Far too much money is reinvested in upgrading the general ledger (G/L). In a modern company, the G/L only does the basic task of holding the financial numbers for the year. Monthly reporting, latest forecast numbers, budget numbers, and even the drill-down facility available to budget holders often reside outside the G/L package, so why reinvest? Instead of changing your G/L, I believe the CFO and the finance team have better investment opportunities elsewhere, which will turn the accounting function into a paperless office.
We begin with the notion that spreadsheets should be banned from core finance routines, as they have no place in forecasting or budgeting. Spreadsheets were not designed for many of the tasks they are currently used to accomplish. We then proceed to take a look at seven key technologies that should be understood and evaluated for use in a future-ready finance team, including reporting tools, and upgraded accounts payable systems. Also included is an analysis of planning and forecasting tools, what makes a tool useful, and how the decision for selecting and implementing such a tool should be made.
This unique implementation working guide covers the technologies a future focused finance team needs to embrace. The working guide answers the questions “Which systems should I invest in?” and “How should I go about it?”. It contains 20 pages designed to help readers to implement quick wins that will save their team time. The working guide comes with some electronic media, eg: lists of available software and checklists to assist in a swift implementation. I have spent around US$20,000 researching, writing and testing these working guides. I guarantee, if you purchase, read, and act you will save many times the cost of this guide.
This working guide gives you the answers to the following questions:
- What are the technologies to help make your finance team future ready?
- How to get your finance team future ready?
- How to future proof your finance capability?
- What are the steps to build a future ready finance team?