Accounting Systems & Implementation
All organizations need a thoughtful and well designed accounting system implementation to track financial performance. Accounting systems capture and record transactions to prepare accurate financial statements. Before computers were invented, accounting systems comprised of manual entries recorded in ‘ledger books’. With the advent to computers, accounting systems were digitized to software installed on personal computers and corporate servers. With the advent of the internet, accounting software is now hosted on the Cloud.
Organizations should select the right accounting software package depending on the nature of the business and transactions involved. Setting up the system correctly so that it meets the organization requirements to generate relevant and timely information is extremely critical.
Financial and operational information needs to be combined to provide a holistic view of the business performance. Financial systems need the ability to provide this information in a seamless and integrated fashion. Management can take real time decisions based on accurate and timely business reports. Without a well designed and thoughtful accounting system implementation, generating timely and accurate information is difficult.
Cloud Accounting Systems
Cloud based accounting systems are now the de facto standard and are suitable for all businesses regardless of size. Native cloud accounting software provides 24/7 access, even from a mobile phone. Financial information can be updated and accessed instantly by management.
There are various options in terms of size, scalability, complexity and functionality when selecting cloud accounting software. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tools were popular in the 90’s and early 2000’s. These were large complex software tools from a single software provider, that were difficult and expensive to implement. With, cloud based accounting systems companies have a hub and spoke option. Different software companies can develop point solutions with integration capabilities via API’s. These integrations allow may different software to work together as one integrated software tool. Once the core accounting system is selected, additional functionality can be added via point solutions with pre-integrated functionality. The plug-and-play features offer convenience, rapid implementation and industry standard reporting capabilities. These cloud accounting software’s are available with affordable monthly subscriptions and do not require a large initial cost for implementation or licensing.
Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools
Business Intelligence tools like Tableau and Microsoft BI are becoming increasingly popular. These solutions democratize and leverage both financial and non financial operational data. Employees can query and consume information with ad hoc reporting features. Employees do not need to rely on dedicated Information Technology resources to create static reports, often provided after a long lead time. The recent trend is for employees to query the data themselves. The data model is refreshed regularly and reports generated usually contain up to date information. Even basic accounting packages come with some elementary level of pre-defined standard BI reports that present information in easy to understand formats.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) are highly specialized tools have been gaining interest in recent times. These systems are more suitable for very large organizations that work with gigantic data sets. General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR] and other Personally Identifiable Information [PII] regulations are challenges that need to be addressed. AI tools like Python and R, attempt to extract insights or predict customer / consumer behaviour based on their online activity and interactions with the organization. Eventually, AI and RPA tools will filter down to the small and medium enterprises.
Implementation services
At Ezee Pte. Ltd. our consultants, who have been CFOs and Financial Controllers have many years of experience in implementing various software solutions like Netsuite, Quickbooks, Workday Financials, Sun Accounting, Oracle among others.
Ezee is also a partner with Xero and Enterpryze which are suitable from small companies, startups and growing companies.
Ezee can provide help with selecting the right accounting system based on features required, help to setup the system correctly in terms of ledger accounts, GST configuration, reporting and financial statements generation.
Integration Services
Many companies bolt on additional tools to their core accounting systems. Treasury systems, account reconciliation tools, reporting systems are some examples. Some may have APIs or integration tools available while others need either customization or extensive configuration. The benefits of automation are realised after successful integration of the systems. Systems integration provides opportunities to improve data accuracy, reduce manual data entry inputs, while boosting efficiency and speed of business.
Some of the common integrations including banking data interface with accounting systems for receivables / payables management, payments for both vendors and payroll, and bank reconciliation statements. Online retailers would want to integrate sales information from their online platforms to their inventory management systems and accounting systems for real-time transaction processing. This is just one example of linking operational data to finance systems. Within finance, some middleware products can integration accounting, operational and other non financial data for visualization and dashboards to track business performance. The opportunities are endless.
Ezee can provide consultants to help with data integration projects. Project management is a critical skill for integration projects. Project management requires the manager to align various operational teams together. Once the project scope and deliverables are defined, the tasks are assigned to the right individuals along-with timelines. The project manager then needs to track progress towards successful completion. Often there will a need to course correct, with escalations and revising timelines or reprioritizing tasks to get the project across the line.
Data Migration
As companies grow, they often out-grow their initial accounting system. Multi-currency, multiple legal entities, financial consolidation are typical additional requirements for high growth companies. These requirements lead to a change to change their accounting software platform. As a result, many organizations require data migration services to ensure that historical information is imported into the new systems correctly.
Audit adjustments, change in shareholdings/minority shareholders, mergers and acquisitions, dissolution/ discontinuation of business lines often drive changes to existing accounting system setup and requires data migration effort.
Ezee can help to provide resources, data cleanup as well as advisory services on your data migration projects. Historical information brought in needs to be coded correctly to the new systems requirements. Data accuracy is another critical requirement as the reports should match output from the old systems. Most existing resources are busy with day to day business and operational workload. Ezee can bring in experienced consultants to project manage the data migration and systems implementation needs. Data often needs to be massaged and transformed to meet the new system requirements. This effort requires significant Extract, Transform, Load [ETL] skills and familiarity with various productivity tools. Our consultants are aware of the information required up front and can help to better plan and manage this complex process for a successful, timely and accurate data migration project.
Outsourced Accounting Services
Startups and smaller companies prefer to outsource their accounting needs to a 3rd party service provider. Ezee can provide fast, efficient and reliable outsourced book-keeping and accounting service at competitive rates. The founders at Ezee have multiple years of experience at large multi national companies. Therefore, our consultants can provide value added insight as CFOs and Financial Controllers as a Unique Selling Point (USP). This is a distinguishing factor we take great pride in when we compare our offerings with our competitors. We believe our advisory, growth mindset and productivity/ efficiency focus provides a differentiated service offering.
