By automating many of the traditional finance processes and tasks, such as the monthly close, finance can free up time to leverage its comprehensive view of the business for competitive advantage.
Automation can simplify the process of closing the books, allowing finance to conduct the closing more frequently, which, in turn, provides real-time insights into the company’s status.
Here are three reasons why automation in forecasting can improve accuracy and save time:
Reduce Manual Errors & Improve Accuracy
When forecasting is done manually, there is a risk of human error. Humans may make mistakes in data entry, calculations, and interpretation of results. However, automation in forecasting eliminates the possibility of manual errors. Automating the financial forecasting process leads to consistency and accuracy, ensuring that forecasting results are precise and reliable. Automation can help eliminate human errors and inconsistencies that may occur during manual data entry or calculations. This, in turn, can lead to more accurate financial forecasting.
Faster Processing & Better Cost Savings
Automation in forecasting can speed up the process, reducing the time and resources required to complete a forecast. Automated processes can handle huge amounts of data quickly and efficiently, allowing for faster analysis and decision-making. This can be handy in scenarios where real-time updates are required, such as inventory management or sales forecasting.
Automation can also help reduce costs associated with manual forecasting processes. By eliminating manual labor and streamlining workflows, companies can reduce the need for additional staff or outside consultants, resulting in cost savings over time.
Generate Better Insights
Automation can provide deeper insights into financial data. With automated forecasting, finance teams can quickly identify trends and patterns that may be difficult to spot with manual processes.
Automating the financial forecasting processes and integrating it with company processes can provide cross-functional insights that enable executives to share consistent and accurate data forecasts. This, in turn, allows finance executives to make risk assessments using accurate and timely information from across the organization, helping them to assess potential risks and opportunities in existing and new markets.
Prioritize Strategic Goals
Another benefit of automating financial forecasting is that it will free up time that can be used to support business growth and plan for long-term capital needs. Without automation, the burden of manual work can prevent finance teams from focusing on important strategic issues. By reversing the current ratio of spending 80% of time on manual tasks and 20% on analysis and planning, an automated forecasting solution can enable treasurers to spend more time on higher-value tasks.
Keep Finance Teams Happy
Ensuring team satisfaction is crucial, as nobody wants to spend a significant portion of their time working manually with spreadsheets on a daily basis. Cash flow spreadsheets can be particularly challenging for finance teams due to their complexity, requiring a large amount of data input to produce meaningful forecasts.
Despite worsening economic conditions, the job market remains competitive, and retaining employees is a key concern for CFOs. They understand that hiring and training new employees is costly and ongoing investment is needed to maintain their productivity and job satisfaction. One effective way to demonstrate commitment to innovation and support for team members is by investing in automation, which can help them perform their tasks more efficiently and effectively.
Performance Canvas Financials is a robust software-as-a-service (SaaS) financial reporting, budgeting & forecasting, and consolidation solution. As a cloud-based offering, it is available through a cost-effective subscription pricing model. The solution can be implemented quickly and easily, and your finance team can take complete ownership of it. With Performance Canvas Financials, your team will be forecasting accurately and churning out those needed reports in no time.
