Driving Performance: 3 New Approaches To Unlocking Deeper Financial Insight
3 © 2015 www.proformative.com www.intacct.com
An Aberdeen study found that 64% of business managers
have seen their decision-making time shrink over the
last year. In another study, Aberdeen found that 28%
of business managers said they needed data to make
decisions within an hour of a business event; another 42%
needed information within a day. That doesn't provide
much time for finance to supplement the decision making
process with supporting analysis.
Decision-making processes have relied, and should rely,
on fact-based, data-driven management information.
Historically, executives would depend on monthly financial
reports and a plethora of other off-line operational reports
originating from outside the finance function to monitor
the health of the business.
Financial reports and other real-time operational data are
often lagging indicators of performance. These metrics,
although perhaps lacking precision, may have been
sufficiently effective in the past; however, they are less so
now because they lag the current cadence of information
dissemination and business volatility today.
Instantaneous and deeper financial insight is required more than it ever
has at any point in history to respond to these challenges. What is
required is an analytical approach that enables management to monitor
and measure the development of the important strategic drivers and
make decisions with confidence.
In this whitepaper, we will explore how organizations are transitioning
from a periodic, ad hoc reporting paradigm to real-time reporting.
The shortening of the reporting cycle and
challenges of keeping up
Traditional financial reporting focuses attention on results over varying
periods of time. The annual financial statements are the universal
64%
of managers saw
decision-making time
shrink in the last year
28%
said they needed data
for decisions within an
hour of a business event
42%
said they needed
decision data within
a day
