAR Financial Closing Calendar 

ACT2 Switch HC/YE - around Dec. 15th - precise date to be validated in December with GAR Tax team 

GAR list CAD review - Circularization to be launched in June and December (to ensure completeness and reliability of GAR list prior to audited S1 and YE closings)

Quarterly back up - According to the dates communicated by BFC Admin to BFC IT team early January for the whole year

GAR dashboard publication - According to dates defined in GAR Financial Accounting Closing Calendar 

Group press releases - According to Financial Calendar /upcoming events announced in Solvay Investor website  https://www.solvay.com/en/investors/financial-calendar-events-presentations

BFC Internal Control SEC-10  - Audit trails on critical activities - Quarterly 


Once the calendar is ready or anytime there is a change it should be communicated/shared with BFC support external providers: Coreport and Reportwise. 



2.3 Cleaning of BFC scopes for current Y year

Companies deconsolidated during Y-1 (sold, merged or liquidated) must be excluded from Y scopes.

BFC Admin should check if all the entities sold, merged or liquidated (Solvay structure file) have been automatically excluded in every first Y scopes for ACTUAL2 and ACTUAL0 categories. 

  • ACTUAL2 scopes: SOLVAY14, SOL-ECNA, IFRS-FS-RHI and IFRS-FS-INC
  • ACTUAL0 scopes: SOLCONSO and SOLFULL


This is automatically done by BFC as long as the company has been declared as Non consolidated (NC) at closing in Y-1 scope and Y opening scope has been properly setup.

Example: The entities below will be automatically excluded from SOLFULL 12.2022 scope as deconsolidated end of Y-1



Specific cases - DISCOP & AHFS companies:

  • Those companies are fictive ones (no legal existence), used by GAR team to manage "Discontinued Operations (Discop)/ Assets Held For Sale (AHFS)"postings in Group FS
  • Codes starting with Dxxxyyyy - used for both AHFS and (if applicable) Discop recognition:
    •  where xxx stands for the M&A related project code and yyyy stands for the period from which the Discop/AHFS treatment was decided
  • Codes starting with 9xxx(x) - used to post the write back of depreciation in both BS and P&L
    • where xxx stands for the M&A related project
  • Example: DODYS2009 and 9ODYS - fictive companies associated to Odyssey M&A divestment recognized under AHFS and Discop in Solvay Group FS from September 2020 - final divestment occurred in April 202
  • Once divestments have occurred in Y-1, theoretically they should be excluded from the Y scopes as no further top entries should be posted
  • Their exclusion from the Y scopes must be confirmed by GAR Conso team following  an initial proposal made by BFC Admin. 


2.4 Oxygen companies - Special process for January

The Oxygen companies are the entities for which reporting simplification measures are implemented for ACTUAL2.: packages are copied from previous period and published by BFC-Admin on non-quarter months.

For January, this procedure is slightly different as we cannot import P&L accounts and BS heading L12000-Profit/Loss from previous period/year.

The special procedure for January is described in this section Reporting Setup and Packages Management in BFC


2.5 External support contracts 

2.5.1 Operating model

BFC Admin team is supported by 2 external providers:

  • CoReport:
    • assistance covering level 3 tasks (complex customizing) as well as "on call duty" days during quarterly closings
    • contract's duration 1 year (January 1st to December 31st), no automated renewal
    • invoicing based on consumption, no fixed fee
  • Reportwise:
    • assistance covering level 1 & 2 tasks (opening of reporting cycles every month + "on demand" basic customizing)
    • contract's duration 2 years, no automated renewal
    • 1st contract was signed in April 2021 and remains valid until April 2023 
    • invoicing based on fixed fee (opening of reporting cycles every month) and on consumption ("on demand" basic customizing activities)

2.5.2 Contracts renewal

Once 1) the budget for Y+1 has been agreed with SU FA manager and Head of FSL and 2) the objectives of the support agreed with BFC manager, contracts renewal can be drafted. 

CoReport

  • The contract is made of 2 pieces, the Service agreement outlining the generic characteristics of the contract like length of the contract or invoicing procedure and the SOW (Statement of Work) describing, for example, the scope of work and workload estimation in terms of days and fees. 
  • Usually only the SOW is signed by both parties: SBS Lisbon representative and supplier. Service Agreement and SOW signed with CoReport should be saved here.
  • A follow up on spending (actual versus budget) of both contracts needs to be done through a Gsheet. 


2.5.3 Follow-up of spendings

Coreport contract follow-up:

 


Reportwise contract follow-up:



2.6 "On demand" refresh of BFC Work database

Purpose of BFC Work database is to allow a safe testing of complex or sensitive customizing, ensuring it does not bring any regression. In such cases, usage of large actual data is required and BFC work (being a dump of BFC production) is the place to do it without any impact on Production database.

BFC_Work database refresh can be requested to BFC IT team each time there is a need for updated/recent set of actual data for testing purposes. 

Such refresh makes full sense beginning of the year when Year End Y-1 results are finalized and 1st reporting of the starting year (January one) is generated, allowing to get in BFC Work the Y-1 source for Y openings. as well as 1st exercise of reporting for starting year



2.7 Business structures changes : Final wave with "activation/deactivation" prior to January reporting

Business structures management is entirely documented in a dedicated section Business Structures management.

Process of updates is organized yearly through a "3 steps / waves" cycle.

Wave 1 - October Y-1: 1st set of expected changes needed for Budget (Controlling cycle)

Wave 2 - December Y-1: 2nd set of changes (late answers from GBU's) / Creation of New objects in BFC

Wave 3 - end of January Y: Activation/Deactivation in BFC for Y reportings


END OF THE PROCEDURE