Simplifying finance close – a roadmap to achieving significant ROIs for finance teams
In a recent conversation with one of our customers in the automobile ancillary sector, we discovered that they had significantly reduced their finance close lifecycle from 20 days to just two days over two years, primarily through extensive ERP customization. They had achieved 80% of this reduction by automating financial close tasks. However, the financial investment for these improvements was substantial.
Fortunately, as a prominent player in the global automobile sector, the company was able to afford the time and costs to take that route.
But with advancements in software subscription models, the costs and time required to streamline the financial close process, including automation, have become significantly more affordable and accessible. This means that for organizations today, achieving such efficiencies is now within reach, leading to quicker implementations, better user adoption, and freeing finance teams to focus on strategic, value-added activities.
Leveraging Tech-Driven Operational Excellence
It is quite evident that adoption of technology can definitely eliminate time and effort required in a lot of non-value-based activities especially in the finance close process. It also tremendously improves the accuracy of the accounting and financial data forming the basis for financial reporting.
Now all of these benefits are quite obvious to anyone who has had a brush with technology but what may not be very obvious is that the cost of technology in the new and emerging SaaSverse (SaaS universe) is quite lean and affordable.
With democratization of technology, building applications and automation related solutions have become more intuitive, less time consuming consequently resulting in severely reducing the cost of development. This in turn has allowed product companies to be able to offer very competitive subscription packages for customers thereby increasing accessibility to product led solutions.
The benefits which customers accrue in product led finance close solutions include streamlining the close process, bringing in more transparency and accountability or automating mundane routine close tasks, which far outweighs the cost incurred in adopting such solutions allowing customers to quickly achieve upto 200% ROIs in a very short span of time.
Switching CFO mindset from CAPEX to OPEX
Traditionally, CFOs focused on capital expenditures when assessing technology solutions. However, the rise of subscription-based models has made advanced finance technology more affordable and accessible for organizations of all sizes, eliminating hefty upfront investments.
With more optimized technology costs, CFOs can more precisely evaluate the value and performance of the finance function. This not only optimizes financial planning and budgeting but also enhances the finance department’s capability to drive strategic initiatives and achieve overarching business objectives.
Tech-led solutions for forward-thinking CFOs
The financial close process is a recurring and strategic activity that captures all relevant financial and accounting data for financial reporting. A tech-driven approach to this process will significantly enhance the capabilities of finance teams, ensuring greater confidence and spotless integrity, which is a fundamental objective for any CFO or controller.
About Consark
Consark offers advanced financial solutions tailored to the needs of modern finance teams specializing in Financial Close, Processes, and Reporting. Our sophisticated and user-intuitive platform expedites financial close, risk management, compliance, and transaction reporting. Users benefit from intelligent automation, in-depth insights, optimized workflows, and specialized support from experienced domain experts.