Why Excel Can Be Bad for Your Business

Why Excel Can Be Bad for Your Business

by | Jun 30, 2015 | Analytics, Big Data, Business Intelligence, Cloud, Software

Why Do Businesses Use It?

The main reason a businesses still rely on Excel is familiarity with the program and the extremely low cost. When it was first released it had a huge impact on the way businesses operated, as it greatly reduced the time it took to maintain financial records

Today; however, the situation is very different. The business world has changed, but many businesses continue to use it for a multitude of different purposes for which it was not intended, and at which it is not very good.

Can It Be Bad for Your Business?

Close to 90% of Excel spreadsheet contain errors. Ray Panko, professor of IT management at University of Hawaii wrote in his article What We Know About Spreadsheet Errors that “spreadsheets, even after careful development, contain errors in 1% or more of all formula cells… in large spreadsheets with thousands of formulas, there will be dozens of undetected errors”.

The reason why errors occurs with Excel is because every file is created by a person, and people make mistakes. Additionally, the opportunity for mistakes grows as the files get bigger and more employees are involved in editing the file.

There are multiple examples of Excel blunders that have caused businesses billions of dollars due to errors in Excel. Business Insider reported in April that almost one in five large businesses have suffered financial loss due to excel errors. JP Morgan, for example, lost $6.6 billion due to alleged manual copying and pasting of incorrect data with multiple Excel spreadsheets.

How Can You Avoid Errors?

Ask yourself the folllowing questions regarding your company’s use of Excel:

  1. Will the spreadsheet be used by more than 2 people?
  2. Is the information contained in the spreadsheet critical to my business?
  3. Do I rely on this information to make my company or department operate effectively?
  4. Do I need multiple copies of the data for concurrent access or for data security concerns?

If you answered “yes” to any or all of the questions above, the good news is that you can replace Excel with other cost-effective alternatives. Cloud-based and SaaS licensed products have lowered the cost and commitment of replacing Excel to a point that most organizations will be able to find a solution suitable.

Save Time and Capital With Managed Accounting

Save Time and Capital With Managed Accounting

by | Apr 20, 2015 | Accounting, Cloud, Financial Services, Forecasting, Quickbooks, Software, Technology

What is Managed Accounting?

Free up internal staff to focus on your core business while saving time, resources, and capital. Managed Accounting is simply shifting the functions and tasks of basic and critical business processes, traditionally managed inside your company, to an external provider, such as an accounting firm. By taking advantage of the power of secure cloud-based technologies, your business would receive a comprehensive range of managed business services for its clients, from A/P and A/R to controllership and virtual or fractional CFO services and we provide the ERP system to scale with it all.

Related: 5 Myths About Outsourced Accounting

Benefits of Managed Accounting

Besides saving your company precious time, resources, and money by utilizing managed accounting services, you’ll also be able to free up and redirect your internal staff and resources to supporting revenue-generating core business functions, including strategic planning.

In addition, when you partner with a third-party, you won’t have to worry about accounting software and hardware upgrades and maintenance, or security! And you won’t need dedicated IT staff to support an in-house ERP system. Cloud technology platforms are state-of-the-art and offer the highest levels of security in the industry. Your financial data and business information is always safe and secure. Most importantly your data is always accurate and in real-time.

Related: A Beginner’s Guide to Cloud Computing

With real-time access to your data, we can generate custom reports, forecasting, benchmarking, and real-time data analysis. Why settle for financial reports and analysis that are out of date the day they are printed? Now you can be sure you are always working with the latest up-to-date information at your fingertips, 24/7. Get a better picture of your business in real-time.

5 Top Benefits of Cloud Technology

5 Top Benefits of Cloud Technology

by | Sep 15, 2014 | Cloud

There are still a lot of companies that have not tapped into the advantages with cloud accounting technology solutions. Let’s take a look at what they’re missing out on – below are the top five benefits of moving to cloud applications.

1) Adoption is Quick and Simple

Users can access cloud applications on both standard and mobile web browsers anytime, anywhere. Companies don’t need to upgrade internal infrastructure for solutions. Using web style user interfaces, like that of eBay or Yahoo, cloud technologies allows for a more widespread adoption across the company without detailed training.

2) Deployment Time Decreases

Time to value with cloud solutions is significantly lower than with on premise applications. A “go live” for cloud Enterprise solutions takes typically 2-3 months or less, whereas on-premise solutions typically take 6 months to 1 year to implement. Not only is implementation time reduced with cloud technology, but the IT resources required are much less.

3) Interoperability Between Cloud Applications

Cloud applications have one characteristic which makes people love them, and that’s the fact that most of them are geared towards integration with other applications. Some have their own marketplaces with extensions and plugins, while more than 95% of cloud applications have an API that allows extensions.

4) Security

One of the top concerns of cloud skeptics is the fear of sacrificing data security when you allow company data to exist outside the internal firewall. According to SuccessFactors, security actually increases when you’re using cloud solutions. This is due to strict ISO security standards that cloud providers must follow, in addition to the regular security audits. This means no more worrying about lost laptops with confidential data and hacking threats.

5) Scale on Demand

Using cloud computing, you can easily ramp up or down services based on your organizations needs. You no longer have to build for the future, or be constrained by past decisions.

What benefits does the cloud bring to your business? Do you plan on investing in cloud technology? We would love to hear your opinions in the comments section!

LEARN ABOUT FP&A IN THE CLOUD

DOWNLOAD FREE PDF