BMV Mineralöl Versorgungsgesellschaft mbH

Building on quality – BMV Mineralöl Versorgungsgesellschaft mbH is building on the CP-Suite

In line with its corporate slogan: “Quality is our passion”, the mineral oil distributor BMV Mineralöl Versorgungsgesellschaft mbH has decided on software support by Corporate Planning for its enterprise planning and consolidation.

Transparency and consistency

In order to achieve the required transparency as well as to have consistent and meaningful data, it had become necessary for professional corporate performance management software to be found and introduced. On top of that, at the corporate headquarters, Group Accounting had only a short space of time in which to get the financial data from the individual companies and the group ready for reporting.

All the existing systems – Microsoft Excel and Diamant being the only ones actually in use up to that point – were thoroughly scrutinised in order to be replaced by a single solution. The objective here was for the management to be able to rely on a set of underlying values which would be consistent from the financial accounts through the operational plan right up to a consolidated display of the actual and plan figures. These requirements were the key factors in the search for a suitable software solution.

After various presentations, the decision was made to introduce the Corporate Planning Suite (CP-Suite). A major advantage of this integrated software suite is that it brings together business administration applications ranging from budgeting and liquidity planning to management consolidation in a uniform user interface with values which are consistent throughout. The data import from the pre-systems need only be defined once, and all areas of application are based on the same values. At the mineral oil distributor, the pre-systems which serve as the main import sources are SAP and the DATEV financial accounting system.

The implementation and successful roll-out of the software at BMV were the responsibility of the tax specialist Manuela Orlandini and the management accountant Andree Bauer. Together and with help from Corporate Planning, they set up the data import and built the company structures in the software.

Filling station P&L

At the BMV subsidiaries, the filling station P&L is displayed in the module for operational management. Here, all the information about the costs and revenues of individual business areas, companies or filling stations (e.g. fuel theft or sales by fuel type) converge in a typical CP tree structure. In different data streams, actual and budget values for cost centres can be displayed in freely selectable time steps (months, quarters etc.) and their percentage and absolute variances can be seen at a glance.

Financial management

Particular attention is given by the financial experts at BMV to developments in liquidity within the group. In order to keep an eye on the current status and cash flows on a daily basis, they use another integrated module of the Corporate Planning Suite: CP-Cash. Payment history, due dates and credit lines are taken into account in liquidity calculations, and bank balances are clearly depicted in a chart. The system even makes suggestions to the management accounting staff, recommending measures for optimising cash flows, which they can then submit to the management. Liquidity surpluses or bottlenecks are thus identified at an early stage so that the appropriate action can be taken.

Integrated – from planning the cost centres to the consolidated financial statement

The cost centre accounting data are transferred to Corporate Planner Finance, a function for integrated financial planning in Corporate Planner. In the integrated financial plan, the BMV Finance team makes use of predefined logic blocks in the software with which a P&L on account level is generated more or less automatically. The budgeted balance sheet and the cash flow plan are produced at the same time. Whether they are looking at an adjustment to the plan, a simulation or a rolling forecast – the dynamic linking of the P&L, balance sheet and cash flow statement allows them to see the impact on the company‘s financial position, financial performance and cash flows straight away.

Built on the right solution

The deciding factor for the management in the choice of the Corporate Planning Suite was the entirely consistent display of the planned and actual business figures right through to the finished consolidated financial statement. With the CP-Suite, the management has built on the right solution: due to the common underlying database (full integration and synchronisation with the CP-Cons module), the planned values are immediately available for statutory and management consolidation and can be analysed alongside the existing actual values at any time. The logical and consistent flow of values inspires confidence in the results. Being responsible for Group Accounting, Manuela Orlandini does not only look at the consolidated actual data. She uses the facilities provided by the software to draw up a consolidation of the plan figures, which she then also supplies to the management. On that basis, well-founded decisions can be reached.

About BMV

BMV is a second-generation family business and, as a petrol and diesel distributor, is not tied to any oil corporation. Various companies now belong to the group (Sprint Tank GmbH and HPV Hanseatic Petrol Vertriebs GmbH, for instance) which have to be managed from corporate headquarters in Berlin, as well as their filling stations operating under the brand names GO and Sprint.