Driving Finance Efficiency

Most finance professionals would be more than happy to spend more time on analysis, trendspotting and coming up with creative solutions to business problems.  

However, the chances of this happening are slim unless you can radically streamline the resource-sapping accounting tasks that crop up month after month. To find the time necessary for value-added work, automation of the consolidation and close process needs to be a top priority.  

Here’s a closer look at why the close cycle is a prime candidate for automation, and at how a leading solution such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 can enable your finance team to reach its ambitions. 

The problem with routine processes  

Just because a task is routine or familiar, this does not necessarily make it less difficult or time-consuming. The monthly close process is a great example. 

According to Accounting Today, monthly close takes organisations an average of six and a half days per month. Some companies spend as much as two working weeks on it. 52% of CFOs say that manual input consumes more than 20 hours per week. 

Add it up, and it means that some accounting and financial teams are spending more than 100 days each year trying to marry financial reports, reconcile data, chase up information and numerous other tasks.  

Consolidation brings further problems. Bringing more legal entities into the fold invariably means your processes will get more complex.  Different reporting units will have their own systems, many of which will rely on manual input. These additional complications compound on each other, increasing the risk of errors. 

For any CFO seeking to make their finance team more efficient, it makes sense to focus on the areas where your transformation efforts are likely to have the biggest impact. In short, if you are looking to automate, consolidation and close is a natural starting point. 

Getting automation right with Microsoft Dynamics 365 

Whichever sector you’re coming from, you can benefit from a quicker, more accurate and less labour-intensive close process. 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a cloud-based business management solution that provides everything you need to streamline the most complex and time-consuming tasks that a finance department will encounter. 

Benefits  

Work Smarter 

Get a complete picture of your business with accessible and easy to create dashboards. You’ll unlock proactive guidance for your employees thanks to built-in analytics that pull data from across your business.   

Delve deeper into your data than ever before and discover insights that more outdated systems never could. 

Adapt Faster 

PwC found that finance automation coupled results in average time savings of 30-40%.  

An agile team that can adapt to a changing world is a must-have in any modern workplace. Remove sluggish processes and you’ll have a team that can innovate and adopt new business models faster than ever before. 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 builds on this by giving you more mobility, reliability and security, in a way that is designed to grow sustainably with your business.  

Perform Better 

With monotonous manual tasks eliminated, your finance teams are free to focus on adding real value to your organisation. Using real-time reporting and predictive insights that can give you a complete understanding of where your business is at any given moment ensures your team can make decisions based on the most accurate and useful data possible. 

You’ll also be able to overcome the key skills shortages that are plaguing finance departments, letting you get ahead of your competitors without having to spend a fortune chasing the best talent. 

Unify and Automate 

Remove data silos and integrate core business processes into one platform. You’ll maximise financial performance, optimise cash flow and drive growth.  

You’ll also see a massive productivity boost that can support actively evolving business models. 

Boost Accuracy, Reduce Risk 

In a traditional consolidation and close workflow, spreadsheets are typically shared, updated, re-checked and amended in a constant cycle. At any point of this process, you could be adding more errors. You’ll either have to plan to spend more time fixing those errors, or risk noncompliance with key legislation. 

The best automated solutions reflect the fact that the close process is a complex and collaborative procedure. They help you to devise a workflow that keeps you in control of the process, ensuring accountability and auditability.  

Whether it’s for tax reporting, regulatory reporting, electronic invoicing or payments,  

Find out more 

MHR specialises in helping finance departments from a vast range of industries get the most value possible out of Microsoft Dynamics 365, turning teams driven by manual processes into high value, data driven business leaders. 

If you’d like to find out more download your finance brochure here.