Choosing the right business budgeting software or the right financial reporting software requires assessing beyond just price and features comparison.
The reality is that most FP&A software out there can more or less offer a wide range of capabilities. The trick is to find a solution that is flexible and robust enough to answer all the important points of your business needs and to find a vendor that you believe you can work well together in the long term.
There is one less sexy yet critical part of evaluating business budgeting software and that is to look at how compliant your chosen FP&A software vendor is with common compliance requirements.
SOC 2 stands for standard for service and organization controls 2 which were introduced by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
SOC 2 is an auditing procedure that endeavors to make sure your service provider manages your data securely to protect the interests of your organization and the privacy of your clients.
With news about malware attacks, scams, system hacks, and identity theft rampant today, information security is a valid concern for any organization.
The repercussions of mishandled data by FP&A software vendors, most especially, range from business disruption to financial losses to destruction of organizational reputation.
SOC 2 is based on 5 trust categories – security, confidentiality, processing integrity, availability, privacy.
There is a wealth of articles online that clearly describe each of these categories but for the purposes of this article, it is enough you know that it is a combination of security and privacy items that covers the classic triad model – confidentiality, integrity, availability.
Now on to the question of why is there a need for you to ask for an AICPA SOC 2 certificate from your cloud FP&A vendor? The simplified answer is that – you need to protect your organization and your clients. SOC 2 reports are considered useful because there is a third-party auditor that verifies that the controls work in your chosen cloud software vendor function in an appropriate manner over a period of time. In short, it looks at the operational effectiveness of their systems.
While SOC 2 is not in any way mandatory for SaaS and cloud computing vendors, its importance cannot be overemphasized so the next time you evaluate a business budgeting software or a financial reporting software, ask your vendor if they are AICPA SOC certified.
Compliant Business Budgeting Software
Performance Canvas Financials is a complete and cloud-based FP&A software that streamlines and automates end to end accounting tasks associated with business budgeting, financial reporting, financial forecasting, and financial consolidation.
Performance Canvas Financials is committed to protecting its clients´ interests and have therefore obtained an AICPA SOC 2 certificate voluntarily to showcase its uncompromising stance on security, confidentiality, integrity, availability, and privacy.
If you want to try out this software for free for 30 days, email [email protected] or if you have questions about Performance Canvas Financials´ compliance to AICPA SOC 2 standards, feel free to reach out to us and we will be happy to answer your questions. Visit www.performancecanvas.com for more information.
DSPanel offers cutting edge technology platform for business analytics, planning, and visualization. DSPanel designs, builds, and operates with the end users in mind. Performance Canvas was created by DSPanel to answer the unarticulated needs of the market not addressed by previous available solutions. With Performance Canvas, information is transformed into valuable business insights for the business executives to utilize in their decision-making process. DSPanel currently has over 2500 organizations deploying their solutions.
