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Modernising financial reporting with proactive and agile approach

Published: 04/October/2024

Reading time: 2 mins

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Key Takeaways

⇨ CFOs prioritise improving financial insights, shifting focus from manual methods to proactive, real-time financial analysis for faster decision-making.

⇨ BlackLine's SAP Account Substantiation and Automation solution enhances financial review processes by automating tasks, reducing human error and ensuring accuracy through seamless integration with SAP.

⇨ The solution supports continuous accounting efforts, allowing for preliminary consolidation calculations and reducing the need for post-close adjustments, thereby enabling better-informed decisions aligned with financial strategies.

 

Finance and accounting teams are under growing pressure to deliver accurate and timely financial insights to enable intelligent business decisions. 

A recent Gartner report indicated that 76 percent of CFOs see improving their financial insights as a top priority. Manual methods of financial review are becoming redundant in a landscape where speed and accuracy are key. 

In addition to accuracy, businesses are putting a further emphasis on a proactive financial analysis as opposed to traditional, reactive financial review processes, often occurring post-close. The opportunity for a real-time approach can enable faster decision-making and shorter cycle times, essential for financial management and strategic planning.

BlackLine assisting with market dynamics 

To respond to these challenges, BlackLine created the SAP Account Substantiation and Automation solution extension to help transform financial review processes and facilitate proactive financial review, providing the accuracy and efficiency today’s businesses seek.

Shedding a light on this process, Andrew Stutzman, director of consolidation and financial analytics at BlackLine, said: “By automating the identification and the explanation of financial fluctuations, you lower the risk of human error and really reduce the likelihood of any control failures and data inaccuracies.”

The new solution offers advanced record-to-report capabilities, premium-qualified by SAP through a rigorous process. This ensures seamless integration with SAP, from data extraction to functional application, exceeding the standard SAP Certified Integration.

The financial review option also works with SAP S/4HANA for group reporting, supporting continuous accounting by enabling preliminary consolidation calculations before the period ends. By automating traditionally manual tasks like variance commentary and fluctuation analysis, BlackLine can help enhance accuracy while reducing time and effort.

As part of continuous accounting efforts that more businesses work towards, the solution contributes to ongoing financial review to reduce the need for post-close adjustments.

“When completing the proactive group level financial review, the drivers of the material financial variances are documented and they’re fully understood by the whole of accounting and finance, which really enables better informed decisions that support your organisation’s overall financial strategy,” Stutzman added.

Tapping into these innovative ways of reporting that enable timely action can assist finance teams to confidently navigate the complexities of financial review, and heavily steer towards competitive and future-ready organisations.

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