Efficiency is paramount for businesses to keep up with the speed of change. Yet, with the increasing complexity of financial transactions, along with the need for accurate and timely reporting, manual accounting processes can be time-consuming and error-prone. From tracking a company’s finances and paying vendors to receiving payments and invoices from clients, there are many necessary accounting activities that determine a company’s overall financial health.
But let’s admit it. Keeping track of all those numbers (to the very last cent) can be cumbersome. Is there a simpler way to obtain reporting? Thankfully, fintech innovations have given rise to automation solutions that have revolutionized reporting for payment solutions. Here’s how automated reporting streamlines accounting processes — in real time.
Benefits of Integrating Payments to an ERP
There are many benefits to enterprise resource planning (ERP) and accounting software. These platforms help run a business — especially in the area of finances and accounting. If your business is a large enterprise and you haven’t adopted these yet, then you’re missing out on a competitive advantage because it turns out that more than 70% of businesses use ERP software.
Having a system that enables the integration of ERP and accounting software is beneficial to business for several reasons, including:
- Less manual effort: Manually tracking invoices and payments requires strong attention to detail and an understanding of data management (e.g., the use of spreadsheets, Excel, and complex formulas and calculations). For example, an average invoice typically includes a unique invoice number, company or customer name, payment amount, date and more. This may seem simple at first glance, but when you have hundreds to thousands of invoices to record, manually recording every invoice can get time-consuming. An automated financial dashboard that is integrated with an ERP or accounting software records all of these details for you in one simplified format.
- Accuracy: Manual data entry and reporting are susceptible to human accounting errors. As one example, simply adding an extra 0 or accidentally omitting a 0 translates to a big gap in financial accuracy. Fixing these mistakes can be costly. What’s more, it can even strain important client relationships. Automated reporting easily creates accurate financial records.
- Time and cost savings: Manual reporting can be incredibly time-intensive, especially when it comes to a larger volume of transactions (e.g., 1,000 to 10,000 transactions). A dedicated person or team is required for regular manual reporting, but this can distract from more important tasks. Automated dashboards process transactions efficiently and accurately, freeing up employees to dedicate themselves to other high-priority tasks.
Automatic Reporting Updates in Real Time
Large businesses are highly dynamic by the hour and by the day, potentially processing thousands of transactions. So it’s important to have the latest, most up-to-date numbers when it comes to accounting. Otherwise, a business can overestimate or underestimate its financial reserves, cash flow and revenue.
Depending on the financial institution and the type of transaction, it can take a few days for a transaction to post. With manual reporting, this process can take even longer — especially if there’s a high volume of transactions taking place. Posting transactions takes the longest with paper checks.
When new data, such as a new transaction, is received, an accountant needs to verify and reconcile the data. This is done before recording the transaction which can affect the posting date. However, now the company's financial record is no longer current because there has been a delay between obtaining the data, verifying it and making the transaction available.
Thankfully, with automated reporting dashboards, the integrated ERP and accounting software retrieves, analyzes and processes financial transactions in real time.
Automated dashboards provide realtime reporting by continuously and automatically updating the transactions each time a new transaction takes place. Because it’s in real time, there’s no longer a wait time for a transaction to post — it does so automatically through:
- ERP and/or accounting software integration: Automated dashboards are connected to various data sources, spreadsheets, APIs and have built-in formulas to retrieve, process and calculate the transactions in real time.
- Data refresh cycles: Automated dashboards are configured to automatically update every time a new transaction comes in. For some automated dashboards, you can set it to update by the hour or by the day.
Bookkeeping and Reconciliation Are Simplified
Accounting reconciliation can be incredibly time-consuming and involve many steps. For instance, companies need to reconcile their accounts payable records with vendor statements. Companies check invoices, receipts and other documents against vendors’ statements to make sure all transactions are recorded correctly.
When it comes to transactions with customers, there are just as many steps. A company would need to compare the payment received by the customer with the invoice, receipt, product/service price and other financial documents.
Reporting dashboards connected to accounting and/or ERP software receive, process and analyze data from multiple sources automatically, factoring in:
- Accounts receivable
- Accounts payable
- Financial records
- Financial institutions
- Type of transactions involved
- Debits and credits
- Financial statements
- And other financial information
In addition, these dashboards are configured with formulas to identify any discrepancies in financial statements, such as duplicate entries, thereby streamlining the bookkeeping and reconciliation process, all the while ensuring accuracy of the most recent up-to-date financial records.
Whether you’re a small business, large enterprise, or even an educational institution, empower your organization with this latest fintech innovation. Automated dashboards and realtime reporting are the latest technology in financial services streamlining operational efficiency, and REPAY is the leader in fintech for both. Contact us today for your fintech solutions.