When companies adopt Agile methods and an organisation-wide Agile mindset, one of the biggest challenges is to change the way Finance and Controlling departments work. However, even without a company-wide transformation, it makes sense to take a closer look at agility from a finance perspective.

• Why do current (controlling) methods in finance fail?
• How does complexity change the way we work?
• What is "Agile" and how can it help?
• How can finance departments reinvent themselves and become true business partners?

The growing complexity of accounting, internationalisation, increasingly tight deadlines for financial reports and quickly changing market situations are just some of the challenges that finance departments today are confronted with. We want to demonstrate why it is so important to meet these challenges with "Financial Performance Management Systems" and not with Excel. Learn from the first-hand experiences of speaker Raimund Hackenberger, chief financial officer of Hawesko GmbH, how the processes related to financial statements, planning and reporting have improved in just a short time thanks to LucaNet!

Some studies predict that the classic profession of the accountant will die out due to digitization and automation. Not even close. Even if technical progress will make many of the traditional activities of the accountant redundant, completely new areas of responsibility will be added in parallel: In the future, he will take over the control and monitoring of computer-controlled systems and processes as well as digital maintenance. In addition, he will use the data and analysis to develop strategic concepts, formulate forecasts for future corporate development and take on strategic financial advice. But what new skills will an accountant need in the future to be prepared for the transformation in accounting? This is to be explained in more detail in the masterclass, especially how the accountant's profession will change exactly, which new skills are needed in the team, how employees need to be supported and trained in this process.

Accounting in e-commerce finds itself in a unique area of tension. It should be mandatory that mass data in different formats and from numerous sales channels, such as marketplaces and web shops, should be prepared and processed for accounting in an automatic form. Both the legal obligation to maintain individual records as well as financial management’s desire to document the life cycle of each transaction must be considered. Cross-border transactions also encompass additional challenges, such as complex VAT law. Solutions will be presented and discussed using the example of a large corporation that carries out more than a million transactions throughout the EU every month via Amazon and its own web shop.

In this masterclass we look at the financial close, its challenges and potential. We take a further look at the current processes and present case studies on how you can optimize your close through standardization and automation.

The accounting scandal of former DAX-listed company Wirecard rocked the world of finance. The "German Enron case", as Wirecard has been called, is undoubtedly a special case. Nevertheless, accounts continue to be manipulated. In order to detect this faster, awareness needs to be raised among employees and management.

• How are accounts falsified these days?
• How were accounts falsified in current cases (e.g., Wirecard)?
• What are the typical warning signs of manipulation?
• How can account manipulations be detected sooner?