Almadar A finance team in KAFD running a default SAP close process regardless of how it actually operates ends up with more expensive tooling and the same slow close.
FICO covers the core financial and controlling backbone, chart of accounts, cost and profit center accounting, asset accounting, and the close process itself, and for Riyadh businesses this needs designing with Zakat and VAT reporting requirements built in from the start rather than reconciled separately outside the system each period.
Chart of accounts designed for Saudi reporting from the outset
The chart of accounts needs to serve statutory reporting, management reporting and Zakat calculation simultaneously, structured so all three fall out of the same ledger rather than requiring separate reconciliation exercises outside the system each reporting period. Getting this structure right at the outset avoids a costly restructuring of the chart of accounts once the business has already gone live and accumulated transaction history against it.
Cost and profit center accounting matched to how you actually track performance
Configuration is built around how your business genuinely tracks cost and profitability internally, whether by project, product line, branch or department, rather than a generic structure that produces technically correct numbers nobody internally finds useful for actual decisions.
Month-end close configured to actually shorten the cycle
Automated allocations, accrual processes and reconciliations are built specifically to reduce close time, with the goal stated explicitly at the start of configuration rather than treated as an incidental benefit that may or may not materialize.
A common Saudi scenario
A Riyadh trading group's FICO configuration was implemented years ago around a generic close process, and month-end now takes eighteen days with substantial manual reconciliation between subledgers. Reconfiguring automated allocations and building a defined close calendar with clear ownership at each step reduces this to seven days within two quarters, freeing the finance team's time for analysis rather than mechanical reconciliation.
Support through your first live closes, not just go-live
We stay engaged through the first several real closes after go-live rather than departing once the system technically works, since issues that surface only under genuine transaction volume and real deadline pressure are exactly what testing on sample data does not reveal. This continuity is worth insisting on explicitly in the contract rather than assumed to be included by default.
Coordinating with your external auditor during design
Involving your external auditor's expectations during configuration design, rather than only when the first audit begins, means the reporting structure built into FICO satisfies audit requirements from the start, connecting to the same internal control principles in control framework design and the proactive discipline covered in audit and assurance services.
Manufacturing and trading groups across Riyadh with complex cost and inventory accounting benefit most from dedicated FICO configuration rigor, while simpler service businesses often need less elaborate cost center structures to achieve the same reporting clarity.