Tips for Improving Financial Reporting in Businesses

Improving finance processes benefits your entire business. Focusing on these tips can bring efficiency, accuracy, and better decision-making

FREMONT CA: Financial reporting on time should be fundamental practice for any business. However, being timely isn't enough – a business’s reports must also be accurate and complete to be useful to the company and its finance team.

Set up your accounting system correctly.

Irrespective of the accounting system used, numerous businesses fail to properly configure the system to derive meaningful value. These systems are designed to generate useful data whenever it is required. Inadequate information results from failing to integrate the system with your business. Allow a reputable firm to assist you in setting this up, and then perform a diagnostic regularly to ensure everything is running smoothly.

Make It A Nonnegotiable Priority For One Team Member

The importance of accurate and timely financial reporting cannot be overstated. It serves as an early warning indicator for the health of any company, but most companies have late or poor-quality books. Make it an explicit, non-negotiable aspect of one internal team member's job description, and track timeliness as one of their particular key performance factors. The staff will follow the lead if they make it a non-negotiable priority.

List all tasks, owners, and sign-offs for the month.

Implement a month-end close calendar that includes a list of all tasks, task owners, and sign-offs. Ensure that tasks are completed promptly and in chronological order. This should be in addition to a month-end close that is on time, in full, and error-free (OTIFNE). An F&A team leader should steer the tracker to keep an up-to-date status on progress and risks, as well as timely financials.

Understand the Close Calendar

Participate in the controller's conversation and be aware of when the books are officially closed. There is a lot of data that must be finalised before the close. Coordination of reporting with the close is required. Repeat for all non-financial metrics (e.g., sales, bookings, pipeline). Then, obtain approval from all data owners and create a reporting calendar that they must sign off on.

Examine your profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and balance sheet regularly.

If organizations try to track and review every financial aspect of their business every month or quarter, they won't have time for anything else. They must concentrate on three key statements: profit and loss, cash flow, and balance sheet. This will ensure that they understand their financial position, sales expenses, and how business changes have affected their liquid assets.

Ensure Continuous Access to KPIs

Every company's KPIs, including financial metrics, should be displayed on an easy-to-update and navigate dashboard. Businesses can see where they stand right now, on this day, if they have the proper system in place. Looking back a year—lagging indicators—companies might not know the truth until a quarter or two later.

Organize regular accountability meetings.

Create a routine with a financial advisor. Now is the ideal time to set the tone for the coming year. Set up monthly and quarterly recap meetings. These will hold the financial advisor accountable, and companies will be aware of their numbers. Schedule follow-up meetings with the team to keep them up to date; everyone on the team will now keep score with the company’s objectives.

Outsource Or Hire Someone To Tackle Financial Reporting

Outsource the financial reporting or hire someone who is completely responsible for it. Every month, businesses should view a list of reports, such as financial statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and so on. The trick, though, is to identify and comprehend their company's financial reporting KPIs. Then, using these and other KPIs, businesses may improve their operations.