21 verticals in which the profiled systems position themselves. Each guide says what makes the finance requirements different, groups the systems that name the vertical by the company sizes they fit, and links the head-to-heads inside it. Alphabetical throughout; a listing is a documented claim, not an endorsement.
Work is sold as projects and retainers with pass-through costs the client is billed for and the agency never keeps, so gross billings and net revenue are different numbers and only one of them is the business.
Programmes run for years against fixed contracts, so the ledger has to hold cost by contract line and by work package as well as by account, and report progress the way the customer's auditors expect it.
Tier suppliers ship to a release schedule the customer controls, exchange forecasts and call-offs by EDI, and are penalised by the hour when a line stops.
Product is made in batches whose properties vary, sold by weight or volume, and stored under rules about what may sit next to what.
Every job is its own profit centre with its own budget, subcontracts, retentions and change orders, and the question the finance team is asked weekly is cost-to-complete by job.
Institutions account by fund and by fiscal year that does not follow the calendar, take in restricted gifts and grants with their own reporting, and run procurement under public or charitable rules.
Assets are large, long-lived and regulated, so maintenance history, depreciation and the compliance record for a single piece of plant have to reconcile.
The same style exists in a matrix of colours and sizes, is sold across seasons with a short life, and moves through wholesale, own retail and online channels with different prices and returns behaviour.
The core systems of record sit elsewhere; the finance system's job is consolidation, regulatory reporting and the control environment around both.
Product expires, so lots are picked in date order and recalled by lot when something goes wrong, and the recall test is how fast the system produces the full forward and backward trace.
Providers run supply chains for consumables and implants alongside a workforce scheduled around the clock, with payers, grants and patient revenue arriving through different systems.
Validated systems are the norm: a change to the software is itself a regulated event with documentation, and electronic records and signatures have to meet the applicable rules.
The bill of materials, routing and work order are the centre of the system, and the finance question is whether standard, actual or average cost is what the plant can actually maintain.
Fund accounting is the whole point: donations and grants carry restrictions on how and when they are spent, and every report has to prove the restriction was honoured.
Manufacturing is under good-practice regulation from raw material to finished dose, so batch records, deviations and release status live in the same transaction the ledger costs.
The inventory is people's time, so resource planning, timesheets and project accounting are the operational core and revenue is recognised as work is delivered, on fixed-fee, time-and-materials or retainer terms.
Budgets are legal limits, not plans: encumbrance accounting commits funds at order, spending is reported by fund and programme, and procurement follows statutory thresholds and public tendering.
Thousands of items move through stores, warehouses and a web shop with promotions, markdowns and returns changing the margin daily, and the finance system has to absorb point-of-sale and marketplace transactions at volume.
Revenue is subscription, usage or a mix, recognised over time under rules that make the contract, not the invoice, the unit of accounting.
Revenue is earned shipment by shipment across carriers, lanes and legs, and the cost of a movement often arrives weeks after the customer has been invoiced, so accruals and settlement carry the margin.
Margin is made in buying and in the warehouse: supplier rebates, landed cost, customer-specific pricing and thousands of small orders shipped the same day.