Skip to main content

Anytime, Anywhere, Actionable Financial Reports

By
Today’s business context and priorities call for CFO’s to have access to their organization’s financial performance reports at all times. An effective CFO will detect financial performance trends early in the cycle, analyze the same in light of the various dynamics involved and initiate necessary course corrections. Timely and correct decision making can turn the fortunes of an organization, and in turn that of the CFO. To make this possible, the CFO inevitably needs access to actionable insights anytime, anywhere. While what most CFOs track, are somewhat similar, but still each organization has to spend considerable thought and time on designing MIS requirements as per what is important for their business. Almost all CFO’s I have interacted with have put in a lot of thought in arriving at the metrics, KPIs and MIS formats. Irrespective of the investments they have made on a variety of Software Solutions, CFOs have often voiced these concerns in my conversations with them:
  • We are used to looking at MIS reports in a particular way. Most software tools are not capable of generating reports exactly the way we want them
  • Microsoft Excel reports are still the most convenient way for analyzing and distributing reports. I want the same MIS reports that my team prepares in excel, to now be generated by the software
  • My company has grown through mergers. There is lack of standardization within group companies. Getting group level reports has become a nightmare
  • My reports have a lot of derived metrics. Most software tools are not capable of creating derived metrics, that are not directly available in my source ERP system
    • Because of these challenges, CFOs are bound to face decision making hurdles, as financial reports continue to come through slow legacy mechanisms – with insights always trailing data.

    Delay in delivery: Manually prepared reports take time and effort before they are generated and circulated to all stake holders. There is also a loss in the currency of data. You do not get access to critical business reports until somebody works manually on unstructured data, generate reports and mails them across to you. Delay in reports lead to delay in decision making.

    Prone to error and non-compliance – Manual processes are prone to error, and such errors with respect to financial data can lead to serious internal and regulatory non-compliance.

    Any automation of the CFO’s MIS and Financial reporting requirements, have to be done taking into account the way the business operates. The Business operates from Mars and Technology from Venus - the twain has to meet to create the required magic.

    Comments

    Post a Comment

    Popular posts from this blog

    The Mission to Make the CFO's life Easier

    By
    In today’s business context, life of a CFO is that of the radar as well as the captain of a moving ship. Today’s CFO is expected to contribute well beyond the traditional role of cost management and operational controls. The CFO needs to play a delicate balancing act across multiple dimensions, some of which include: Impact of globalization: having an effective finance function that can account for the increasing complexities of running a global business Regulatory adherence: Global regulatory requirements are constantly changing and continually increasing, and CFOs have a personal stake in regulatory adherence Risk management: the nature of risks that an organization faces keep changing Reporting requirements: managing the ever broadening and often burdensome reporting requirements The CFO needs to do all this, while also keeping a keen eye on rigorous ongoing cost management and operational efficiencies to fuel profitability and strategic reinvestment. All this under...
    Post a Comment
    Read more

    Why you should automate your statutory financial reporting

    By
    Visit : https://finalyzer.beyondsquare.com   ||  https://xbrl.beyondsquare.com Statutory reporting consumes a significant amount of time, effort and cost. The statutory reporting function is constantly evolving as organizations look to further streamline their finance function through technology transformation and other cost-cutting initiatives. Manually prepared reports present challenges around data inaccuracy, inconsistency, lack of audit trail. They are time consuming and subject to significant operational risk. If consolidation is involved, there are a whole new set of challenges to deal with – standardisation of account grouping, forex translation, elimination, minority interests etc. Incorrect reporting due to manual errors and omissions can be quite costly. Hundreds of companies are routinely investigated and penalised each year for violating disclosure norms. Organizations are looking at technology solutions to ease out and streamline the regulatory reporting...
    Post a Comment
    Read more

    5 Tips to make your KPI tracking initiatives effective

    By
    EVERYTHING is measurable in today's increasingly digital world. Clearly, businesses with a strong analytics program in place have significant advantage over those that don't. The right tracking initiatives help them effectively identify what is working and what is not, and to know whether they are making the right decisions . An effective KPI should be able to reflect, and relate directly to the business' goals. It should be quantitative and quantifiable, and linked directly to the measurement of your business' success. So, are you being S.M.A.R.T. about it? When you create KPIs, you should be able to answer these five questions known as the S.M.A.R.T. tips to help you identify the effective ones. ·    1.          Specific : Is this KPI too broad, or is it clearly defined and identified?       2.       Measurable : Can I easily quantify this measure?     3 .      Attainable ...
    Post a Comment
    Read more