Outgrowing your financial management system can harm your business growth, if you’ve spotted these 3 tell-tale signs it might be time to consider an upgrade
Are you struggling to find your financial data in a mish-mash of folders and files? Noticed a sharp increase in operational expenses lately? Perhaps spending a little too much time when it comes to creating reports at financial close? If any of these are sounding familiar, we have got some good news for you: it might not be you! Instead, it’s probably time to upgrade your financial management system.
Historically, financial management systems haven’t been designed with the flexibility and scalability to take a company from Day 1 right the way through. Instead, many household name financial management systems provide a great boon to a business at the beginning, when they switch from manual accounting procedures to some level of automation and reporting. However, after a time, these systems can be unable to cope with new or multi-layered information, like taking transactions in multiple currencies, from multiple global locations or keeping track of different project budgets.
As your business grows, so do your financial reporting needs. Common accounting systems, basic ERP solutions and even homemade solutions can all meet basic financial needs – effectively plugging a financial reporting gap when your business starts out. But what happens when you expand branches nationwide, globally or simply scale up operations?
You may notice that you don’t readily have access to all the data you need in order to pull together a report at the level of detail your shareholders and stakeholders require. It may be that your system cannot meet increased industry regulation and compliance laws; or perhaps you are struggling to have any degree of visibility over stock inventory? Let us take a look at some of the most common signs that you need a new business management software for accounting:
Your business is losing efficiency
Reports showing a bit of an efficiency black hole? The time we lose on creating reports at month end, financial close or simply chasing data around can be a key indicator that our systems are not firing on all cylinders. Losing time creating reports and filing paperwork is costing your company money – especially if it occurs during a time of growth. After all, if operations are expanding, so should your revenue!
Whilst costs are to be expected when scaling up, this should never represent an unmanageable or unsustainable growth of overheads. If this is something you have noticed, it is time to track down the culprit – which could be poor financial control.
NetSuite’s dedicated financial application, Netsuite Planning and Budgeting (NSPB), allows for financial health to stay front and centre. Streamline your operational expenses and optimise your inventory management, with a clear dashboard incorporating all expenses and profits in one spot. Scalable to whatever size, NSPB incorporates variables to produce an accurate cash flow forecast, including accounts receivable and accounts payable predictions.
It is hard to find the data you need
One reason that financial reports can take what feels like forever is simply a lack of access to the right data at the right time. If your current financial management or accounting system simply presents you with a huge mass of data, it can be difficult and time-consuming to split the wheat from the chaff and present your customers or stakeholders with the information they actually need.
With an intelligent financial management software system like NetSuite, tailored data can be presented to the relevant individuals or departments without requiring any manpower or search time. Configured dashboards and reports can be implemented and automated, letting your teams focus on their work without getting caught up in superfluous figures.
Your current financial management system does not integrate with the rest of your platforms
This is a key issue that crops up time and time again – and one of the biggest reasons that so many of our customers implement NetSuite. A lack of integration here often means financial data is presented as siloed, which blocks you from identifying key patterns in your sales forecasts and finances.
Any financial data is intrinsically linked to the rest of your business operations, whether that is stock levels and inventory, your customer journey through your sales and marketing pipelines, or your resource management – so why split the two apart? With NetSuite, keep your valuable financial data right where you need it to be – fully integrated and in conversation with your other data pools, for a true 360 overview of your organisation.
