How ERP Software Solves Your Business’s Top Financial Management Challenges
Even the best-run companies face financial management challenges. Help is available from ERP solutions, as exemplified by Acumatica. They include financial management software along with a full range of accounting functions like general ledger, accounts payable, and accounts receivable. Cash, currency and tax management applications enable Acumatica to support businesses on many levels. Here’s a look at some of the more pressing financial management concerns and how Acumatica Cloud ERP software can help solve them.
Financial Planning
Financial planning is a process that involves looking at a company’s current financial conditions, as well as its strategic plan, and determining how to best allocate funds to achieve objectives. No matter what industry your business is in, financial planning is a must. Some challenges businesses face in this area include decentralized decision making, disparate data sources and the timeliness of data.
To resolve these issues, Acumatica provides:
- A single version of the truth: Financial reports and personalized dashboards are available via a shared centralized database.
- Artificial intelligence: From entry of individual data points to invoice scanning, documents can be stored electronically and instantly with the relevant transaction.
- Automation: Workflows, approval limits, bank reconciliations, and the generating of managerial financial reporting data in pivot tables are automated.
KPI Reporting
Without using the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), it can be hard to identify where your business is under-performing, which can lead to losses and missed opportunities. Operating cash flow, working capital and a wide range of financial reports are needed. However, reliance on standard required reports doesn’t always deliver the kind of sophisticated support managers need to make financial decisions.
Acumatica goes beyond standard formats to generate special reports based on the organizational structure of your business. Reports tailored to specific departments, divisions, subsidiaries, products, etc. provide alternative views of data to expand analytical capabilities. With data available on-screen, in reports and in, for example, Excel format, trends and changes can be more easily seen and acted upon.
Inter-Company Accounting
During their natural course of growth, many companies acquire subsidiaries, which may be managed as separate entities. But does this mean requiring separate balance sheets and general ledgers for each? Without a means to reconcile each entity’s accounting into the parent company’s general ledger, inefficiencies and errors can plague your financial management process.
Acumatica provides inter-company accounting to enable financial management in increasingly complex scenarios. Managing multiple subsidiaries is simplified with functions such as:
- Financial management
- Customer relationship management
- Distribution management
- Project accounting
- Field service
The cloud ERP’s real-time accounting system also helps your team avoid manual data entry into spreadsheets, saving time and allowing for more effective use of reports.
Security and Compliance
Data security and compliance are two of the greatest financial management concerns. A cyber-breach or fraud can expose sensitive data, while compliance issues can lead to hefty fines that can put your entire business at risk.
Acumatica increases security with its role-based access control. Financial data are safely stored in the cloud, and available via any device with a web browser. The ERP also addresses compliance on different levels, including the ASC 606 revenue recognition standard for businesses that enter into contracts with customers (for transferring goods or services) and the IFRS 15 standard to account for revenue generated from these activities.
These are only a few financial management challenges all businesses face, and just some features and benefits of the Acumatica cloud-based ERP. For a more thorough overview of Acumatica’s financial management capabilities and our solutions for implementing them, contact us for a demo.
