In the ever-evolving landscape of financial reporting, organizations are constantly seeking innovative ways to extract meaningful insights from their data. The advent of cloud-based technology has introduced a game-changing approach to financial reporting through advanced dashboards and reporting systems. Systems like Sage Intacct offer a robust platform that redefines how organizations approach data analysis and strategic decision-making. In this comprehensive exploration, Cherry Bekaert demonstrates the benefits of dashboards and reporting capabilities, examining how they shape the landscape of financial analysis.
The Evolution of Financial Reporting
Financial reporting has come a long way from the days of manual data entry and complex spreadsheets. Traditional methods often led to data silos, delayed information dissemination and cumbersome processes. As organizations grappled with the challenges of aligning data from disparate sources, the need for a more streamlined and efficient solution became evident. This need delivered the concept of dashboards and reporting systems, designed to provide a comprehensive overview of financial data while enhancing accessibility, accuracy and strategic insights.
A Paradigm Shift in Financial Reporting
Today’s chief financial officers (CFOs) realize that they need data every day in a robust format to make strategic decisions on pricing, customer churn, investments and lead generation. Faced with new demands to provide a higher level of business counsel and manage heightened expectations for improved insight, it’s important that CFOs have technology to help discover new opportunities and risks with better forecasting and an enhanced customer experience. CFOs need the ability to produce and distribute reports more easily, trust a single source of truth, and manage financial and non-financial data to drive decision-making.
Sage Intacct’s cloud-based financial management software has emerged to pioneer transforming financial reporting through its intuitive dashboards and reporting capabilities. What sets dashboards apart from spreadsheets and static printed reports is the ability to interact with the data by drilling into multiple metrics, enabling leaders to have a better understanding of whether targets are being met, behind schedule or performing above expectations. These platforms seamlessly integrate data from various sources into a centralized hub, giving organizations a holistic view of their financial health. The power of this software lies not only in its integration prowess but also in its capacity to turn raw data into actionable insights.
Seamless Integration for Data Accuracy
Data accuracy is the bedrock of financial reporting. Date integration from disparate systems is a complex task that often involves manual intervention, leading to errors and discrepancies. Sage Intacct addresses this challenge by automating the data integration process. It effortlessly pulls data from accounting systems, CRMs, sales platforms and other relevant sources, ensuring that data is up-to-date and accurate. This integration not only saves time but also mitigates the risk of human errors that manual data entry can produce.
Customizable Dashboards for Strategic Alignment
Every organization has unique goals, key performance indicators (KPIs), and metrics that matter most to its success. Sage Intacct offers highly customizable dashboards that cater to the specific needs of different users and departments. They are customizable from almost any perspective, such as by fund, entity, currency or location. Financial professionals can handpick the key metrics they wish to monitor, whether it’s cash flow, revenue trends or expense patterns. The ability to tailor dashboards to individual preferences fosters a more meaningful engagement with the data, empowering users to focus on what matters most to their roles and objectives.
Sage Intacct’s platform provides a more consistent, repeatable way to get information that yields greater trust and accuracy. It allows you to drill down to details and supplies the security mechanisms to ensure the right people are seeing the right data. It provides proactive insights and the ability to have routine delivery of the decision-making information on a repetitive basis. People can be empowered with access to powerful information and the details without having to come to you every time.
Real-Time Monitoring: Navigating the Speed of Business
Information is power, especially when it’s delivered in real time. Traditional reporting methods often involve waiting for data to be compiled and analyzed, resulting in delayed decision-making. Sage Intacct’s dashboards change the game by providing real-time insights. Executives can monitor critical financial metrics as they unfold, enabling them to respond swiftly to market shifts, operational changes and emerging opportunities. This real-time monitoring capability enhances the organization’s agility in a fast-paced business landscape. For example:
- Flag trends and spot exceptions in real time with powerful dashboard and report visualization, while the system keeps tabs on the historic workflow and audit trail.
- Set conditional highlighting on dashboard reports to indicate areas of concern. For example, setting threshold values in the P&L will visually display anomalies in advance so you can take early corrective action.
- Establish smart rules for fraud detection and control.
Regulatory Compliance and Audit Trails
Financial reporting is not only about making informed decisions; it’s also about adhering to stringent regulatory requirements. Sage Intacct offers features designed to meet regulatory standards. The platform’s audit trails meticulously track changes to financial data, ensuring transparency and accountability. This level of compliance is vital for organizations operating in regulated industries, as it provides an accurate and traceable record of financial information for audits and assessments.
Strategic Insights: Navigating Toward Success
The ultimate purpose of financial reporting is to provide data-driven insights that drive strategic decisions and business growth. Sage Intacct’s dashboards and reporting tools are engineered to fulfill this purpose. By presenting data in a visually appealing and easily interpretable manner, executives can uncover growth opportunities, evaluate the success of initiatives, and identify areas that require adjustment and create more reports in less time. Armed with these strategic insights, organizations can navigate the complexities of the business landscape with confidence.
Industry Solutions
Sage Intacct offers solutions and dashboards for multiple industries, including professional services, technology, not-for-profit, state and local government, real estate and construction, and healthcare.
For instance, let’s examine the healthcare industry. Five trends are changing the way healthcare organizations handle their financial information and monitor KPIs.
- Moving to the cloud – Healthcare employees need access to data in real time from any location.
- Growing through consolidation – Healthcare practices are coming together to form larger entities. This consolidation has increased the need for dashboards to understand and manage growth for long-term success.
- Cost reduction initiative – Healthcare organizations need a holistic view of their business to handle and analyze costs.
- Evolving regulatory requirements – Healthcare organizations need to stay on top of changing multi-state reporting requirements and Medicaid and Medicare reporting requirements.
- Shift to consumer-driven healthcare – Consumers are paying more for healthcare and have access to unlimited information via the web, making them savvier customers.
Another example are the benefits of cloud-based accounting software and dashboards for not-for-profits, which can face multiple challenges. For instance, not-for-profits face an array of reporting challenges, including:
- Stewardship and reporting by funds, grants and donors
- Compliance with federal regulations and donor restrictions
- Board members and executives demanding greater transparency and reporting
- Stakeholders and staff spread across multiple locations that require real-time access
Sage Intacct helps not-for-profits achieve real-time visibility for data-driven decisions. Dashboards can help with improved grant tracking, keeping up with funding resources, solving reporting issues and streamlining processes.
What Makes Sage Intacct a Best-In-Class Financial Reporting System?
There are many reasons to choose Sage Intacct as your accounting software, including:
- Chosen as the American Certified of Certified Public Accountants preferred provider of cloud-based financial applications
- Delivers immediate visibility into performance with easy-to-use, real-time financial and operations reporting and dashboards
- Ensures control and compliance as well as reduces risks and cost with automated workflows and internal controls
- Streamlines reporting and compliance with built-in specific reports
- Provides anytime, anywhere access
- Integrates easily with other critical business applications via an open API
In Conclusion – Critical Metrics and Your Financial Dashboard
As a finance leader, it’s your responsibility to use data to make informed and strategic decisions for your organization. Financial dashboards should give management a snapshot of your current financial health across the KPIs that you have set. What sets dashboards apart from spreadsheets and static printed reports is the ability to interact with the data by examining multiple metrics, providing a better understanding of whether you are on target, behind schedule or performing above expectations – all in real time.
Dashboards are critical to helping your organization track its balance sheet, income statement, analysis by fund, cash-on-cash, notes payable, days sales outstanding and many other key financial performance indicators.
Cherry Bekaert Is Here to Help on Your Journey
As a value-added reseller (VAR) of Sage Intacct, Cherry Bekaert can help you get started on your journey to better manage your financials. Our capabilities include implementation, integrating your data, developing a data warehousing strategy, automating your processes and enterprise resource planning go-live readiness.
Different organizations are in different places with respect to their insight journeys. Different options are available to meet your needs no matter where you are on your journey.
You can start with the core package, which includes standard reports, financial reporting and analysis, financial graphs and a variety of distribution options. If you’re just moving beyond spreadsheets, this might be the best choice. If you’re coming from a larger solution, you may already be diving into analysis and need advanced tools to meet deeper reporting needs.
Cherry Bekaert can provide you with the guidance and financial platform that you need to build the ideal finance tech stack with one integrated solution for billing, accounts payable, accounts receivable, ASC606 revenue recognition and robust dashboards.
We would love the opportunity to demonstrate how we can deliver high value to your organization using a Software as a Service (Saas) model, which is licensed on a subscription basis and can lower costs.
Cherry Bekaert is proud to be named a North American winner of Sage’s Partner Platinum Club, which recognizes the outstanding performance of top partners who have demonstrated excellence in sales and service, strong market presence and outstanding leadership.
If you are interested in digitally transforming accounting processes at your organization and realizing efficiencies, we would be happy to discuss our Sage Intacct capabilities with you.
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