An accurate, real-time view of financial data is the lifeblood of any business. It provides the crucial insights required to make the right decisions, and it’s the currency of good accounting and bookkeeping. It is a lesson that, unfortunately, many businesses have learnt starkly during the shuttering of lockdown. And yet too many organisations are still at the mercy of out-of-date data, with no failsafe for assuring accuracy. The result is businesses overpay on tax, have little oversight of their cash flow and operate without a true picture of their financial health.
A company may have a great product or service, but if its chief financial officer (CFO) is forecasting incorrectly, or failing to manage cash flow in real time, well-intentioned decisions based on shifting numbers can become a risk for the business. The tendency to focus on what has happened, not what is going to happen, with the business sees financial foresight eclipsed by financial archaeology.
Meanwhile, the significant amount of time required to manually enter, categorise and make sense of financial data can drain vital resources in the finance team or accounting firm. For CFOs, it’s a frustrating distraction from their real desire, which is to play a strategic, higher-value role for their business. CFOs have reached their level because they understand business, but they are shackled by manual reporting and bookkeeping processes, as well as a lack of analytical tools.
“I’ve never known a CFO who doesn’t want to take a strategic view of their business and be a key part of driving its success,” says Adrian Blair, chief executive of Dext, whose accounting and bookkeeping platform powers better financial data and insights. “But the more you and your accountant or bookkeeper spend manually crunching the numbers, the less time and data there is to have a strategic discussion about which course brings the greatest benefit to your organisation.
The more you and your accountant or bookkeeper spend manually crunching the numbers, the less time and data there is to have a strategic discussion about which course brings the greatest benefit to your organisation
“CFOs want to be able to view as much relevant financial data in real time as they can, as well as have the tools to work with their accountant to turn that data into financial insights on the businesses they work in. Being at that C-suite level means you have a lot of decisions to make and often have to make them quickly with the information you have in that moment.”
To be successful in a complex, fast-evolving business landscape, companies require more than just an historic record of their performance, they need a clear understanding of their finances and cash flow looking forward. Their business might look like it’s doing well on the outside, but there could be holes in their finances which can be quickly exposed during times of disruption.
A complete, up-to-date understanding of their finances makes businesses much more resilient to disruption and ready to leverage opportunities when they arise. Removing the manual parts of collecting and organising data, and automating it in real time through bank and supplier connections, provides the visibility and actionable insights to power that resilience and agility.
Dext provides the tools to turn data into financial insights, making accounts more productive, profitable and powering that essential relationship with CFOs in businesses. Dext Prepare combines real-time accurate data with productivity tools to accurately extract, sort and categorise every line of data to free up finance teams. Dext Precision, meanwhile, offers error-free data and actionable insights to help accounting and bookkeeping practices become business partners for their clients.
“We free accountants and businesses from the manual number crunching that takes their time and attention away from being a business partner for their clients,” says Blair. “With Dext, CFOs elevate their role in the business by being able to have a new relationship with their accountant or bookkeeper. Real-time, accurate data means complete trust in the numbers they forecast with, as well as the ability to ‘look around corners’ with the finances more frequently and identify areas for savings and growth with supplier and cash-flow analysis.
“When CFOs can bring accurate financial data, and have time to use their analytical abilities, they’re helping everyone in the business make the right decisions.”
For more information please visit dext.com
