Financial reporting: how can it be sped up and made more reliable?

New priorities for CFOs: cash management and performance management

Facing an uncertain environment

The unstable economic and geopolitical environment, coupled with fluctuating interest rates and persistent inflation, is imposing new priorities on finance departments. According to the 2024 PwC-DFCG report, cash management and performance management are becoming the top two priorities for CFOs. The testimony of a CFO interviewed in the study is particularly enlightening in this respect:

Increased need for optimised cash management

In the face of economic pressure, CFOs are looking for more reliable cash flow forecasts. Managing cash, financing and investment has now become the top priority for CFOs. This concern is reflected in the closer monitoring of indicators linked to cash receipts and disbursements, working capital requirements (WCR), and particular attention paid to banking relations.

In search of more effective performance management

Financial performance management is emerging as the second priority for CFOs. The aim is twofold: to make quick, informed decisions in the short term, while focusing on the longer term, by seizing new business opportunities. To do this, CFOs need to anticipate scenarios, some of them unprecedented.

These new priorities for CFOs have one impact: they require more frequent reporting, based on high-quality, complete and up-to-date information. But it's not that simple. There are obstacles. Knowing what they are will help you get around them.

Common obstacles to financial reporting

Scattered, non-standardised data

One of the main challenges facing large companies is the dispersion of financial data across different systems, departments and even subsidiaries. This fragmentation makes it difficult to collect and consolidate the information needed for reporting. In addition, the absence of common standards for data entry and storage can lead to inconsistencies and errors during consolidation.

Reporting: too time-consuming?

Time-consuming manual reporting processes

Many companies still rely too heavily on manual processes to collect, process and analyse financial data. These methods are not only time-consuming, but also prone to human error. They also limit the ability of finance teams to concentrate on higher value-added tasks, such as analysis and strategic planning.

Under these conditions, it's easy to see why manual reporting via Excel files is a thing of the past. But that's not all: new challenges have arisen...

The new challenges and solutions for more reliable, real-time financial reporting 

Capturing all the accounting data

A reporting tool is only effective if it is able to draw on 'exhaustive' data. Whatever the input channels or formats. And the stakes are high: according to Gartner, 60% of information in organisations is shared in an unstructured format (such as paper documents or image files). As a result, this data cannot be used directly by an ERP, costing or treasury tool.

THE SOLUTION: multi-channel information capture

Using multi-channel capture technologies (paper and electronic flows) and intelligent document processing enables 100% of the information to be recovered and fed into the various information systems and management tools.

Ensuring the reliability of financial input data

The principle of ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ applies particularly well to financial reporting. The quality of input data is crucial to obtaining quality output reports... and ultimately to making the right decisions. CFOs therefore need to be able to rely on systematic data verification processes, covering 100% of data flows, and carried out prior to the input of their KPIs and financial reports.

THE SOLUTION: automate the checking of accounting and financial data
Given the sheer volume of information to be checked, the automation of document checks (e.g. to ensure the authenticity of an invoice or detect any duplicates) and data checks (date checks, recalculation of amounts, presence of mandatory information, etc.) has become essential.

Accelerate information feedback

Faced with an increasingly unpredictable environment, the CFO wants and needs to 'tighten up' performance management, with financial indicators updated in real time. Because while unpredictability, by definition, cannot be predicted, it can be managed. However, this presupposes that the information is available as early as possible.

THE SOLUTION: intelligent document and data processing
The faster collection, processing and transmission of financial data - thanks in particular to solutions for digitising financial processes and No-Touch automation - has become essential. This approach enables faster decision-making in the face of sudden changes in the economic environment.

"In the digital age, financial reporting is no longer limited to static reports. It's a continuous process of collecting, analysing and presenting financial data in real time."

Guarantee regulatory compliance and financial traceability

Reliable audit trail, CSRD, e-reporting... Legal and regulatory requirements impose greater transparency and stricter controls.

THE SOLUTION: digitisation of financial processes
Partially digitised processes are still insufficient. Only end-to-end digitised systems can guarantee the auditability and traceability of all financial data and operations, from their source to their integration in the final reports.

Dematerialisation, Data visualisation, AI, Robotisation

The challenges are considerable, and to meet them, technological leverage is key. Businesses have understood this. As the PwC-DFCG study notes, they intend to take advantage of developments in AI and the implementation of dematerialisation, automation and data visualisation solutions.

Priority investment in digital technologies by finance departments over the next 3 years

Source : PwC | CFO 2024 Priorities 

Use case: the benefits of dematerialising invoices as part of a strategy to improve financial reporting

Invoice data provides a view of a company's activity, purchases and sales, and is therefore essential for building an overall view of performance. Streamline Invoices is a SaaS solution that automates the processing of invoicing data. It centralises information, improves operational efficiency, speeds up reporting and makes financial forecasts more reliable. Here's how it works.

"Financial reporting is the art of transforming raw data into information that can be used to make informed decisions. It is the bridge between figures and corporate strategy."

The centralisation of accounting and financial data

Streamline Invoices captures and concentrates all the documents associated with the correct processing of the invoice (quotation, purchase requisition, purchase order, delivery note, etc.). All data, structured or not, is centralised:

• 100% of supplier and customer flows
• All channels: post, email, EDI, Chorus pro
• All formats: paper, Factur-X, PDF, UBL, EDIFact, etc.

This centralisation facilitates access to information, improves data consistency and ultimately determines the overall view of the company's financial situation.

The Streamline Invoices solution concentrates all invoice file flows in a single point

Automated collection and checking of invoice data

Thanks to its AI robots, the solution automatically extracts and checks the data present on 100% of documents, before any business processing. Streamline Invoices makes transactions more reliable through its business, anti-fraud and compliance checks.

• Business checks (amounts, rates, dates, masterdata correspondence, etc.)
• Detection of suspected fraud (false bank details, false suppliers, false invoices)
• Regulatory compliance checks in France and abroad (invoicing or payment data, directory,
• invoice lifecycle management, connection to government CTC platforms, etc.) 

This automation reduces data entry and manual verification errors, helps to combat fraud and considerably speeds up the reporting process.

Pre-processing checks are essential.
This also includes detecting suspected fraud.

Generation of dynamic, customised KPIs and dashboards

Streamline Invoices solution centralises, extracts and controls all invoicing data. As a result, its BI (Business Intelligence) module benefits from exhaustive, reliable data in real time. A true 360° cockpit provides dashboards to display management data at several levels and according to the user's profile:

• A CFO vision with a financial dashboard, giving a precise view of purchase and sale transactions by given period.
  It provides perfect visibility of cash disbursements and receipts, making it easier to forecast cash flow and assess financial health. 
  Performance indicators are also shared with the CFO. He can, for example, measure the operational efficiency of invoice processing (team efficiency, automation rate, average approval time per department, etc.) or monitor payment times in real time, as well as deviations from due dates.
• An accounting view with a dedicated dashboard for the accounts manager, providing a summary of the accounting data taken directly from the invoices.
  It provides day-to-day visibility of all the tasks to be carried out, the work still to be done and any errors or disputes to be dealt with.
  Key indicators enable the manager to monitor invoice processing accurately and operationally, by status (received, validated, in dispute, on hold, rejected, etc.), by reception channel (email, paper, e-invoicing platform, PDP, etc.), by supplier, etc.
   

Streamline Invoices' intuitive, graphical BI application delivers dedicated reports and key performance indicators for CFOs and accountants.

Conclusion

Accelerating financial reporting and making it more reliable have become crucial issues for CFOs. The dematerialisation of invoices, boosted by AI, and the automation of reporting processes are emerging as essential levers. By adopting these solutions, finance departments can not only optimise their cash management and performance management, but also become more agile and resilient in the face of the new challenges of the “permacrisis”.