Summarizing the Line of Business and Industry Process Flows

Within the Finance LoB, organizations forecast their estimated purchasing needs for upcoming quarters to determine the necessary budget allocation. In the Sourcing and Procurement LoB, the organization identifies what they need from suppliers, purchases the items (such as laptops for new employees), pays the supplier, and receives the goods.

In the Sales LoB, the process begins when an organization receives and confirms customer orders, followed by the delivery of goods. When payments are received, they are posted within the Finance LoB to accounts receivable, which automatically adjusts the company's revenue.

If a customer returns a product, the Sales LoB manages the return process by inspecting the item to determine if it can be returned to inventory for future sale. In cases where a customer submits a claim under a product warranty, the Service LoB initiates additional business processes to create a service order and fulfill the specific service requirements outlined in the warranty agreement.

In the Finance LoB, teams perform period-end closing at the end of each month. During this process, accounts are reset to a zero balance. Key financial accounting tasks include recording transactions, reconciling bank statements, and managing tax payments to ensure the accuracy of all financial statements. These activities support ongoing planning, budget maintenance, and scenario-based forecasting for future business requirements.

The sales process begins in the Sales LoB, where teams focus on lead generation and nurturing. These activities identify potential customers and build the pipeline required to drive service sales.

Following the sale of a consulting service, the Professional Services LoB manages the project setup and execution. This involves searching the organization for qualified personnel who possess the necessary skills for the project tasks. Once identified, these resources are formally staffed to the project to ensure successful delivery.

If a project requires external services or materials, the Sourcing and Procurement LoB manages the end-to-end purchasing process. This includes identifying requirements, acquiring items from suppliers, and processing payments.

Within the Professional Services LoB, the focus shifts to project execution and delivery. Staffed resources record their activity by submitting time and expense reports for work-related travel.

To ensure financial health, the project manager monitors the project margin—the difference between the price charged to the customer and the total cost of consultant time and expenses. This oversight ensures the project remains profitable as the customer pays the agreed-upon installments.

Once the project is finalized and the final customer payment is received, revenue recognition processes are executed within the Finance LoB. To close the lifecycle, the project manager leverages analytical applications to perform a comprehensive evaluation of the project's success and financial outcomes.

Product development begins within the R&D Engineering LoB, where teams forecast demand and design the product specifications. This phase results in a Bill of Materials (BOM), which is transferred to the Manufacturing LoB to initiate production.

To ensure resource availability, Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is executed to determine which components are available in-house and which must be acquired through the Sourcing and Procurement LoB.

Within the Sourcing and Procurement LoB, the organization identifies and sources materials from third-party suppliers. This process includes placing purchase orders, processing payments, and receiving the materials into the warehouse for inventory management.

With the necessary materials available, the Manufacturing LoB schedules and executes the production process. This begins with staging materials from the warehouse to create various sub-assemblies, followed by the final assembly of the finished good.

To ensure operational efficiency, any machinery used during production is maintained through the Asset Management LoB. Once assembly is complete, the finished goods undergo a quality inspection before being stored in the warehouse.

All movement of materials between warehouses, locations, and plants is managed by warehouse management processes within the Supply Chain LoB.

The Sales LoB manages incoming sales orders, whether they originate from direct-to-consumer channels or third-party platforms.

Once an order is placed, the Supply Chain LoB coordinates the outbound delivery. This involves transportation management—planning and orchestrating the movement of goods from the warehouse to the final destination.

After the customer receives the product and payment is processed, the organization handles any necessary follow-up activities. If a customer returns a product, it undergoes a quality inspection. Ideally, the item is returned to stock for future sale. However, if a product is defective, the organization must perform a root-cause analysis to determine if the fault lies with an internally manufactured component or a supplied part. This triggers corrective actions and salvage processes to ensure responsible disposal of non-recyclable materials.

Finally, if a product is under warranty, the Service LoB manages any subsequent claims or guaranteed service delivery.

Oil and gas processes are primarily focused on field logistics. The standard business processes help organizations plan, coordinate, and monitor the movement of materials and equipment to and from remote operating locations.

The scope covers overall field logistics execution, direct procurement, supplier-provided items, container and voyage management, and analytics for monitoring logistics performance. Together, these processes support the supply activities needed to keep offshore and remote field operations running.

Professional services processes cover the full lifecycle of project-based work.

The standard business processes support customer and internal project management, resource planning, procurement, sales orders, project billing, and revenue recognition under IFRS and US GAAP. They also support intercompany delivery and billing when employees or costs are shared across legal entities.

Together, these capabilities help professional services organizations plan projects, assign resources, track costs and revenue, bill customers, and manage financial reporting from project initiation through completion.

Public sector and higher education and research processes focus on managing funds, budgets, grants, and public-sector accounting requirements.

The standard business processes support fund accounting, Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)-based accounting and account mapping, government budget planning and control, grants management, and the use of earmarked funds for specific obligations such as positions or real estate contracts.

Together, these capabilities help organizations plan and control public funding, track how money is restricted and spent, manage grants, and meet government reporting requirements.

Retail processes cover end-to-end merchandise and store operations.

The standard business processes support retail product and site management, assortments, seasons, pricing, promotions, procurement, replenishment, and merchandise allocation. They also cover store and distribution-center inventory, warehouse and logistics processes, omnichannel order fulfillment, returns, supplier consignment, and connectivity between stores and central systems.

Together, these capabilities help retailers plan merchandise, move products through the supply chain, manage store operations, and fulfill customer demand across physical and digital channels.