Moving on From Legacy Systems to Achieve Cash Management Excellence

Interest rate hikes in a post-pandemic world and a looming financial crisis serve to burnish cash management as a critical component of finance and accounting. The Covid-19 pandemic had already shone a spotlight on the importance of readily-available cash to businesses. Cash flow has been singled out as the primary problem that businesses faced, as they struggled “to maintain staff and operations, supplier disruptions and access to raw materials”.

In a highly disruptive and volatile business environment where volumes of transactions are high and take place at a breakneck pace, manually managing finance and accounting processes stifles cash flow.

Below, we look at why organisations are considering abandoning legacy systems in droves and looking at cutting-edge, industry-leading cloud solutions to achieve cash management excellence.

Lack of Automation

The manual management of business processes often results in human errors and data duplication. For finance and accounting teams, there is a costly price to pay if these errors result in misreporting. Fines from authorities and the resulting reputational damage are the sorts of things businesses should stay away with a ten-foot pole.

Technical Barriers

Finance and accounts executives often use a variety of different applications to manage the bookkeeping process. If these individuals wish to initiate process changes or customise solutions to suit their needs, they would likely need to seek the help of IT. Legacy systems are painfully rigid and require technically sound professionals to perform minor changes that can be done in a simple drag-and-drop manner in modern, cutting-edge cloud accounting solutions.

Security Risk

Legacy system means finance and accounting professionals often toggle between spreadsheets and a suite of other solutions as they perform tasks such as journal entry, transaction matching, and financial reconciliations. With so much accounting happening outside the financial close software, huge questions arise over security.

Severe Limitations

Accounting and finance processes for companies with subsidiaries require intercompany financial management functionalities which are just beyond the ambit of legacy systems. There often is very little room for integration between spreadsheets and enterprise resource planning systems which further complicates tasks. These are limitations which cannot be ignored as a business grows at a rapid pace. 

Why You Should Choose BlackLine

As businesses seek ways to free up some much-needed capital to finance their growth, and unlock new opportunities, leveraging cloud technology to manage back-office finance and accounting processes becomes imperative.

Statistics bear testament to the crucial role that cloud accounting solutions are playing and will continue to in the future. The size of the global accounting software market is expected to grow to US$20.4 billion by 2026. 

Businesses that use cloud accounting solutions reported a 15% rise in revenue growth year over year. The cloud accounting solution market is one that is crowded and it is important to do your research to find a solution that fits your business needs.

BlackLine is an industry-leading, cloud accounting software that provides financial automation and accounting solutions to enterprise businesses across various industries, including Fortune 500 companies. Its software platform helps businesses automate their financial close process, reconcile accounts, and streamline other accounting and financial tasks.

Below we look at 10 reasons why you should consider BlackLine to manage your finance and accounting processes:

Automated financial close process

BlackLine’s software automates the financial close process, which reduces manual effort and improves accuracy, speed, and efficiency.

Improved data integrity

By automating key accounting processes, BlackLine ensures data is accurate, consistent, and reliable.

Greater visibility and control 

BlackLine provides real-time visibility into financial close processes, which allows finance teams to monitor progress and identify issues more quickly.

Streamlined compliance 

BlackLine helps companies comply with regulations and industry standards by automating compliance-related processes and providing auditable trails of all activities.

Reduced risk of errors

BlackLine’s software helps reduce the risk of errors and fraud by automating key accounting tasks, such as reconciliations.

Enhanced collaboration

BlackLine enables greater collaboration between finance and accounting teams, which helps improve communication and efficiency.

Scalability

BlackLine’s cloud-based platform is highly scalable, which means it can grow and adapt as companies’ needs change.

Faster time to value 

BlackLine’s software can be implemented quickly, which means companies can start realizing value more quickly than with traditional accounting software.

Lower total cost of ownership 

BlackLine’s cloud-based platform eliminates the need for expensive hardware and software, which can reduce the total cost of ownership for companies.

Competitive advantage 

By automating key accounting processes and improving visibility and control, BlackLine can help companies gain a competitive advantage in their industry.