Ok, maybe it’s an exaggeration to expect year-end reporting to be completed within the first few weeks of January. If you have entry-level accounting software, put financial reports together manually, and work with outside accounting professionals, than it’s particularly far-fetched to get year-end reporting done quickly. However, you can save time and prepare accurate financial reports faster when you replace basic accounting software with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.
Accounting departments everywhere are working hard to collect all the data that they need for year-end reporting and assembling that data into meaningful reports. In addition to preparing tax statements for employees and regulatory agencies, sales teams want to have metrics to base sales goals on, procurement needs data about inventory and suppliers, and managers want to see whether budgets were intact or exceeded. That’s a lot of data to crunch and turn into reports. If your accounting team is working late nights to get year-end reporting done, then it may be time to revisit whether your business solutions are adequate.
Entry-level accounting software doesn’t always integrate well with specialty solutions, leaving the accounting team to collect data from one system and re-enter it into another. Transferring data takes time and can lead to mistakes. Piecing reports together also leads to confusion and possible misinterpretations of data. At the end of the day, you may have reports done but they could contain errors that can lead to poor decision-making or get you into trouble with tax authorities.
Save time and improve data accuracy by implementing a more appropriate business management solution such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. These comprehensive solutions are integrated and connect financials, supply chain, inventory, manufacturing, and other core business areas including human resources and payroll. This integration eliminates the need for redundant data entry or transferring data between systems. Your team can spend less time handling data and more time using it to promote growth.
Most robust ERP solutions also offer business intelligence and reporting features. The built-in reports will generate common accounting reports such as profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and tax statements. Instead of preparing these important documents by hand, your ERP solution can generate an accurate report using the real-time data already within the solution.
Streamline year-end reporting by implementing the right business management solution for the job. Contact Associates Solutions, Inc. for more information about using ERP to manage all of your important financial tasks, including year-end reporting.
By Associates Solutions, Inc., a Gold Certified Microsoft ERP and CRM Partner out of Kansas