ERP systems are not intended to drive the completion of the financial close.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems support organizations of all sizes and house operational data and modules, ranging from purchasing management to human resources to financials. While a sophisticated system for necessary for every business, relying entirely on ERP systems to complete the financial close has its shortcomings.

5 Tips to Streamline the Financial Close

1. Align Business and Technology Goals

Having a true alignment between the financial vendor and the business is crucial to the overall outcome when taking the steps to streamline the financial close. Creating an alignment between a financial automation solution and long-term business goals means that the entire organization is on the same path to automation.

2. Automate Manual-Heavy Tasks 

If your organization previously relied on migrating data from ERP systems to legacy tools, there’s a high chance lots of manual-heavy work was utilized to drive the completion of the close. Financial automation software can pull in figures directly from ERP instances and do the heavy processing work in the background.

3. Enforce Strict Compliance Measures

Both compliance and security should be highly prioritized throughout the financial close; while spreadsheets are a valuable tool for recording figures, they only incur risk when used to track organizational transactions and data. Having a financial automation solution in place that seamlessly integrates with ERP systems effectively mitigates risk and increases the security of data.

4. Establish a Digital Roadmap

The roadmap from manual to modern finance is not a straightforward journey; as with any software implementation, there may be bumps in the road. Establishing a clear roadmap enables accounting teams to have a clear-cut set of objectives to work towards when implementing a new solution.

5. Foster Communication and Collaboration

Migrating away from multiple ERP instances or legacy tools opens the stage for ongoing communication and collaboration with key leaders, executives, and departments. In order to keep improving the financial close for all accountants, there must be a continuous conversation to help identify any bottlenecks and correct any uncertainties.

Download this tip sheet to gain access to these five key tips in detail and learn how to best streamline the overall financial close while navigating a digital landscape.