Empowering remote finance teams with the right tools

For finance teams, the transition to remote work during COVID-19 has brought a mix of various opportunities and challenges. Since finance teams spend most of their time on their computers to create various reports, and analyze and process data, remote work hasn’t created too many obstacles. However, if the finance team is reliant on the IT department to create reports, generate data queries, and extract necessary information from the ERP – communication of financial data has most likely slowed. This dilemma can be addressed with the right financial software tools.

If your finance function is also facing problems in handing the ERP system, answering other people’s queries, or communicating key insights in a timely way, it’s perhaps time for you to look towards a financial analysis and reporting tool that empowers your finance team to allow others to do their own reporting.

Challenges faced by the finance teams while working from home

Although the finance team is data-intensive, its ability to adopt newer technology lags behind other departments in an organization. Due to this, the finance function has to rely on the IT department for creating templates to extract various reports, build a smooth connection between the ERP and a spreadsheet, and integrate technical features.

While working from home, it may become difficult for the finance team to communicate with the IT team in a timely way. Also, when the finance team communicates the insights to other people in the organization, they come back to the finance team for any clarification or answers to additional questions. For generating the reports, the finance team has to coordinate with the IT team for building new templates and then login into the ERP multiple times to find data pertaining to a particular period.

This entire process may drain the remote finance team’s energy, not leaving them any time for doing value-add analysis, and help the business to thrive in the current circumstances.

How to make remote work easier

Financial software is like an efficient assistant for the finance team that can free you up from the administration tasks and empowers you to dive deeper into data. While the ERP data still remains under the tight control of the finance team, the software transforms how the finance team handles the output received from the ERP.

Financial software automates the process involved in the preparation of financial statements and reports required by decision-makers. It extracts data from one or more ERPs in real-time and reflects the latest figures across the reports and dashboard. The finance team doesn’t have to repeatedly login into the ERP to download the latest reports.

Build your own statements

The finance team can customize the financial statements such as the statement of profit/ loss, balance sheet and cash flow statements to suit the requirements of the audience. Most financial reporting automation tools present financial statements in such a manner that the users can view the figures pertaining to a particular branch, division, region, or the entire company’s performance on one screen. The finance team doesn’t need to generate the financial statements separately for each user’s requirement or need.

Individual users from across the business can carry out financial reporting without needing specialized training or financial expertise. It’s the difference between getting an insight every month compared to having them available in real time. Financial software also eliminates the back and forth communication by allowing users to answer most of their questions themselves. They can drill down into specific data, generate customized reports to address specific queries, and collaborate with other people, without disturbing the finance team.

Keep a close eye on the KPIs

Financial dashboards allow the finance team to have a close eye on both financial and non-financial KPIs. This powerful data visualization feature allows the finance team to communicate numbers through a meaningful story that non-finance people can understand and act upon.

In these unprecedented challenging times, it’s important for the finance function to be the at forefront of key business decisions. With the organization observing changes in customer behaviour, the finance team’s contribution will play a key role in adapting to a COVI normal business environment.

But for that to happen, the finance team needs to shift their focus from manual, data-entry tasks to more value-addition tasks, for which they require a powerful resource like Phocas financial statements.

To find out more about empowering finance teams, download this ebook: Turbo Charge your finance team with Data Analytics