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Avoid financial reporting and consolidation nightmares


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In a survey by Workiva and FSN, 97% of CFOs were losing sleep over financial reporting. Over 900 CFO were interviewed in 23 industries across companies of all sizes. Universally, they were spending too much time with spreadsheets and disjointed systems making the process of monthly reporting slow and error prone.

Financial reporting nightmares

Filling the holes in financial reporting with spreadsheets

We all know how inefficient it is to rely on spreadsheets to manage accounting. Unfortunately, many companies started with a single spreadsheet that became 10 different ones as they grew to add multiple locations or entities. The information isn’t updated in real time, so you can never be sure it’s accurate when it’s time to compile those end-of-month reports. 

Requiring IT’s assistance to make changes to reports

Financial reporting shouldn’t require extensive IT support. If you find yourself asking for help each time you need to create a consolidated financial report that includes multiple companies, you need better financial reporting software.

Spending too much time with manual manipulation of information

Similarly, if you’re spending hours manually entering the same data a dozen times because you’re using an entry-level accounting software like QuickBooks, it’s time to look for a better solution. QuickBooks doesn’t work for multi-entity accounting because it requires you to maintain a separate database with a separate subscription for each individual company. If you have one parent company where you’re paying the bills, you’ll need to create and review hundreds of inter-company transactions each month. As frustrating as this is in your daily operations, it’s even more of a hassle when it comes to financial reporting. 

Battling fragmented systems to get information

It’s common for companies to have separate systems for customer payments, accounting, financial reporting and business intelligence. When these systems don’t integrate well together, it takes longer for your whole team to do their jobs. While you may always need to have a different point-of-sales system or EHR system, managing all accounting, reporting and BI functions in one platform is much more ideal. It’s even better if all those systems integrate with your email and CRM provider. 

Basic financial reporting vs. advanced financial reporting

These reporting challenges reveal the differences between standard financial reporting for a single company and the advanced financial reporting required for companies with multiple entities. If all you need is basic financial reporting, an entry-level solution might be just fine. However, if you’re working with multiple companies, multiple currencies, or products with subscription billing, you likely need something more advanced. 

Typical features of advanced financial reporting software include:

  • The ability to manage accounting for multiple companies in one database
  • Simplified reporting and transaction processing across multiple currencies
  • Accounts payable automation reduce manual data entry
  • Automated workflows for greater efficiency
  • Bank book management that makes it easy to match bank transactions with accounting software entries in a single screen
  • Built-in business intelligence
  • Revenue recognition
  • Subscription billing

The solution: accounting software built on the Microsoft Power Platform

Over 43% of the respondents did not know how many spreadsheets were in use for business-critical information, and 50% felt they were spending too much time manually checking the numbers.

One of the study’s recommendations is for companies to put in a “Modern ERP or CRM” system to help solve the issues. With Gravity Software® (Gravity), you get both: a cloud based accounting software app written on the Microsoft Power Platform (aka Dynamics 365 CE). A fully integrated application for your business needs.

Here's a closer look at what makes Gravity Software ideal for advanced financial reporting and multi-entity accounting:

  • Advanced financial reporting tools that can model your company’s financial reporting needs, including consolidation of financial and operational reports.

  • A single platform that allows end users to customize forms to capture data that is often stuck in mounds of spreadsheets.

  • A workflow engine that can save time by watching and notifying when information changes.

  • Advanced analysis tools like Microsoft’s Power BI that works directly with Gravity’s database in real-time. Change a financial number once, and all reports, dashboards and analytics are automatically updated.

  • AI accounting features, including invoice processing, to save your team even more team.

Cloud-based accounting software Gravity allows you to gain more control over your financial system. Why not spend more time adding value to the numbers instead of just reporting on them?

Some examples of spreadsheets that Gravity has eliminated at the client level:

  • Customer owned equipment – A service company had to track the make, model, etc for their client’s equipment that they serviced.

  • Vendor compliance information – A client had to be sure their vendor’s workman’s comp. information was current.

  • Vendor invoice approvals – An airport had to route and capture manager approvals on vendor bills.

  • Industry specific product information – A toy manufacturer had to track unique product details on inventory.

So what keeps you up at night? All your information stored in separate database systems? The overabundance of spreadsheets? Rest assured, Gravity's cloud-based accounting software can help you sleep better so you can focus on growing your business faster.  More than just accounting, Gravity provides the necessary tools and processes to help your business grow. Learn more and schedule a demo today.

Gravity Software

Better. Smarter. Accounting.

 

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