One of the most vital departments in any company is its accounts department. This department is crucial to the success of a company’s finances. Invoices are sent on time and credit notes issued as needed. Purchases are promptly paid, records are accurate, and credit notes issued when necessary. However, if this isn’t the case, then your company’s reputation can be drastically damaged and your productivity may be affected.
If you have multiple spreadsheet updates from different people in your accounting department, which could be duplicated or out of date, one way to improve efficiency is to simplify your financial reporting. These are the five main ways you can do it.
1. Transfer all of your financial data into the cloud
Spreadsheets are simple to use, but they can prove difficult to make as data needs to come from several sources. After a spreadsheet is created, staff must manually reconcile and integrate the data. Next, there’s the creation of formulas, formatting, and creating charts.
Today, cloud-based services are becoming increasingly popular. One Statista survey revealed that 3.6 billion people used cloud computing by 2018. Xelix, a cloud-based software for financial planning and analysis can help ensure that your accounting department has all the latest financial information via the cloud. The data can also be accessed easily and searched for, instead of being hidden in reports or spreadsheets.
2. Centralise your information
Even small errors can lead to major problems in accounting. Manual reporting is a process where several people can access and modify data many times per day. These errors are often more frequent and harder to spot. It is possible to move calculations, data, security and other information into one central location. Everyone will be working with the same files and the same information. These errors can be found in one spot and must be corrected there. This improves accuracy while also allowing your team more time to work on other projects.
3. Allow users to use the system when and how they want
Due to the increased number of systems which generate more data, financial reporting has become more complicated and difficult. These problems become more acute when systems aren’t fully integrated and when people find themselves repeating tasks that others have already undertaken.
Allow your business users to view the reports that they require. This can help you avoid these problems. This allows the accounts department to concentrate on other important tasks while allowing business users access to the data they require quicker.
4. Work with all departments
It’s important that the finance department enables collaboration. Everything will go more smoothly if everyone has the same metrics and calculations as well as KPIs, reports, data, etc. It is possible to move to a cloud-based solution for financial planning and analysis.
5. Analytics using data
Big data analytics has made it possible to manage large amounts of data in a way never before. Analytics can have a huge impact on the quality and usefulness of financial data. It also helps you to produce more informative and insightful reports. You may also be able detect patterns and trends using descriptive analytics.
Entrepreneurship Life – 5 Steps to Streamlined Reporting
