Better reporting leads to better results. Outdated processes, time-consuming input methods, and overly complex Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are a few things leading to unclear decision-making and a feeling that all future financial plans are simply “guesswork.”
Monthly reports are the natural culmination of the planning process, but they are not the ultimate goal of the planning process. The planning, reporting, and decision-making cycle is the foundation for sustaining a healthy and growing business because it helps you better plan your next steps... and the steps after that.
Whether your business is large or small, there is a high probability that you can benefit from simpler and better reporting processes, so you can plan your next steps with confidence. This blog is intended to help you achieve that goal.
1. Deliver useful, accurate data weekly
Everything in the business world is running faster and faster every day. So you want to keep up with the ever-changing environment with your financial reporting.
These days, companies must plan weekly reports for certain key elements if they want to maintain a competitive advantage.
Of course, saying you need weekly reports is very different from achieving that goal. Most world leaders in the Finance Department are already burning the midnight oil to complete the end-of-month closing process on time, and it would be difficult to quadruple their reporting frequency.
The time-saving solution to this problem lies in integrated budgeting and reporting tools in ERP, such as a Extended Financial Planning and Analysis (xFP&A) solution. A xFP&A helps optimize the reporting process by eliminating repetitive and partially Excel-based tasks that slow down your company.
Through integration and specific tools, xFP&As reduce or eliminate slow and error-prone manual data entry, potentially freeing up hundreds of hours of your accountants' time each year and accelerating the notification process, so it can be completed weekly. To support trends of more analysis and less manual work, leading xFP&As like Solver also offer hundreds of ready-to-use templates that make reports simple on any timeline.
2. Make up-to-date data available to key decision-makers and stakeholders at all times and in all places
To drive a business in uncertain times, an "all-hands-on-deck" approach is needed that requires each member of your team to understand where the corporation is going and why.
Mobile and self-service reporting helps all stakeholders stay up-to-date everywhere
Studies have shown that tracking measurable progress against goals can be a great motivator both at an individual and team level, which is why many companies are opting to make financial data available to all team members. At the very least, leading companies are sharing financial reports with business lines and department leaders, in addition to key decision-makers.
This approach offers strong benefits:
- Enables the CFO and Finance department to easily collaborate with operations leaders to determine key performance indicators (KPIs) that will drive positive results throughout the company.
- Gives business line leaders and other employees a stake in the success of your company. In the past, business line and department leaders often complained that they were held to a standard generated entirely by the Finance department's "intuition," rather than what they felt was more realistic from their "boots on the ground" perspective.
3. Leveraging automated ERP integration to eliminate time-consuming export/import processes
No one has time for manual data entry or report export and reformatting – especially not your busy company.
By choosing to closely integrate your ERP with your financial reporting solution, you can do away with cumbersome, spreadsheet-based, export-import procedures and simply enjoy attractive, understandable reports with the click of a button.
ERP integration also empowers a company to meet monthly reporting process best practices because it helps a company switch away from the old method of spending 80% of their time preparing reports (with only 20% of the time to spend analyzing them) to a new model of reducing report preparation process to just 20% of their time.
Imagine what you could do if you had 80% of your time left to spend gleaning key insights from analyzing your financial reports.
ERP is not the only data source you can connect to your financial reporting solution to save time. Recent trends in monthly reporting process best practices suggest that additionally integrating relevant external data sources into your financial tools can help decision-makers at your company act on key information faster than ever before.
Another key practice for your monthly reporting is to integrate your planning and analysis processes seamlessly into your reporting process. This takes ERP integration to achieve and replaces the old, outdated method of having separate systems for your ERP Report Writer, your spreadsheets, your dashboard tools, your budgeting tools, and other third-party tools.
4. Deliver timely reports in a self-service format, as well as on a schedule
On-demand data is the new differentiator between successful businesses and leaders in the market and everyone else.
In our nanosecond-driven world, it is simply a business fact that the faster your decision-makers can access key data, the faster their analysis and action phases can be. Ultra-fast action helps your company achieve desired results faster than your competitors, and that's what gives you the edge.
One of the best ways to ensure your company can access on-demand data is to choose financial planning and reporting software that enables various stakeholders to quickly and easily run their self-service reports. Of course, on-demand reports should be available in addition to receiving scheduled monthly reports and participating in financial presentations.
One past challenge to self-service financial data was that it was difficult to track the latest version of a report without asking for help from the Finance department. Fortunately, with new cloud-based Extended Financial Planning and Analysis reporting solutions, any authorized user in your company can instantly access key financial reports from anywhere, all of which will be based on a single source of financial information.
5. Remove complexity from financial reports to make them readily understandable to all stakeholders
A great business is made up of the many bright minds driving its success. However, not everyone is trained in understanding accounting terminology.
As you know, great ideas come from all areas of your company, and that means you need to empower all key stakeholders and address potential issues with understandable financial information.
To deliver the best in understandable financial reports, look for these key features in your xFP&A solution:
- The most frequent reports, Profit and Loss, Balances, Cash Flow are presented with user-friendly graphical options, such as dashboards and charts that highlight key variations and trends.
- Your xFP&A integrates with a popular dashboard solution, such as Power BI or Tableau, so users can generate or access their own most important KPIs on demand.
- The solution offers drill-down capabilities that simplify the appearance of the often overwhelming complexity of financial reports while providing accessible access to additional information.
- Your xFP&A can automatically generate a narrative account of critical financial information, using descriptive adjectives and other language that changes in response to the most current financial data.
6. Implement a strong, well-organized reporting process
The full, end-to-end monthly reporting process involves a lot of steps which must all be completed in a precise order to ensure that reporting is accurate, timely, and supports rapid decision-making.
Some finance departments rely on paper or digital checklists to keep them on track, but checklists only clarify what needs to be done, ignoring the equally key information of who needs to do it and when. Without specifying who is responsible for a task, accountability is lost – and your monthly reporting process will be in danger of falling behind.
Enterprises with an eye on efficiency can choose to stay organized and follow monthly reporting process best practices by using a planning checklist tool that is integrated directly into their financial planning and reporting software. This not only saves time with the monthly reporting process, but it also eases the strain during planning, budgeting, and forecasting activities because an integrated checklist tool can make it fast and easy for your team to stay on top of your company’s finances.
In particular, with finance teams working from home or being located at different offices, having an online, integrated, month-end checklist tool can be of invaluable help to support a faster close and to let all constituents easily follow each stage in the closing and reporting process.
An integrated checklist planning tool such as the Solver Process Manager (below) can help your team develop repeatable processes for monthly reporting, annual budgeting, and other frequently completed, complex tasks that rely on accountability and firm deadlines. Using a tool like the Solver Process Manager helps companies keep everything on track every month, so you can count on a smooth monthly reporting process all the time.
Over time, accounting practices evolve and change. Many emerging trends later become best practices. Here at Solver, our financial reporting experts have noticed a few recent trends that we suspect will become best practices for all Finance departments very soon.
Conclusion
Ensuring that your monthly reporting process stays efficient, accurate, and timely requires a solid strategy. By implementing these best practices for monthly reporting processes, your Finance team can navigate the challenges and complexities of modern accounting, regardless of whether you have a local or cloud-based ERP solution.
Our expert team is ready to help you with all your financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting needs. Contact Solver today to learn more about how our innovative xFP&A solution can help you achieve your goals and support your company's success.
TAGS: Financial Reporting, xFP&A