Rethinking Your Financial and Operational Statement Reporting Process

Have you recently analyzed the amount of time your organization spends producing financial and operational statements for management and board meetings? Have you ever thought about how that information is used (and just as important, not used) during those meetings?

Some organizations are starting to rethink how their financial and operational reporting process works.  They are realizing that much of the data presented on the reports is not used during these meetings. In some cases, entire reports are not even reviewed.   Much of this has to do with the layout and structure of a typical financial and operational report.  When there are numerous rows and columns of data to look at, it can be difficult to sift through all the details and focus in on the most important data.

So instead of spending the majority of meetings reviewing reports, organizations are changing the structure of the meetings to leverage dashboards that consolidate the most important figures and metrics from the financial and operational statements into a single page.  By placing key performance indicators (KPIs) on a dashboard for review during their meetings, management and board members can quickly focus on the most important aspects of the reports. Then, if the KPI results need further analysis, the report details can be reviewed.

To facilitate these changes, organizations are investing in Business Intelligence (BI) and Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software. Many of these software applications contain data warehouse, reporting, planning and dashboard capabilities. The data warehouse enables organizations to store and aggregate data from disparate systems, such as an accounting system, operational system, and payroll system. The reporting, planning, and dashboard features enable personnel to quickly create and maintain reports, budgets/forecasts and dashboards containing the relevant KPIs for the meetings.

Contact us if you have any questions regarding Business Intelligence (BI) and Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software, and visit Schneider Downs Technology Services webpage to learn about the services we offer.