We speak public finance.
And connect your systems.
PSG develops reports, financial planning applications and interfaces for public authorities, university administrations and public institutions in Germany. Our basis is a working knowledge of cash-based and accrual accounting (Kameralistik and Doppik); our starting point is the specialized applications you already use.
| Title | Purpose | Budgeted | Actual | Committed | Available |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 511 01 | Office supplies and equipment | 1,240 | 812 | 164 | 264 |
| 526 02 | Expert services | 480 | 212 | 150 | 118 |
| 527 01 | Business travel | 310 | 196 | 22 | 92 |
| 532 01 | IT services | 2,150 | 1,388 | 541 | 221 |
| 812 01 | Equipment purchases | 900 | 305 | 410 | 185 |
| Total | 5,080 | 2,913 | 1,287 | 880 |
Available = budgeted − actual − committed (Festlegungen) · simplified example
SQL Server is not a requirement.
Many of our public-sector clients work with other database systems. Our work follows your specialized applications, your data and your processes. You do not need to introduce a SQL Server environment to work with us.
Questions public authorities and university administrations bring to us.
How much is still available?
Budgeted, actual, committed and uncommitted funds per chapter and title: current and traceable, not after days of manual compilation.
Why don’t the figures match?
The budget, cost and activity accounting and the specialized applications report different figures. We find out where the difference comes from and create a shared, verified basis.
The plans change, but the application doesn’t?
New planning items, other ways of transferring funds between budget lines, or a changed connection to the finance system: an application for financial planning and budgeting has to keep up.
Is all the data arriving?
Personnel, travel expense or payment data moves between specialized applications. When something is missing, every transfer has to be traceable.
Three areas of work. One data flow.
A report has to answer the questions of the people who use it, a planning application has to fit the budget process, and an interface has to fit the workflow. We develop and maintain all three, together with IT and the staff who work with them every day.
Reports and analyses
We adapt and extend budget and financial reports, budget-versus-actual comparisons and proof-of-use statements (Verwendungsnachweise) to the questions your staff ask, from the monthly report on budget execution to views for individual divisions and decentralized units. Checks that currently live in Excel workbooks become traceable rules. Result: reports that answer your question, with figures you can trace back.
Financial planning and budget processes
We develop and extend applications for financial planning and budget transfers: new planned figures and types of transfer, business-rule checks and the connection to your finance system. Result: a planning application that fits your process and passes its data reliably to the finance system.
Data transfers between specialized applications
We develop and maintain transfers between HR administration and the finance system, for example for personnel costs, travel expenses or payments for teaching assignments. We transfer posting data via web services, test the transfers, investigate errors and make visible what was transferred. Result: transfers whose completeness can be checked.
What supports all three
- Data integration and data quality
Loading data from the budget, cost and activity accounting and specialized applications regularly and with checks, including into a data warehouse for management reporting. Origin and processing remain traceable through to the report. - Migration and system changes
Moving reporting and data to a new system, cleaning them up and checking them with reconciliation reports. After a changeover, investigating disrupted connections and bridging them until a fix is in place.
What the work looks like in practice.
Three examples from recent years, without names. Each describes a single institution and only the work we actually did there.
Reports from the finance system
- Task
- Adapt reports on the budget, accounting records and inventory to new business requirements.
- Our contribution
- Adapted and extended the reports in the finance system; also supported an interface to the accounting software.
- Result
- Adapted reports that answer the specified business questions.
Financial planning and budget transfers
- Task
- Extend an existing application with functions for financial planning and budget transfers.
- Our contribution
- Developed the application further and connected it to the finance system via web services.
- Result
- Extended planning and transfer functions, connected to the finance system.
HR data in the finance process
- Task
- Pass data from HR administration on personnel costs, travel expenses and payments for teaching assignments to the finance system.
- Our contribution
- Maintained the data transfers and developed the related financial control reports.
- Result
- Ongoing transfers, supported by control reports.
For one university, we also developed and presented a prototype for analyzing graduate and exmatriculation (de-registration) figures.
Kameralistik or Doppik? We know both.
German public budgeting has its own concepts and vocabulary, and they are part of our everyday work. We discuss your reports in your terms. Where English has no exact equivalent, this page gives the German term in parentheses. One example: the funds that are really still available are not simply budgeted minus actual; commitments (Festlegungen) have to be deducted as well.
Kameralistik
- Budget by titles (Titelhaushalt)
- Budgeted and actual (Soll und Ist)
- Commitments (Festlegungen)
- Unexpended balances (Ausgabereste)
- Commitment appropriations (Verpflichtungsermächtigungen)
Doppik
- Product budget (Produkthaushalt)
- Statement of financial performance
- Cash flow statement
- Statement of assets and liabilities
- Cost and activity accounting (KLR)
Whether your institution uses cash-based accounting, accrual accounting or both side by side: we bring the figures into the form that budget officers, financial controllers and management need.
Your environment is the starting point.
- Which specialized applications supply the data?
- Who works with the reports and the plans?
- Where does a transfer between applications get stuck?
Together, we turn these questions into a focused task and a clear next step. The database is one part of that environment; useful outcomes and reliable processing guide the approach.
In German public finance since the 1990s.
Consulting and software development for public finance and management accounting have been part of PSG since the 1990s. Two published projects at federal and Länder level show what that means in practice.
instead of three person-days for the monthly report on budget execution
German Environment Agency (UBA) · 2011posting lines from the budget, cost and activity accounting and logistics, analyzed by the departments themselves
German Environment Agency (UBA) · 2009–2011instead of three days for recurring reports, thanks to several hundred automated rule sets
Zentrale Datenstelle der Landesfinanzminister (ZDL), the central data office of the Länder finance ministries · 2012From published customer references, 2011 and 2012. The technology used at the time reflects its era; the examples above show what we work on today.
With the task at hand.
Budget staff and IT sit at the same table from the start.
- 01
Understand the business process
Clarify the question behind the report, the plan or the data transfer together with the budget staff and IT.
- 02
Trace the data flow
Look at sources, processing and results together and identify the part that needs attention.
- 03
Implement and validate
Develop the agreed change and check the results from both a business and a technical perspective.
What are you working on?
Whether it is a report, financial planning or a data transfer: tell us about the process and the specialized applications involved. We work in German and English.