The Industry Landscape
Strengthening Controllership in a Complex Finance Environment

Insurance organizations operate in highly regulated environments that demand timely reporting, strong governance and accurate financial controls. Yet many continue to manage critical finance processes through fragmented systems, manual reconciliations and inconsistent operating practices.

As transaction volumes increase and reporting requirements become more complex, finance leaders are increasingly focused on accelerating the month-end close process, improving data quality, strengthening controls and creating greater visibility across finance operations.

Achieving these objectives requires more than automation alone; it requires re-designing the underlying processes, governance structures and operating models that support financial reporting and controllership.

The Client Challenge
Fragmented Processes | Limited Visibility | Extended Financial Close | Control & Governance Gaps

The client faced a series of interconnected challenges across month-end close, cash management, accounts payable, reconciliations and journal processing.

Cash & Bank Reconciliations

• Absence of formal bank reconciliation processes
• Limited visibility into cash positions and incoming funds
• Underutilization of existing XFI technology capabilities for cash flow management
• Significant effort spent on transaction processing and data validation rather than analysis

Invoice Processing & Vendor Management

• Ineffective controls around vendor onboarding and bank detail changes, creating potential fraud risk
• Absence of formal vendor due diligence policies and sanction screening processes
• Lack of structured query management, resulting in delayed responses and poor visibility into supplier and employee requests
• Inefficient claims disbursement processes and limited visibility into incoming partner funds
• High dependence on non-PO invoices, limiting spend control and increasing processing cycle times

Journal Processing & Balance Sheet Reconciliation

• 20,000+ journal entries generated individually by business unit and account, creating significant operational complexity
• Incomplete and inaccurate accounting entries resulting in investigation and re-classification efforts
• Manual consolidation of journal entries for reporting purposes
• Absence of formal reconciliation governance framework, including policies, ownership and review controls
• No risk-based approach for account reconciliation prioritization
• Non-standardized reconciliation templates, processes and supporting documentation

Financial Close & Governance

• A month-end close cycle extending beyond 25 working days
• Lack of a standardized close calendar, including defined escalation protocols and controls
• Absence of standardized documentation, access controls and dependency management frameworks to support the close process
• Poor data quality and lack of data governance controls

Collectively, these challenges limited finance visibility, increased operational risk and delayed access to timely financial information.

The Solution
Finance Transformation | Enhanced Controllership | Targeted Automation

WNS delivered a comprehensive finance transformation program focused on strengthening governance, simplifying operations and improving finance visibility.

The transformation was built on the following key pillars:

Finance Transformation: From Fragmented Processes to Governed, Automated Finance

1. Cash Visibility and Reconciliation Transformation

WNS re-designed the cash and bank reconciliation, reporting and balance sheet reconciliation processes, establishing standardized governance, reporting and reconciliation practices.

Key initiatives included:

• Introducing cash analytics to provide greater visibility into cash movements, investments and line-of-business performance
• Recommending automation of bank and XFI feeds and the implementation of BlackLine for reconciliation management
• Establishing a periodic cash reporting framework to provide timely visibility into cash positions, liquidity and outstanding reconciling items
• Implementing a reconciliation governance framework, including policies, ownership and review controls
• Introducing standardized reconciliation processes, templates and documentation standards
• Creating a centralized reconciliation inventory with defined timelines, responsibilities and review requirements

2. Vendor Management and Accounts Payable Governance

WNS strengthened controls and governance across vendor onboarding, invoice processing and claims management.

Key initiatives included:

• Introducing a bank details verification process with enhanced controls to mitigate payment fraud risk
• Implementing vendor onboarding policies covering Know Your Customer (KYC), sanction screening and supplier due diligence requirements
• Deploying Dun & Bradstreet to support third-party due diligence and supplier risk assessment
• Establishing centralized query management through group mailboxes and defined response timelines
• Re-designing end-to-end claims disbursement processes to improve efficiency and accounting accuracy
• Recommending PO controls for high-value invoices to improve spend governance

3. Journal Processing Optimization

WNS re-designed the journal entry architecture and close process to improve efficiency, control and reporting accuracy.

Key initiatives included:

• Consolidating journal postings from policy-level transactions to business unit and entity-level aggregation
• Automating policy onboarding into the journal processing workflow
• Automating premium allocation, earned premium calculations and commission calculations
• Replacing manual tax calculations with system-generated tax reporting
• Automating journal derivation and consolidation at business unit and entity levels
• Introducing standardized journal naming conventions, governance policies and operating procedures
• Developing a macro-enabled journal entry posting grid and automated policy data feeds leveraging the client's existing technology landscape

4. Financial Close Transformation & Control Framework

WNS transformed the financial close process by introducing structured governance, control frameworks and standardized operating procedures.

Key initiatives included:

• Establishing a structured month-end close calendar with defined dependencies, timelines and governance mechanisms
• Aligning critical upstream inputs and external dependencies with the month-end close calendar
• Designing a master data governance model and supporting governance committee structure
• Developing accounting policies for balance sheet reconciliations, manual journal entries and prior-period postings
• Introducing standardized documentation management through defined folder structures, naming conventions and access controls

A key differentiator of the engagement was WNS' focus on re-designing the underlying journal architecture before introducing automation, eliminating structural inefficiencies rather than simply automating existing manual processes.

The Outcome
Accelerated Close | Stronger Controls | Improved Finance Visibility

The transformation delivered measurable operational and financial improvements across finance operations.

By combining process re-design, governance enhancement, analytics and targeted automation, WNS helped the client transform fragmented finance operations into a more controlled, visible and scalable finance environment. The engagement established a stronger foundation for accelerated close, improved reporting integrity and sustainable controllership excellence, reinforcing the organization's long-term finance governance and compliance objectives.

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