A deep dive into Infor financial reporting

Imagine trying to drive a car without a dashboard. You wouldn't know how fast you're going, how much fuel you have left, or if the engine is overheating. That’s what it’s like to run a wholesale distribution, manufacturing or retail business with inefficient or disconnected financial reporting. You're essentially operating blindly, making it hard to steer through challenges, plan with confidence and reach your goals.

The ability to generate timely, meaningful financial reports is not just a nice-to-have in business it's a necessity. Accurate financial reporting is the backbone of cashflow management, regulatory compliance and sustainable growth. It gives stakeholders a clear view of financial health.

However, many businesses, especially those using complex enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like Infor, face significant challenges in producing timely, reliable and accurate financial reporting.

The evolution of financial reporting and the modern finance team

Financial reporting has come a long way – from manual, error-prone processes to increasingly automated and data-driven methods. Traditionally, finance teams spent countless hours compiling reports using spreadsheets, often leading to inaccuracies and delays. This manual approach left little time for analysis, let alone strategic input.

The role of finance has shifted. Today’s teams are expected to act as strategic advisors, providing valuable analysis that guides business decisions. To do this effectively, they need reporting tools that provide accurate data but also offer flexibility, real-time insights, and the ability to quickly consolidate financial and operational data.

That’s where the right software becomes critical.

Phocas software is a Business Intelligence (BI) and financial planning and analysis platform that integrates with ERP systems like Infor. It enhances the capabilities of your ERP, empowering businesses with consolidated data. The software makes it easy to access and analyze data and then carry out self-serve custom financial reporting, as well as rebate management, budgets and forecasts all in one place. Moving away from manual processes and complex Excel spreadsheets.

Infor's role in financial reporting

Infor, a global ERP and financial management software provider, offers a range of solutions designed to address the financial reporting needs of businesses.

Infor's key financial reporting products include:

• Infor F9: This solution integrates with Microsoft Excel, providing users with real-time access to general ledger (GL) data for financial reporting and analysis. Infor F9 is designed to automate manual reporting processes and eliminate the need for manual data entry and exports.

• Infor SunSystems: This is a comprehensive financial management software solution suitable for businesses with complex needs, such as multi-currency, multi-company, and multi-dimensional analysis. Infor SunSystems provides real-time reporting functionalities and embedded analysis tools.

• Infor Core Financials: As part of the broader Infor Financials & Supply Management (FSM) suite, Infor Core Financials is a cloud-based solution that delivers finance operations software focused on enhancing decision-making.

• Infor d/EPM (Dynamic Enterprise Performance Management): This is Infor's comprehensive solution for enterprise performance management, encompassing planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation and robust reporting capabilities.

These Infor ERP solutions aim to provide core functionalities like real-time data access, automation of manual processes, customizable reporting and drill-down capabilities.

Infor: strengths and sticking points

Infor's ERP solutions offer several advantages when it comes to financial reporting. They help streamline manual tasks through automation, saving time and reducing the risk of errors. This improves data accuracy and integrity, critical for making informed decisions. The systems are designed to deliver timely, reliable insights that support smarter planning and reporting. Users also benefit from intuitive interfaces, with tools like Infor F9 offering a familiar Excel-based environment. And as businesses grow or change, Infor’s scalability and flexibility make it easier to adapt without overhauling core systems.

However, it's important to acknowledge the limitations and challenges that some businesses may encounter with Infor's reporting tools:

• Some systems, like Infor SunSystems and Infor d/EPM, can have a steep learning curve due to their complexity.

• Users have reported performance issues with certain Infor products, especially when dealing with large datasets.

• Compared to some other native ERP reporting solutions, Infor's offerings may have customization limitations in certain areas.

• Integration challenges with non-Infor systems have been reported.

• Some users find Infor's Excel Report Writer to be cumbersome, time-consuming and error prone.

• Infor Birst, their BI offering, has been described as complex and costly to implement, with limited financial capabilities.

One business that felt these limitations firsthand is IMMY, an American manufacturer using Infor CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine). As the company grew, so did the complexity of its financial reporting needs. Devin Moxley, Financial Controller at IMMY, explained:

“The tools that came with Infor were not great for financial reporting. We’re growing super quickly. We have all these new reporting requirements. And these were the tools that we paid a lot of money to assist us with after implementing Infor CloudSuite. We thought we had the right tools but there continued to be extra work.”
Devin Moxley, Financial Controller at IMMY

This is where Phocas came in—helping IMMY extend the capabilities of their ERP and eliminate the extra effort.

Enhancing Infor with specialized financial reporting solutions

Relying solely on an ERP for financial reporting can leave finance teams stuck in a reactive mode, patching together reports from spreadsheets, chasing down inconsistencies and losing time that could be spent on higher-value analysis. That’s why many businesses are turning to dedicated financial reporting solutions that go beyond what standard ERP tools can offer.

Resolute, a large HVAC&R company, also experienced rapid growth. They’re now leveraging Phocas to consolidate financials to the executive team, creating custom executive dashboards that empower the leadership team to drill into the layers of data to review performance by piece of equipment, branch or region. CIO Soulby Jackson explained:

“As we have grown three times our size, the need for a single source of truth and the ability to manipulate and dig into the data has grown. We are on an aggressive growth path through acquisition, so seamlessly integrating data from a growing number of data sources to see the big picture is critical.”

Platforms like Phocas are purpose-built to help finance teams move faster and think more strategically. Business intelligence (BI) and financial planning and analysis (FP&A) capabilities are no longer optional extras – they're essential tools for navigating complexity and delivering clarity across the organization.

Extending Infor’s reporting capabilities with Phocas

Phocas works alongside your Infor ERP system to fill the gaps and simplify reporting. It connects directly to Infor products, like CloudSuite and SX.e, consolidating data from multiple sources into a single, reliable view. That means no more extracting and manipulating spreadsheets just to get a basic understanding of your numbers.

Intuitive by design

Finance professionals don’t need to be SQL experts to get what they need – reporting is self-serve, quick to build and easy to customize. This frees up analysts and CFOs alike to spend more time on what really matters: interpreting the numbers and advising the business.

Financial statement generation is fully automated in Phocas. Profit and loss reports, balance sheets, and cash flow statements are updated in real time, so teams aren't stuck reworking outdated templates each month. And because the data is live, Phocas supports continuous planning—allowing budgets and forecasts to evolve as conditions change.

What sets Phocas apart is its ability to turn raw data into clear, visual insights. Users can explore performance trends, drill down into key metrics, and flag outliers—all from interactive dashboards designed for action. Whether you’re tracking profitability by branch, monitoring cash flow, or forecasting inventory demand, Phocas brings the clarity Infor users often struggle to achieve with native tools alone.

It also supports better collaboration across departments. With secure data access and shared views, finance becomes the enabler – not the bottleneck. Everyone from operations to executive leadership can make faster, more informed decisions backed by a single source of truth.

Here’s what changes: With Phocas, you can step beyond the limitations of your Infor ERP and move towards a more dynamic, insight-driven approach to finance. The result? Greater efficiency, deeper understanding, and more confident decision-making across the board.

Financial reporting that fits your business needs

Effective reporting doesn’t stop at the income statement. For manufacturers, distributors and retailers, it’s often the custom, departmental-level reporting that delivers the most day-to-day value. That could mean breaking down performance by branch, by product line or by customer group – whatever makes the most sense for your business model.

Phocas makes it easy for you to build and adapt those reports, keeping everyone focused on the metrics that matter most. Whether you're managing rapid growth or just trying to get a handle on operational performance, the ability to create targeted, timely insights is a game changer.

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