Don’t Let Uncertainty Derail Your Finance and Accounting Operations

By Andrew Hayden, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Precisely

Many finance and accounting professionals do not like the risk associated with uncertainty. In the business world, however, external factors cause internal disruption, elevating ambiguity and risk levels. Despite these interruptions, leadership often expects business to continue as usual; for finance and accounting teams, this often means drastically changing the way they work in order to adjust.

Teams are experiencing an added challenge lately with many work environments having transitioned to a remote setting to accommodate quarantine requirements as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Finance processes that require input from multiple parties, such as general ledger (G/L) account creation, for example, can be manually managed when everyone is in a traditional office setting, where it’s easy enough to walk over and talk with a colleague about the new account. But with many teams working from home, established manual processes can fall apart. Many finance and accounting teams are wondering how to work effectively and efficiently using current systems and processes that were not designed for rapid change and a dispersed workforce.

Maintain Business Continuity by Adopting a Flexible Finance Platform

Having a no-code/low-code, flexible, and scalable finance platform such as Winshuttle (now Precisely) Evolve makes navigating uncertainty easier by allowing enterprise teams to develop solutions that can adapt to the business environment. In the case of G/L account creation, for example, you can quickly create and deploy a forms-based solution using Winshuttle (now Precisely) Evolve that automatically routes input requests to the contributors and required reviewers—regardless of their location. By centrally managing the process, you can easily make updates and adjustments when there are sudden changes in your team structure or working environment. The forms-based solution works whether you are in an office or distributed. As an added benefit, you gain a significantly higher level of compliance that helps improve data quality and audit performance.

Another critical finance process that disruption can significantly affect is the financial close. The Journal of Accountancy recently reported that 87% of finance teams typically work overtime during the financial close. Uncertainty can magnify this and create difficulties in completing the close when teams are suddenly distributed. The closing process is daunting already, making added disruption and complexity almost unmanageable. While there are tools available to help manage the administrative side of the closing process, many overlook the transactional activities that are needed to complete the close successfully.

Winshuttle (now Precisely) Evolve provides capabilities that significantly contribute to a faster closing process, such as the ability to manage SAP data using Excel or through web forms, and delivers transactional efficiencies.

The no-code/low-code platform helps improve process efficiency and data quality while also supporting higher compliance, no matter whether your team is sitting next to each other in an office, or distributed around the globe. Learn more at precisely.com.