Financial planning and management are among the most important areas of any well-run business. On top of the basic accounting activities that take place every day, financial planning and reporting are the crystal ball for your business.
The results of your financial reports give you the backstory of the year you just had along with a glimpse into what the coming year will look like. In these financial reports, you’ll find profit and loss indicators, cash flow, including any payments made to suppliers or coming in from clients, and more.
This is particularly important if you’re a small business and are currently growing or have plans to do so in the future.
Financial Management for your Business
If you’re running a small business, a basic accounting software will usually do the trick. You may have data across different systems and spreadsheets, but you have accounting team members handling them.
Alternatively, you might be using a reliable accounting software like Quickbooks, helping your teams remain organized and on top of your financial information.
Learn more about when it’s time for your business to make the switch to NetSuite accounting software here.
If you’re running a larger business or you’re growing one, the likelihood is that a rather basic accounting software with your accounting teams behind it just won’t cut it. Even with the most experienced finance professionals handling your company’s reporting activities, there’s still always a chance of human error.
At some point, these manual processes for workarounds and data maintenance will probably affect productivity and efficiency.
If you’re worried it’s too soon to make the switch over to an accounting software, such as NetSuite, don’t be. NetSuite Accounting Software lets you add on as your business needs grow - plus you can take advantage of some of the other features it offers for businesses.
NetSuite financial planning and reporting are the natural progression for your business. But how can it help with your financial management?
How Can Manual Financial Management Affect Your Productivity?
At the moment, you might have experienced accountants or a basic company reporting software running your financial operations. But, the reality is that, with data scattered across various systems within your organization, any potential human errors could entail losses. With that, having different teams access and manipulate your financial statements could lead to it falling in the wrong hands.
Learn more about how Business Intelligence for NetSuite, Powered by GURUS, can help you manage data accesses and get better insights into your organization’s financial reporting.
NetSuite for Financial Management
So, let’s jump ahead and say your business has now grown and is no longer a small business. In doing some quick math, it’s obvious that hiring more employees to manually handle your financial activities could cost you more in the long run.
Whereas, having a centralized accounting software with the right accesses for different teams could alleviate this. You can also have access to all financial data at once, without having to go through several accountants or run different reports for a full view.
Advantages of NetSuite For Your Business
While NetSuite may have originally been built as an accounting software, it has definitely evolved into much more than that.
As we go over some of the ways NetSuite can help you better manage your financial reporting activities, let’s keep in mind that it also comes with other features that your business can benefit from, such as:
- Streamline activities across departments
- Inventory management and tracking
- Sharing client details across teams for cross-selling opportunities
- Built-in CRM, and more
How NetSuite Accounting Software Can Help You Manage Your Business’ Finances
1. Speed up (and automate) your processes
Your business’ accounting processes demand time to ensure every detail is up to date and correct. Some steps can require workarounds or analysis that your accounting professionals probably don’t have time to work on.
If your business is completely relying on spreadsheets to fulfill everyday tasks such as reporting, consolidation or basic balance sheets, then you’re bound to run into data errors. The extra time your accountants will take to work on or correct these will add up fast and will impact your productivity.
With NetSuite financial reporting, you can ensure the best practices for your specific industry are being used to automate your accounting activities. It knows that every industry is different.
2. Financial consolidation of all your data
Ask yourself: if you wanted to look at a clear representation of your business’ current cash flow, would you know where to look? Would all of this information be in one place? Or would you be looking across various systems and have several employees running reports for you? This can be time-consuming and confusing.
Reconciling data and having it in one accessible location is key to understanding your business’ current financial situation. Centralized data within your NetSuite accounting software will not only improve your reporting but increase your efficiency. And with access granted to select team members, you can be sure it won’t leak to the wrong divisions.
3. On-the-spot visibility of of your financial performance
If you own a business, you know how important it is to stay on top of your company’s financial performance and reporting. You have to keep a constant eye on expenses, supplier payments and accounts receivables to ensure proper cash flow.
Thanks to NetSuite’s financial reporting dashboards, you can assign roles to your accountants and finance professionals so they have a full view of their respective indicators.All the while, you can continue to build out reports, go further into details that could help you resolve any client issues, delays or errors.
This, and again, less time spent on overall reporting.
To learn more about GURUS Solutions and how many organizations integrate NetSuite ERP with their financial planning, budgeting and forecasting spreadsheets, check out the GURUS Data Exporter FP&A Edition.