The accounting department can be a tense place at the end of the month. Trying to close the books when department managers haven’t gotten in all their reports. Long hours spent entering data into spreadsheets. The pressure of getting income statement and sales reports to the boss on time. The worst part is that all that time is spent looking backward. Reporting on the transactions that happened last month. There’s no time to look at what’s coming, let alone plan for it.

There’s a better way

When you use a basic accounting program, you need to use spreadsheets to manage everything but the most basic transactions. Combining all those spreadsheets is time consuming and prone to error. An ERP system replaces the spreadsheets with integrated data and flexible reporting.

With a fully integrated ERP system, data is being collected and recorded from every transaction, from every department as they happen. Dashboards and reports can instantly reflect activity across the organization. Reports are generated automatically and can be customized to meet industry-specific requirements.

With a fully integrated ERP system, instead of spending time closing last month’s books you can analyze trends and look for opportunities. Opportunities like:

• Identifying sales trends so you can adjust purchasing to match demand.
• Increasing the profit on your next project by knowing that the cost of your materials is going up.
• Closing a branch that is not meeting expectations, before you sink even more cash into it.
• Reducing excess inventory with a promotion to move an end-of-season product.

When you transform decision-making from reactive to proactive, you have a better chance to beat the competition and build profits.

More affordable than you imagine

The ERP systems available today are cost-effective and easy to use. Choose software that will be easy for your employees to learn to use. The faster they start looking forward, the sooner you will reap the benefits of ERP.

Let’s talk about how you can make your accounting team happier, especially at the end of the month.