The path to better business financial management

Posted by Jim High

The goal of better financial management is to make one's company run smoother and more efficiently. This eliminates the waste of time by preventing redundancy and having the ability to share information across the board. This can occur in meetings, by promoting an atmosphere of teamwork, or by using the proper management software to track previous, current and upcoming jobs and their specific needs in real time.

Although there are many Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) programs available to suit the needs of specific types of businesses, QuickBooks was once considered the industry standard to manage accounting needs for small businesses. Microsoft Dynamics GP is known to better serve larger companies that have outgrown the usage of QuickBooks. There are a few things to consider about the business financial management needs of your company to decide if either of these or one of the many other brands of ERP software available in today’s market will best serve your needs.

Assess financial management processes

This includes an unbiased survey of the current software your company uses and how it serves your needs, and how it could be improved. Look for how well the necessary information is shared across departments and how well everyone involved is up to speed on the specific progress of each job.

Automation

When one person enters data concerning the project they’re working on, it needs to be accessible to others in the company, whether supervisors or other departments with different tasks. With automated operations that data is transferred through the network for immediate viewing by others without having to call or email them with the new information. This avoids the redundancy of everybody having to enter the same data, and the opportunities for mistakes that process creates.

Access to data

As one department works on their duties toward the goal of finishing the project, are those changes viewable to the other employees working on the same job? ERP software solutions allow this to happen. The proper programming for any company is reliable and shows the current status of the project in real time so there is no redundancy in task management and everyone involved is on the same page.

Reducing customized business processes

By setting a company standard for management operations, ERP software assures that everyone is using the same system and can easily understand the available data. Templates set up in the ERP software by the IT department upon installation makes sure all the current methods and processes are followed. This consistency yields a faster and more streamlined project across the board.

Incorporating best practices

The ERP software is set up according to the needs of every department and what works best not for each individual within the company, but for the company as a whole. It is integral that each person understands that they are working in a team environment in which the overall simplicity of the assignment involves more people than just themselves. Everyone has a supervisor that needs access to their notes and progress, and everyone needs information concerning their role in the project that is provided by other departments within the company. Therefore, it is important to find and use the best business management system for the company all around, and to make sure everyone is familiar with that system and knows how to use it properly.