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Are You getting The Most Out Of Your Accounting System? |
The most fundamental purpose of any accounting system is to provide an effective internal control mechanism and certain basic reports required for business analysis. But how many of these accounting systems actually deliver advanced level features that meet the strategic business objectives and generate a greater return on investment? Lets see if you are getting the most out of your accounting system or it is time for you to move onto a more sophisticated accounting solution.
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Record of Non-Financial Information
In addition to providing financial data and monetary information, most businesses inherently also need to record non-financial information that is a crucial determinant of the success or failure of any business even as simple statistical data such as hours worked, quantities bought and sold, services provided, etc can be vital in pointing the business in the right direction. But most accounting systems do not have these features that allow you to capture non-financial, statistical or unit data, directly. This feature can be used to allocate expenses to products or departments, track managerial efficiency, or determine service line productivity and much more. Enterprise Resource Planning solution provides a comprehensive reporting structure of financial as well as non-financial data that aids managers take quick decisions after carefully analyzing business data in the most effective and scrutinized manner.
Advanced Analytical Reports
Once you understand your data, relevant information and the relationships between financial and non-financial accounts, you can then initiate more advanced analytical functions that are included with many ERP software. ERP software systems make a great starting point for developing business analysis applications especially when they can access the non-financial data described above. Don’t feel the need to buy an expensive ERP software solution until you really understand the data you are capturing and the various interrelationships. A basic spreadsheet with pivot tables is often a good starting point but will allow you to go only so far.
Go paperless
Astonishing resources and budgets are still being spent on paper and business stationery even for internal correspondence. Distributing daily reports and financial schedules may take up bulk of these budgets. Electronic distribution will have the obvious benefit of reducing paper costs and aiding the Green movement as well as boosting confidence in the information provided. Things like vendor invoices, customer bills, product collateral and more all make great candidates for electronic storage. By attaching links from the electronic document to the relevant transactions, everyone in the system can have immediate access without spending time tracking down originals and copies. ERP Software systems integrate all core business functions onto a single system and have the potential to generate thousands of reports electronically without the guilt and overspend on business stationery budgets.
Review your system
Review your current system for excessive approval levels or manual sanction. Is there correct order flow and hierarchy structure defined or is the flow of information moving at a slow pace with needless sanctions aimed at bringing about control and reducing costs? With relevant segregation of departmental duties and processes, ERP software can speed up such processes and bring about efficiencies and greater productivity in the workplace. A new implementation will usually over-implement approval levels and controls that can be streamlined once the organization is comfortable with the new application.
Stay Updated
Seldom do managers check to see if the current system has updated or may be running on a outdated software release. There could be further time saving techniques and better performance but managers may be unaware of these updates and could potentially not getting the best out of their systems. With ERP software most vendors provide software releases throughout the year and new features are always being added and the support often is dependent upon the current release level.
Make the move to a more systematic ERP software system that empowers you to truly take control of your business in your own hands and stop relying on just isolated accounting systems that only deliver part of the information needed to take your business in the right direction.
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Neelam Dhawan 