OverheadCAM has a number of uses

Accounting. This refers to the accounting function of distributing support or overhead costs for reporting and management purposes, something every large organization must do.
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Fast close. The SEC deadlines for reporting are shortening. Fast close is importrant because financial markets interpret late reporting as a sign of trouble. Speed is important for management purposes, too. When a decision is motivated by results, it can take effect sooner if results are available sooner.
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Business intellegence. Full, or all-in, costs must be used to get a true picture of profitability. Using partial costs can be useful for some purposes, but is bound to cause distortions if used as the real thing. Some form of allocation is necessary to get full costs, the more accurate the better.

It isn't necessary to say "Allocations are for accouning, this is management." Organizational silos can result from arbitrary distinctions. There are good reasons for looking at profitability and costs from different view points, but this can be done while maintaining "one version of the truth". When one set of underlying data is used, it is possible to avoid dulpication and errors, and it is always possible to do a reconciliation calculation between different views.
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Cost studies. One-off cost studies are done to inform certain decisions. The decisions can't be better than the data they are based on. Accurate costs are important, and they should be full costs to be accurate. Speed of calculation leads to faster iterations as a study progresses.
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Business process outsoutcing. Allocations can be provided remotely. Transmission time would be short, especially when compared to the time to do processing with conventional allocation software. Of course, OverheadCAM is fast, particularly on a specialized central server. An important part of the program can be readily parallelized to take advantage of multi-processors.
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Standalone. While OverheadCAM is offered as a background component, It can be packaged with a front end to handle entry and maintenance of allocation rules and amounts to be allocated. This could be done with a poipular spreadsheet or database product. A limited version of the combination could be shrink wrapped as a way to serve the smaller business market.
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Online allocation. Some decisions shouldn't wait until the middle of next month. OverheadCAM can readily be packaged in Service Oriented Architecture to do allocations in "real time", as data is received at a server. Profitability results can go into reporting or some sort of dashboard application. This could be done in house or as a service. This sort of use is inconceivable with conventional allocation software.
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Auditors' recalculation. Sometimes allocations are done with spreadsheets where the actual one used for final numbers is not identifiable later. Sometimes allocations are done using an ERP system but the allocation rules have been changed by the time of the audit. Using OverheadCAM as a standalone program, auditors can run allocations without taking a lot of time and without disrupting operations.
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Control. The SEC has recently done some audits of audits. They found that a number of errors, on the part of both auditors and corporations, are being made in the period-end process. This isn't surprising in the light of the hurried and sometimes chaotic nature of the process. Cost placement is vulnerable to fraud, and allocation is a major tool for cost placement. Period-end processing is outside of transactional controls and is not usually scrutinized. Documentation of the process can be slim.

OverheadCAM can contribute to a better and better documented period-end process. First, OverheadCAM speeds up and automates the process, making it less vulnerable to errors. Second, allocations can be done in a secure IT environment where unauthorized changes leave clear tracks, if they are possible at all. Third, the file of allocation rules constitutes a complete and understandable documentation of the process, created as a byproduct of the process itself.
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Budgeting. Budgeting can be done with full costs so that reported results match the numbers that budgeters worked with. Of course, full costing requires allocations. Typically budgeting goes through a number of top-down bottom-up cycles as the process iterates towards agreed on numbers. Fast allocations speed up the process, ensure that budgeters are working with recognizable numbers, and let everyone get back to work sooner.
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ERP installation.One of many tasks in an ERP installation is getting the system to operate on a schedule that works for the users. This can be a formidable task for the period-end process. OverheadCAM's speed is a big help here.
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IT and ERP image consolidation.Consolidating ERP images means bigger allocations. Unfortunately, time to allocate grows faster than the increase in size. The process is not linear. OverheadCAM's dramatic scalability reduces the problem to an entirely manageable size.
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