Five things to consider when reviewing your EOM reporting process

Five things to consider when reviewing your EOM reporting process

Improving financial performance management can be an ongoing challenge for businesses.

Regardless of the size of your finance department, the chances are that end of month reporting (EOM) causes the occasional headache for staff.

Brisbane-based Bistech, provides solutions to businesses looking to improve their current reporting processes. According to Bistech, the key to moving your business forward is really understanding the data within your business and having this at the click of a button, when you need it. By digging into your existing EOM reporting methods, you can identify which parts of the process work and which don't. 

As technology evolves and businesses modernise, it is imperative to ensure that your EOM process does not get left behind.

5 Key Questions to Ask

To ensure you are still using the best EOM process for your business needs and utilising the best products for the task, the Bistech team recommend asking yourself these five things.

1. The first thing to consider is how long your reporting process takes.

Which steps of the process are being done manually? Could these be processed via tailored automation? EOM reporting shouldn't be an excessive drain on staff time. If you find your team is being bogged down in slow processes, then it may be a sign you need to consider doing things differently.

2. Is the information produced easy to interpret?

What visual outputs does your current process produce? Visual dashboards, when fuelled by the right data, can be an incredibly helpful tool for monitoring financial information. Remember not all business leaders are financially minded so producing visual dashboards and scorecards can help increase understanding of financial situations beyond the finance department.

3. Do you track budgets and forecasts and adjust them to accommodate changing business conditions?

Make sure that budgets are regularly updated and that this information is reflected in the forecasts. It may sound simple but not updating these regularly can make the time spent on the initial plans semi-redundant. Tracking budgets properly as you go will also assist when it comes to the end of financial year, tracking 12 months' budgets retrospectively is not productive.

4. Are you using your data to look forward?

This is a crucial step in any EOM process. By forecasting future outcomes and trends you can plan accordingly and consider 'what if' for multiple scenarios allowing you to react quickly to changes in key business drivers.  This is information that should be shared with all the business leaders. Ensuring all senior executives are aware of potential changes or impacts can allow the business to be fully prepared across the board.

5. Speaking of which, how easy is it to access reporting information?

Who is this available to and is it all located in one place? Make sure the information is in an adaptable, easy to access format such as on mobile as well as on desktop.

Modernising your EOM Reporting

By asking yourself these questions, you can gain valuable insight into what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.

As the saying goes, there is always room to improve. Streamlining and integrating your EOM process will have a positive effect on business productivity whilst enhancing the data the process yields. This will allow you to be nimble and adapt quickly.

Bistech has created a fully integrated financial performance management solution referred to as FPM Headstart, which has been developed by their team of Certified Practicing Accountants (CPA). The solution reduces last minute headaches caused by incomplete data and disparate information and arms you with easy to interpret business data that enables you and your colleagues to make more informed decisions. 

How does your EOM process stack up?

When was the last time you took a deep dive into your EOM process? Unlock vital business information and find out how you could save money when calculating your EOM costs with Bistech's free Cost Calculator.

The Cost Calculator asks questions specific to your organisation and EOM process to provide a base-line organisational cost in preparing your end-of-month reporting packs.

Take 5 minutes to enter key information into the calculator now to see how your process stacks up.

This article was written in partnership with Bistech.

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