The CDx Finance Team has continued to focus on developments in the three key areas of Processes, Platforms and People this past quarter.
Processes
TCD US Merger: The team is executing the transition and integration plan for the merger of the Technopath USA business into the LGC Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. legal entity, including the transfer of all accounting and financial reporting beginning in FY23. Post go-live on April 1, the finance team will continue to work on integrating the results into their monthly reporting processes with the expectation of reporting as a merged entity beginning with our April reporting.
Tracking new product development (NPD) costs by project: The Finance team piloted tracking NPD costs by project in SAP as part of the MSC merger. Using lessons learnt from the pilot, they plan to deploy this to all NPD projects in Clinical Diagnostics within SAP with the support of product development colleagues in April 2022.
Customer credit limits: The team has performed a comprehensive review of all customer credit limits with the goal to update SAP shortly after fiscal year-end closing. The next steps will involve developing a sustainable process of managing credit limits for customers as well as a decision-making process on the extension of customer credit for new customers.
Business controls:
All LGC CDx entities have been working on implementing a more comprehensive internal controls framework through a Group initiated project and utilizing an outside consultant to design and implement a more effective and efficient internal controls structure, which will make processes more consistent and leverageable across the organization. This project will continue to progress into third quarter FY23.
Platforms
Accelerated sales tax registrations: Shortly after implementing the Vertex sales tax system in December 2021, the finance team planned and executed an accelerated sales tax registration initiative. We are now registered in 38 states, 20 of which were accomplished over the last two months, with 7 remaining (5 states do not have sales tax). The team has started collecting taxes in the newly registered states effective April 1, 2022 and expects to complete the remaining registrations in early FY23, bringing LGC CDx into full-compliance with sales tax registrations in the US.
People
Finance made a successful hire of a Senior Accountant in the LGC CDx PT (API) business, which will assist in improving the team’s bandwidth and the business controls structure within Finance. They are continuing to recruit for open positions in the LGC CDx Finance structure to address ongoing demands and improve bandwidth in the team while working on integrating and training existing team members.
