Spreadsheets are the most ubiquitous of tools in the corporate toolbox. Just about everybody in the organization uses spreadsheets to track budgets, to monitor quota, to measure ROI, and spreadsheets are relied on to do an extraordinary amount of heavy lifting in the finance and accounting department.
The over-reliance on spreadsheets within finance and accounting departments is remarkable when you consider it’s time-consuming and unnecessary given today’s financial accounting solutions, but the most sobering drawback of reliance on spreadsheets is that they are prone to error, in fact riddled with errors. Consider this: “According to both PWC and KPMG more than 90 percent of corporate spreadsheets have material errors in them” (The Register)
More than 90 percent! How many spreadsheets do you rely on? Does your department rely on? Does the company rely on?
There are a variety of reasons for relying on an arsenal of spreadsheets – chief among them a collection of disparate software systems (one for accounting, one for CRM, one for project accounting, etc.) that don’t integrate. The overlap of key information that needs to be in each system is usually rekeyed manually opening up yet another opportunity for error.
You really don’t have to live that way anymore. Cloud computing technology makes new solution deployment affordable and fast. Financial accounting solutions such as <a href=”http://www.innovergent.com/solutions/netsuite-financial-software/” target=”_blank”>NetSuite</a> and <a href=”http://www.innovergent.com/solutions/intacct-financial-accounting-software/” target=”_blank”>Intacct</a> are either equipped with cross department functionality or are easily integrated with solution like <a href=”http://www.innovergent.com/solutions/adaptive-planning-budgeting-forecasting-and-financial-modeling/” target=”_blank”>Adaptive Planning</a> and Salesforce.com.
Not only will these solutions rid you of dozens upon dozens of error-prone spreadsheets, chances are, they will also save your organization money. In addition to alleviate a lot of procedural pain, these solutions are capable of providing you and other department leaders with relevant, real-time, key data customer by user. Each individual views dashboards populated with data critical to their departmental budgets and KPIs.
Elimination of errors, time and money saved, and greater accountability throughout the company – all compelling reasons to find a better answer than spreadsheet reliance. Take a closer look at NetSuite and Intacct, and please know we’re here to answer any questions you might have.
