2020 created unprecedented challenges for nearly everyone, including finance teams that had to, for the first time, perform much of their work remotely. Moreover, this major on-the-fly adjustment to telecommuting compounded longstanding difficulties in managing financial processes, which remained a headache for many organizations throughout 2020.

The Biggest Problems with Financial Processes in 2020

According to a 2020 Forrester Consulting survey of 336 IT and finance executives around the world, 90% of respondents reported problems with their close process, with the most common stumbling blocks including:

• Error-prone manual processes: Flagged by 44% of survey takers, these types of activities, often revolving around spreadsheets and complex patchworks of other software, slow down financial operations and often require rework, anyway.
• Overly complex ERP systems: ERPs that feature lots of disparate vendors and technology stacks can easily lead to confusion, siloed processes and difficulties collaborating across teams.
• Not enough bandwidth for strategic projects: Many CFOs spend more time tracking down financial information across complicated ERP environments (17% of their work weeks, per the Forrester survey) than they do on business strategy (only 12%).

These challenges are not limited to financial consolidation and close processes. For many companies, financial processes are not yet automated or standardized, leading to time-consuming data entry (and re-entry) for reconciliations, reclassifications and adjustments.

Dealing with corrupted and/or outdated data is another hurdle, since the various systems involved may not be updated in real-time. Finance teams might not know what is being spent until they’re reviewing documents during the close itself, at which point they might still be waiting on assets from other departments and needing to re-check them for accuracy.

As teams look ahead to 2021 and beyond, a better approach is needed. Finance departments must contend not only with the above deep-seated issues but also with extended work-from-home as well as lingering uncertainty about how long it will take before their organizations recover from the turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Fortunately, there are reliable tools for doing so.

Building Better Financial Processes for the 2020s

Improving financial processes requires automation and adding advanced capabilities to an existing ERP can be transformative. Automate and modernize business processes across the board without introducing new complexity or higher costs by leveraging these key solution features:

A complete solution from the start

Ramping up with an Oracle Cloud solution is more straightforward than with more complex multi-vendor setups, which usually require extensive consulting before end-users can do anything beyond using a starter kit or template. Having a comprehensive platform from the get-go gives users power and also saves money.

Intelligent automation

The automation capabilities within Oracle applications allows for streamlined processes with broad support across both cloud and on-premise ERP solutions. Configurable rules and automatically applied accounting logic reduce the risk of human error while speeding up the day-to-day work of finance teams.

Flexibility to accommodate change

Financial processes are always evolving in response to changes in the business environment. Events like the COVID-19 pandemic underscore the importance of having an agile finance solution that can implement new models as necessary.

Overall, Oracle solutions enable improved reporting and analysis, through harmonization of key functionality in a consistent manner along with deeper process automation. This works in tandem with ERP solutions to refine and scale accounting activities, providing a crucial upgrade as teams become more remote and need standardized processes.

 
As an experienced and recognized Oracle partner, Inspirage has the expertise to guide your extension of your ERP system. Contact our team to learn more about how to get started on the path to superior financial process improvements.