Cloudbyz CTFM as the Clinical Sub-Ledger: Connecting Trial Finance to Your Enterprise ERP

An ERP is built for the general ledger, accounts payable and company-wide reporting, not for visits, procedures, site budgets and payees. Cloudbyz CTFM acts as the clinical sub-ledger, holding the trial-level detail, from what each visit earned to what each payee is owed and what is accrued, and passing the results to the ERP. It is used by large pharma, global multinationals, biotechs, CROs and device companies.

How it works today

• Clinical teams track visits in the CTMS or EDC.
• Finance rebuilds the trial detail in spreadsheets to work out payments and accruals.
• Summary figures are typed or uploaded into the ERP.
• When auditors ask how an accrual was calculated, the answer is a spreadsheet.

Why a clinical sub-ledger matters

• Expense recognition. Under US GAAP, clinical trial costs are expensed as incurred (ASC 730), so the ledger needs accruals that reflect real activity at sites (G-Squared CFO).
• Internal controls. For listed companies, Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 requires effective internal control over financial reporting. A documented path from visit to journal entry is easier to test than a spreadsheet.
• Payee-level reporting. In the US, research payments to physicians and teaching hospitals are reportable under Open Payments, which needs detail the general ledger doesn't hold.

What each system does

CTMS, EDC and CTFM share one Salesforce data model, so the first two layers need no integration. The ERP connection is the only interface, and it carries results rather than raw activity.

For large pharma and global multinationals

Large organisations often run several legal entities, cost centres and ERP instances across regions. A clinical sub-ledger keeps the trial detail consistent across all of them, and sends each entity the payments and accruals it needs, with the detail available for audit. Finance controllers stop rebuilding study-level numbers each month.

For biotechs and emerging sponsors

Many biotechs use a simpler accounting system or an outsourced accounting firm. CTFM gives them trial-level budgets, payments and accruals without building spreadsheets, and a clean summary to hand to their accountants or auditors each month.

How Cloudbyz CTFM does it

Cloudbyz CTFM is built natively on Salesforce with Cloudbyz CTMS and EDC. It holds budgets, agreements, payee details, invoices, accruals and forecasts at study, site and portfolio level, with payment, accrual and outstanding reports in one dashboard. Integrations with enterprise ERP systems can be set up to pass approved payments and accruals to the general ledger. Book a demo or visit cloudbyz.com.