Ensure Financial Control

It’s certainly not a comfortable feeling if you don’t. But what’s behind that feeling of unease?

Lack of control might be in the area of finance operations. Ask yourself the question … how many spreadsheets are required to run the finance side of your business? Too many? Inaccuracies and a lack of transparency can creep in. That never feels good.

When it comes to financial reporting it’s mostly about what’s happened in the past – and you can’t do a lot about what has already happened. That also leads to discomfort. We help organisations think about leading indicators – what measures can be put in place to see what next month is going to look like. Rather than concentrating on what’s happened, it’s often more valuable to see what’s coming down the road.

Or maybe it’s the cross-functional collaboration to bridge the gap between operational and financial planning. 76% of CFOs say that’s a problem for their businesses.  Financial planning is coming up with budgets and forecasts, which are undoubtedly useful, but they don’t tell you how to plan for your operation, and what is required to actually run the business. Sound familiar?

The financial numbers may go up or down, but feeling in control is about accuracy, timeliness and having the right measures.

As a world class finance function, this is what you want to be able to say about yourself:

• Our business runs with a disciplined rhythm for planning and execution. 
• We act on the right leading indicators (KPIs), accurate forecasts and timely financial information to maintain control over cash, and meet profit targets.

How would you rate yourself against these statements?

It’s a journey. But in getting there, you might meet some bumps in the road. Effective and integrated finance and operational departments are needed to help you achieve world-class success.

If you’re struggling to reach this point, it’s probably one or more of these factors that’s holding you back:

• No disciplined rhythm for planning and budgeting.
• No disciplined rhythm for financial execution.
• Only having a rear-view mirror and even then, arguments about the numbers.
• Financial forecasts, if they exist, are unreliable.
• Financial information is not timely.

We see many organisations that look at financial reporting as a compliance activity rather than as a business planning tool. At the end of each year every business needs to produce financial reports – but that doesn’t help them to plan, or tell them what they need to do to be successful.

It’s also often the case that organisations take until the middle of the following month to produce last month’s information, and at that point you’ve lost half a month to action the numbers. You miss the opportunity to course-correct. 

Here at Ardenfort, we help you get to the point where numbers are available immediately after month end. We also help you establish efficient processes and automate tasks so that your finance team has the freedom to perform value-added analysis for the overall benefit of your business.

• Integrated finance, planning and budgeting solution, giving you more efficiency, and the power to make better decisions and course corrections.
• Numbers that can be relied upon, giving you real data and more control, so you can spend more time actioning the numbers rather than arguing about them.
• Trend analysis and AI, giving you the ability to predict cash flow, stock levels and other key metrics in order to take pre-emptive actions.
• Financial process automation, allowing you to free time for analysis and strategic direction and decision making.