For many years, Excel has been known as the go-to software for finance and accounting teams. And though most of us have used Excel at some point in our lives and are familiar with its share of features, it’s also infamous for its limitations. For one, Excel can be a poor choice for financial reporting and can be limited when it comes to analytics.
In this article, we’ll highlight some of the reasons why you’ll need to scale your finance software if you need one that does a great job at financial reporting and analysis.
Lack of Collaboration Features in Excel
Small businesses usually have one accountant to handle their finances and financial records. In this case, Excel can be used as a good tool for financial reporting. However, large organizations with finance and accounting teams may have more than one person needing access to your financial records and will need to consolidate data and reports. In this scenario, being able to share data and work collaboratively is where Excel can be restrained as it was not designed to support multiple users inputting and reviewing data and numbers all at once.
However, in finance teams, the ability to collaborate effectively and share records is crucial, particularly in financial closing and reporting periods. Cloud-based financial reporting software like Performance Canvas can be a good alternative as it supports role-based access that enhances collaboration and security throughout the budgeting and reporting process. It’s also very easy to use which makes it easy for users to slice and dice their data, conduct drill throughs, do what-if, cause and profit analysis, test assumptions, and many more.
Prone to Inaccuracies and Errors
One of the downsides of using Excel is that it is very susceptible to error. In fact, 88% of spreadsheets contain errors. No matter how carefully crafted an excel file is, it is bound to contain an error in one of its cells. The majority of these errors are often caused by human error and are completely avoidable. The likelihood of errors in Excel increases as more people access the same file especially in organizations that share the same file across different departments. It gets even worse when these companies use Excel for financial reporting. A wrong copy-paste can mean adding the wrong data to a cell, which impacts all of your data. Omitting and pasting the wrong data on cells is also difficult to track, which impacts every single report linked to that one cell.
Nowadays, being able to trust your financial records is crucial to tracking and measuring performance and is synonymous with business growth. Without it, it can be difficult to craft the right strategy that can truly help your business to scale.
Luckily, today’s financial reporting and analysis software like Performance Canvas allows you to take full ownership of your data and offers full transparency and accountability of the entire process. Its role-based access improves security by restricting access to sensitive data, making sure only the right people can update information and make changes. With Performance Canvas, users will never have to worry about errors or have to trace broken formulas.
Lack of Control Over Data
Another downside to Excel is that no one really owns and maintains the data and spreadsheets. Anyone who has access to the file can make changes and even make their own versions of the files. Having multiple spreadsheets and different formats available means it’s hard to validate data and keep reports consistent. CFOs and finance teams will have no control over how reports are formatted as well.
Performance Canvas ensures CFOs have full control over financial reports with audit trails to trace any data entered on the balance sheet. It also gives users access to a financial dashboard that makes it easy to monitor and consolidate reports. With an easy drag-and-drop work environment, users can build financial models conveniently while having access to easy and convenient reporting capabilities.
Empowering Finance Teams with Better Financial Reporting and Analysis
Any growing organization will start to realize at some point that continuing to use spreadsheets will only limit their finance teams in terms of financial reporting and analysis. Excel simply wasn’t designed to support the emerging needs of most organizations today. It is crucial for organizations to have ready access to reliable and accurate data to inform their business decisions so they can continue to move forward.
Performance Canvas can help them do just that so they can own their financial reporting, get the transparency they need to drive results, and collaborate effectively with different teams across their organization. It even has predesigned templates to ensure finance teams can look forward to effortless financial reporting and analysis.
Learn more about why Performance Canvas is the right financial reporting software for you. Contact us now.
