Client Background
The client is a leading bank in Jordan whose general ledger sits within its core banking system and is fed by separate treasury, trade finance and cards platforms. Finance teams were spending significant manual effort validating financial, management and regulatory reports, because income and expense entries arrived grouped from sub-systems, customer-level detail was lost and several dimensions needed for group reporting depended on other systems. IFRS provisioning, post-closure and adjustment entries, and the consolidation of a second ledger, were all handled manually in the data warehouse, and Finance had compiled a long list of recurring ledger issues. As part of a wider modernisation programme, the bank engaged Cedar for a fast-tracked diagnostic of its general ledger and chart of accounts capabilities and a recommended way forward.
Cedar’s Approach
Cedar followed a four-step diagnostic approach of data gathering, stakeholder discussions, diagnostic review and way-forward recommendations, holding seven structured sessions with key stakeholders across four departments and discussing every Finance pain point in detail. The analysis was organised into four modules:
Ledger Architecture and Integration Analysis – Cedar mapped the current ledger architecture, its link to the chart of accounts and products, the integrations with treasury, trade finance, cards and HR systems, currency revaluation and upload practices, and the reconciliation processes between the core and surrounding systems.
Root-Cause Analysis of Finance Pain Points – Each issue was documented with its root cause, recommendation and benefit, then classified into issues within the core platform (mismatches, customisation, product and design) and issues outside it (sub-system, integration, reconciliation and design), giving eight root-cause sub-categories that pointed directly to the right type of fix.
Benchmarking and Design Principles – Cedar profiled what good looks like among regional banks with multi-entity ledgers and automated reconciliation, and agreed design principles for the future ledger and chart of accounts, including simplicity, consistency, compliance, future-proofing and low running cost. Wider dependencies such as the core banking decision, procurement and asset management, consolidation needs and the financial risk platform were factored in.
Corporate GL Decision Framework – Cedar structured two sequential decisions: whether the core banking ledger or an ERP ledger should serve as the bank's corporate ledger, and, if a separate corporate ledger were adopted, whether it should follow a thick or thin model. Each option was assessed on approach, pros, cons and timeline, supported by a decision paper on consolidating procurement and asset management within an ERP platform.
Strategic Outcome and Way Forward
Cedar's final report, presented to the programme steering committee, recommended a Finance Stabilisation Programme to clean up the ledger, revamp the chart of accounts mapping, resolve mismatches and implement the product, configuration, process and people fixes identified for each issue, backed by stronger controls between Finance and IT. In parallel, the bank was advised to proceed with a new core banking selection and an ERP selection covering procure-to-pay, asset management and ledger capabilities, deferring the final corporate ledger decision until both selections were complete and favouring a thin corporate ledger model if one is adopted.
These recommendations were sequenced into delivery waves, starting with stabilisation and platform evaluations, moving to ERP and ledger implementation and performance management tooling, and later consolidating the treasury and trade finance sub-ledgers into a single, well-controlled finance architecture.