Every organisation is different and depending upon size and complexity, they deal with finance related activities in their own way. In any department, technology drives efficiencies, accuracy, and speed ultimately reducing costs and providing better insights into data, but within Finance it also drives profitability through the ability to make better financial decisions from more accurate data.
It’s all about having the right technologies, coupled with the people, processes and operations to provide the bedrock foundations upon which to build a business. Enterprise Resource Planning systems embed Finance, Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Service into one database to deliver the ‘brains’ behind digital business transformation and deliver a single version of truth to provide the basis of forecasting and decision making.
There are several ways that accounting, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software brings huge benefits – here we explore the main reasons.
Automation benefits
Using finance software such as SAP Business One, invoicing, billing and reconciliations are automated, reducing the need for manual data entry and human intervention, and ultimately saving time and reducing errors.
Email orders from customers can be automatically matched against fields such as ‘item codes’, ‘prices,’ and customer details within SAP Business One. Once authenticated, within pre-defined deviation limits if required, a sales order will be added into the system and become available to normal SAP Business One fulfilment and invoicing processes.
Automation can be put to work on order templates for those products and services that are frequently requested by customers, automation of the orders themselves, and pricing based upon predefined rules such as volume discounts or customer specific pricing. Checking availability, confirming orders, and generating invoices can also be automated. Overall better streamlined process helps sales executives to be more efficient reducing the amount of time spent on administrative tasks whilst also delivering a fully accountable financial eco-system.
Using data analytics
Financial software provides a centralised data management hub – a database for all business-related information, which delivers a single version of the truth. Real-time analytics allow financial analysis giving a picture of trends, patterns, and anomalies quickly and accurately, all of which can help to identify risks and opportunities and provide managers the ability to make better, more informed financial decisions.
It’s also possible to predict future trends more easily through forecasting capabilities. This ability to stay ahead of the trends, means organisations have a tool to help them stay ahead of their competition and react quickly to changes in the market.
Secure access via the cloud
The cloud brings huge benefits to Finance in terms of cost reduction, scalability, improved data security and access to real-time data, as well as streamlining operations. Remote access to cloud-based financial software allows collaboration between teams and easy scaling of resources whilst being accessible from anywhere. Ultimately this helps to reduce IT costs in terms of hardware and its support, increase flexibility, and improve business agility.
Through mobile applications
Mobile applications allow automation of quotes on the go – tracking approvals and amends, and access to reports from a mobile device. Communication and collaboration are faster allowing sharing of documents, exchanging of ideas and more informed decision making. Mobile apps can also provide an additional layer of security to finance teams allowing data encryption, secure transactions and ensuring compliance.
Making tax digital
An inevitable part of our increasingly digitised world means that HMRC is embedding more digital technology across its operations too, which in turn means that to respond, organisations must follow suit. The ability for businesses to ‘make tax digital’, the process by which individuals and organisation can keep on top of their tax and financial affairs digitally, means that HMRC compatible software is increasingly necessary. Once SAP Business One has compiled the relevant data, it can be submitted directly to HMRC digitally. This digital engagement can save days of administration and finance time to compile the same data, allowing your team to do concentrate on other high value tasks.
For more information about SAP Business One get in touch today!
