Finance systems specialists
Finance systems from the ledger upwards.
When the numbers in the performance management system are wrong, the cause is usually upstream. We find it.
We diagnose, integrate, build and support the whole chain: accounting and ERP, the integration and reconciliation between them, the application logic on top, and the consolidation, planning and reporting model that finance actually reports from.
Start here
Buy the diagnosis before you buy the platform.
Most finance systems programmes are scoped by the firm that will be paid to build them. That is not advice, it is a quotation with a preamble.
The Finance Systems Diagnostic is a short, paid piece of work with one purpose: to establish where your problem actually sits before anyone commits to a solution. Often that is a platform. Frequently it is the source data, the mapping, the accounting structure or the fact that nobody owns the application. Those are cheaper problems, and you should know which one you have.
It is deliberately sold as standalone work rather than given away as presales, because free discovery is never disinterested.
From £5,000
The output is yours whether or not you take it any further. Where it leads to delivery work, part or all of the fee is credited against that engagement.
What it examines
- Finance process: what is slow, manual, fragile or hard to control
- Accounting structure: entities, accounts, currencies, intercompany and reporting hierarchies
- ERP and source systems: where the data originates and how those applications behave
- Integration and reconciliation: mappings, transformations, data quality and recurring differences
- Platform fit: OneStream, Anaplan, a smaller tool, or process redesign instead
- Ownership: who will run administration, releases, data quality and controlled change after go-live
What we do
Four ways we are usually brought in.
Groups of roughly five to twenty-five legal entities, with more than one source system and a consolidation process under strain.
Performance Management
OneStream and Anaplan. Consolidation, close, planning, forecasting and reporting, designed around your controls rather than a template.
Performance Management in detail 02Finance Systems Integration
Source analysis, mappings, transformation, validation and error handling, with reconciliation back to the ledger built in rather than added at testing.
Integrations in detail 03Finance Application Engineering
SQL, VB.Net, business rules and application logic. Issue replication, debugging and controlled extensions where configuration runs out.
Application engineering in detail 04Application Support & Optimisation
Health reviews, issue investigation, data reconciliation, release testing and administrator coaching. Planned capacity, honestly bounded.
Support in detailBeneath all four sits the ledger. We implement and support accounting and ERP systems in their own right, including the Sage range, and we integrate from SAP, Kerridge, Microsoft Dynamics 365, NetSuite and Redshift. We are not a Sage business partner or reseller. That work is here because you cannot fix a reporting number without understanding where it came from.
The finance systems chain
Five stages, and the problem is rarely where you think.
Accounting & ERP
The numbers begin in systems finance may not fully control.
Integration & Reconciliation
The data arrives but cannot be trusted or tied back.
Application Engineering
The application needs logic beyond configuration.
OneStream & Anaplan
Finance needs a governed performance management model.
Support & Optimisation
It works, but ownership and change are becoming fragile.
A source system issue presents as a OneStream issue. A mapping error presents as a reporting error. An ownership vacuum presents as a technology failure. Working out which layer you are actually in requires someone who has worked in all five.
Who does the work
A named practitioner, not a brochure.
Harp & Crown is practitioner-led. The work is delivered by a practitioner who has owned these systems from inside a finance function rather than only across a delivery contract. Run the close. Delivered the upgrades. Rebuilt the integrations. Lived with the decisions afterwards.
Most people advising you on a finance platform are selling you one. We will tell you what fits, whether the scope you have been quoted is honest, and when the answer is that you should not buy a platform at all.
The practice is small and says so. Where an engagement needs more hands than one person has, it draws on a network of specialists rather than a standing bench. If you ask how many consultants we have, you will get the true number.
- Six years and more of OneStream delivery across FTSE100, private equity portfolio and multinational group environments
- Platform upgrade from version 7.4.2 to version 9, with sandbox validation and regression testing, completed without disrupting a close cycle
- Cloud-to-cloud migration including database transfer, security reconfiguration and re-pointing of ERP integrations
- Consolidation and budgeting cube design across 50 and more legal entities
- A SOX-compliant change management module, built and in production
- Integration across SAP, Kerridge, Microsoft Dynamics 365, NetSuite and Redshift, with SQL and VB.Net engineering behind it
- Certified Sage Evolution Implementation Consultant, Certified Pastel Partner, and Anaplan Model Builder certified
Client names withheld pending consent. Named references available at proposal stage.
Worth saying out loud
When we would tell you not to buy it.
A performance management platform is a serious commitment of money and of finance team attention. There are situations where we would say so and walk away, and we would rather say it now than in month three of an implementation.
- You have a small number of entities in one currency on one ledger. A tidier chart of accounts and a better reporting pack will get you most of the benefit for a fraction of the cost.
- The underlying data is the problem. A consolidation platform will consolidate the inconsistency faster. That is the most common version of this conversation and it is usually the cheaper fix.
- Nobody in finance has capacity to own it. These platforms belong to finance, and an application nobody owns will be blamed on the software.
- You are buying it to replace people rather than manual work. The headcount case rarely survives the first close, and the project needs those people to succeed.
- A restructure, disposal or system replacement is already scheduled. Build after the structure settles, not across it.
We do not resell licences and take no margin on them, so nothing about our income changes if the answer is no. That is the whole reason this section can exist.
Contact
Tell us where the numbers stop tying.
A short conversation, no obligation, and an honest view of whether we are the right people for the problem you have.
If it turns out you need a smaller fix than the one you were expecting to buy, we would rather tell you that on a call than after a proposal.