Orion FAQ
The questions people ask before the first call.
Collected from every Orion page and grouped by the part of the close they are about. Each answer is complete on its own, and links to the page that covers it in full.
01
About Orion
How does Orion run the close on top of our ERP?
Orion reads your chart of accounts, trial balance, journals and entities from the ERP into one foundation, with your bank's statement lines and payroll. The checklist, reconciliations, flux, the cash forecast and the sign-off run on top of it, and the only thing that goes back to the ERP is a journal a person posts.
What does Orion read from Atlas, Apex and Cortex?
Orion reads the records Atlas, Apex and Cortex already hold, with your GL, bank and payroll, in your company's own database. Nothing is copied between products. Receivables and receipts come from Atlas, billing and revenue schedules from Apex, and bills, payments and accruals from Cortex, each tied to the GL in the close.
Do we need Atlas, Apex and Cortex to use Orion?
No. Orion runs the close on your GL, bank and payroll by itself. Where your company runs Atlas, Apex or Cortex, Orion reads what they already hold, and their records become evidence in the close.
Does Orion audit our numbers?
No. Orion never audits and never gives an opinion. It shows which periods your auditors have finished with, as a person on your team records it, and which are still management's numbers.
Who signs off and locks a period?
The people your sign-off order names, usually the controller and then the CFO. Orion runs the checks and shows what blocks the period; every signature is a person's, and the period is locked once the last one signs.
Does Orion move money?
Orion never moves money. It reads bank lines and payment records; your own bank and payment runs move the money.
Which systems does Orion work with?
SAP Business One and S/4HANA, Oracle NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365, with Rillet listed; your bank's feed or its CSV, OFX and BAI2 files; and your payroll register or payroll journals. Each connection is set up with your instance and checked on your own records first.
How long does it take to go live?
Under 12 weeks to a first close run in Orion, starting with one entity, with last month's close run beside your team first. It depends on the ERP and how many entities you close, which is why the first conversation is about your current close.
02
Closing the books
How does Orion build the close checklist each month?
From your own template, set up with you at onboarding: every task, its close day, its owner and its reviewer. Orion copies it into each new period, dates each task against your close calendar, and carries forward anything still open from the period before.
How does Orion know a task is ready for review?
For a task with evidence in the records, it checks the evidence: the bank account tied, receivables from Atlas agreeing to the GL, Cortex's received-not-billed list matching the accrual, Apex's revenue schedules run. Those tasks show as ready on their own. A task with no record to check is marked by its owner. Every task is reviewed by a person.
Which accounts does Orion reconcile?
Every balance sheet account your close covers: cash against the bank, receivables against Atlas, payables and accruals against Cortex, deferred revenue against Apex's schedules, intercompany against the other entity, and any other account against a schedule your team keeps in Orion.
How is this different from the reconciliations in Cortex?
Cortex reconciles the payables side as bills move: vendor statements, payments against the bank, AP against the GL. Orion holds the whole balance sheet for the close, reads Cortex's results from the same foundation rather than redoing them, and adds every other account, with preparer and reviewer sign-off.
How does Orion decide which movements need an explanation?
By the thresholds your team sets with us: a dollar amount, a percent, or both, by account type and entity. Every account is compared; only the movements over threshold are listed for an explanation.
Where does the detail behind a movement come from?
From the records in your foundation. Revenue opens to invoices and schedules from Apex and Atlas, costs to bills from Cortex and your ERP, payroll to the period's runs, cash to receipts and payments by week.
What has to be true before a period can be signed off?
Every checklist task signed off, every reconciliation signed by its preparer and reviewer, every movement over threshold explained and accepted, every drafted journal posted or withdrawn, every intercompany pair agreed or explained, and Atlas, Apex and Cortex agreeing to the GL for the period.
Who signs off a period?
The people your sign-off order names, set with you at onboarding: usually the controller, then the CFO. Each signature is recorded with the person, the time and what was on the page.
Does Orion audit our financial statements?
No. Orion does not audit or give an opinion on anything; your auditors do. Orion records which periods they have completed their work on, as a person on your team marks it, and labels every report with it.
How does a year become audited in Orion?
A person with the right marks it, with the date of the auditors' report. Until then, every closed period is labeled unaudited, and every open one as open.
03
Bank and cash
How does Orion get our bank data?
From your bank's feed, set up with your instance at onboarding and checked on your own accounts, or from the statement files your bank already sends: CSV, OFX and BAI2. Each line is kept as the bank sent it.
Can Orion move money?
No. Orion reads bank lines and payment records. Your own bank and your own payment runs move the money.
How is Orion's forecast different from a spreadsheet?
Each line is read from a record rather than typed: receipts from Atlas, billing from Apex, payments from Cortex, payroll from your calendar, the opening balance from the bank. When a record changes, its week changes, and every figure opens to the records behind it.
How are customer receipts projected?
From Atlas: each open invoice on that customer's own payment history with your company, and pending promises at the rate your customers have kept them. Open disputes are held out.
04
The CFO's view, budget and payroll
Where do the figures on the overview come from?
From the records in your company's own foundation: the bank lines, the GL, and what Atlas, Apex and Cortex already hold. Nothing is exported or copied, so each figure opens to the records behind it.
Do we need every Ferrata product for the overview to work?
No. The overview reads your GL, bank and payroll on its own. Where your company runs Atlas, Apex or Cortex, their figures appear with the detail they hold, such as DSO from Atlas or pay dates from Cortex.
Where does Orion get our budget?
From the budget in your ERP, or from a file your team loads, whichever your company uses. It is set up with you at onboarding and mapped to your departments, accounts and entities.
How is committed spend counted?
Approved purchase orders and bills in flight in Cortex that have not posted to the GL yet. Shown beside actuals, it tells a budget owner what is already on its way.
Which payroll systems does Orion read from?
Orion reads payroll from your payroll system's register or from the payroll journals already in your ERP. Which one, and how it arrives, is set up with you at onboarding and checked on your own runs before the first close.
Does Orion run payroll?
No. Your payroll system runs payroll and your bank pays it. Orion reads each run, ties it to the bank and the GL, and reports it by department.
05
Your ERP, your data and access
Does Orion copy data from Atlas, Apex and Cortex?
No. Every Ferrata product works on one foundation in your company's own database. Orion reads Atlas's receivables, Apex's schedules and Cortex's bills where they already are, so there is one figure for each, not two.
Where are our ledger and bank lines stored?
In your company's own database, behind its own login. That login cannot open any other company's database.
Which roles does Orion use?
The four every Ferrata product uses: Owner, Admin, Approver and Viewer, one per person per company. Preparers and reviewers are assigned per task and per reconciliation on top of them.
Can an outside tool change anything in Orion?
No. Tokens are read only. Signing off, posting a journal and locking a period happen only in Orion, by a person.
Which ERPs does Orion work with?
SAP Business One and S/4HANA, Oracle NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365, with Rillet listed. Each connection is set up with your instance and checked on your own records before your first close runs on it.
06
Close agents
Can an agent sign off or lock a period?
No. Every sign-off, every lock and every reopen is a person's, recorded with their name. Agents prepare, match, draft and tell people what is due.
Do the agents post journals?
No. The journal preparer drafts each journal with its support, and a person with posting rights posts it to your ERP.
Do the agents move money?
Orion never moves money. It reads bank lines and payment records; your own bank and payment runs move the money.
How are the agents set up?
Ferrata builds them with your team at deployment, on your close template, thresholds and rules, and checks each one on last month's close before it runs on the current period.
07
Pricing
How are credits used in Orion?
A credit is a unit of usage, shared across every Ferrata product on your subscription. Orion's close workspace, reconciliations, bank feeds, forecast and sign-off use no credits; credits are used by agent work. The platform fee is built into each plan's price.
What does billed yearly mean?
Billed yearly means the year is paid up front: Launch is $1,188 for the year, which is $99 a month, and Growth is $9,588, which is $799 a month. Billed monthly, Launch is $125 a month and Growth is $1,000 a month. Both cadences include the same credits, and they reset every month.
Do unused credits roll over?
No. Each plan's included credits reset with every monthly cycle, and the ones not used in a cycle expire.
See Orion work on your own close.
Bring last month's close: the checklist, the reconciliations and the trial balance. We run it through Orion beside your team and show you where it would have tied, and give you an honest answer if the close is slow for a reason upstream that you should fix first.
Your close calendar, chart of accounts, thresholds, reviewers and sign-off order are yours, and they stay yours. Orion is configured to the way your team closes. You are not handing over a playbook or fitting into a template.