Have you ever done a jigsaw puzzle with the picture side facing down?
Financial reporting can sometimes be like that.
In many organisations, the finance team struggles to put together reports and accounts accurately because a lot of data is out of sight.
In fact, it can be like doing that puzzle face-down with an unknown number of pieces lost. You might get everything to fit after a lot of struggling, but you’ll have no idea what’s missing.
iplicit recently illustrated this subject with a downloadable guide, Where’s My Data?, which likens the work of a finance team to reading a Where’s Wally? book. And we recorded a webinar showing you how accounting software can ensure data doesn’t go missing again.
People in sizeable organisations often complain of information “silos”. Data that’s visible in one part of the operation is entirely out of sight for people in another part.
The finance team might be unaware of what information lurks in the departments responsible for sales, customer relations, stock, delivery and more.
Heavy workloads or competing priorities might mean that these departments haven’t fed their information back to the finance team. Or it could be that they’re hoarding data in their own systems because dealing with finance can slow things down. Either way, the people who need accurate data, in a timely fashion, aren’t getting it.
You’ll know many of the places where finance data can be hiding. But how do you shine your torchlight on those areas and prevent data from disappearing there again?
Here are some of the hiding places – and the way to remove them.
Hiding place: Other platforms. Information is kept in a system that handles CRM, purchase orders, ticketing, e-commerce, stock or almost any aspect of doing business, but not linked to the accounting system.
Solution: Smooth integration with your finance system, whether through a public API (application programming interface) or a third-party tool such as Zapier or Besyncly means information is pulled from one system to another as you require.
Hiding place: Other departments. Often, people keep their own data to avoid having to ask for it from an overworked finance team whose staff can take a while to provide the information.
Solution: Better finance software enables other departments to serve themselves to the data they are authorised to see. Budget-holders don’t have to come to finance to see how they’re doing against their own budgets.
Hiding place: Other legal entities. In group organisations, separate entities have different finance software, or separate instances of the same software. That means the information sits in silos until someone pulls it together, usually by using spreadsheets.
Solution: Powerful accounting software can handle multiple legal entities, taking care of intercompany transactions and group consolidation smoothly for you.
Hiding place: Pieces of paper. Plenty of organisations still handle paper invoices or expenses claims, which can lurk on a desk or go missing entirely.
Solution: Modern software does away with the need for paperwork. Expenses can be submitted on a mobile app, with photos of receipts attached. Budget holders can authorise spending online wherever they are.
Hiding place: Spreadsheets. Excel is the world’s favourite tool for pulling together information from other software or paper-based systems. But if finance data is not pulled into it automatically, that means more manual work and the risk of error.
Solution: The best accounting software features live integration with Excel. This keeps the data current and does away with inputting errors. But the finance system itself should be sophisticated enough that you can use its inbuilt reporting and analysis tools and only use Excel if you really love it.
Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know. You’re doing that puzzle blindfold.
It might be helpful to run down this checklist of information you should be able to see in the finance system.
If finding any of these would give you trouble, it’s probably time to consider upgrading your finance system.
iplicit’s guide Where’s My Data? Find the Figures Hiding From Your Finance Team can be downloaded for free. And our related webinar, Unlock Your Financial Data With iplicit, is available for you to watch on demand.