Four factors for insightful management reporting

The next article in our Growing Global series highlights the benefits of insightful management reporting. Generating insight that informs key business decisions was ranked as one of the most important outcomes of good accounting and tax compliance performance, in our recent study. Here, we look at four key factors to unlock the value of management reporting:

1. Speed & accuracy

To be effective, information must be both accurate and up to date. Gone are the days of invoices taking days or weeks to flow through manual approval processes, or long month end close timetables. If an organisation can minimise the period end close timetable, then it maximises the time that its team can spend looking forwards. However, to achieve fast reporting you must have both the technology and the right team structure. Your systems must be integrated to minimise manual and slow interfaces and you then need to have the right structure and processes in place to leverage the benefits of this technology.

2. Use of technology

Technology is key and has transformed how finance teams operate in recent years. Our Global Compliance study found that of those respondents planning to invest in technology, almost half say that artificial intelligence and machine learning is their biggest priority investment in the next five years. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology can help ensure accurate and consistent coding and classification of transactions and integrated workflows can increase the level of automation and reduce the scope for error.

3. Tailored to your stakeholders

We’ve worked with a number of clients to design management reporting that also fits the needs of external stakeholders such as banks and finance providers. By agreeing the format and method of calculation of financial covenants this can be provided at the touch of a button, rather than being a separate and time-consuming exercise.

4. Integration with forecasting

Nowadays it is important that businesses integrate financial reporting with their business planning and forecasting. The business world is moving faster than ever and rolling forecasts that are regularly updated to reflect changes in performance, the market and economy allows more accurate forecasting and decision making.

If you would like to discuss how we can help you streamline and improve your financial reporting process and timetable, then please get in touch.

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