Business overwhelmed by spreadsheet-saturation? In this post we’re highlighting the 5 types of spreadsheets to ditch…

Spreadsheets have become a staple part of accounting, helping you create vital reports and utilise formulas for all sorts of calculations. They do the job, so what reason is there to consider NOT using them?

Spreadsheets are ideal and invaluable when starting out, but as your business grows so do the number, size and complexity of your spreadsheets. Before you know it, managing everything from revenue recognition, all your reporting, budgets and consolidations in spreadsheets becomes time consuming and at increased risk of manual errors.

One wrong click can cause a world of pain with multiple people working on a spreadsheet (not to mention the multiple versions of it that might exist!).

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We’re not here to judge or ask how many spreadsheets you’ve amassed over the years. We’re here to help you streamline your workflow and improve efficiency – ready for some tips on how?

Let’s dive into the top 5 types of spreadsheets we think you could do better without.

1. Reports

How many hours do you or your team spend creating reports on a weekly and monthly basis? Too many?!

If, like many businesses, your data is held across multiple systems, a significant amount of time is swallowed up exporting and manipulating data to work it into various report formats for different departments. Considering the fact these reports are required by a deadline, it’s inevitable that more human errors are likely.

Reporting in real-time with on-demand access to data is a total game changer for businesses using true cloud solution, Sage Intacct. No need for tiresome spreadsheet work – moving to the cloud has revolutionised their reporting through features including:

Permission based intuitive dashboards, giving instant visibility into KPIs and real-time data on any internet-connected device.
Dimensional reporting that allows you to drill into then slice and dice your data however it’s needed.

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2. Revenue Management

Coordinating data across your finance, sales, purchasing and operations departments for revenue recognition purposes with a heavy reliance on spreadsheets leaves you vulnerable to the risk of manual errors.

The more complex your spreadsheets become, the greater the risk and the more time consuming the revenue management process becomes, leading to a longer month end or period closes, time spent investigating discrepancies and even revenue loss.

So, how do you move away from using spreadsheets for revenue recognition? In a word – Automation!!

True cloud finance software Sage Intacct automates the complete revenue management process, allowing you to:

Automate complex billing, subscriptions and payments.
Create templates for revenue recognition and schedule journals.
Automate invoice and revenue recognition between Salesforce and Sage Intacct (the complete quote-to-cash process).
Utilise custom-built reports to forecast deferred and recognised revenue.

The automation of your revenue management helps you stay compliant with changing regulations and make better, more accurate data-based decisions!

3. Bank Reconciliations

If you use spreadsheets to keep your financial records in check, the painstaking process of checking your bank statements against your sales, invoices and more every month is probably something you dread.

This process takes up large amounts of previous time and can lead you down a rabbit hole of investigations when discrepancies crop up.

Investing in a financial management solution that can automate bank reconciliations will streamline and improve efficiency in the process – and give you more time to spend on other tasks!

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4. Time and Expenses

Tracking employee time and expenses in various spreadsheets is no easy task. When employees are required to enter and submit their information by deadlines, your time and expense management is only as good as the information you’re presented with.

Imagine a system that allows your employees to input their time and expenses into the system remotely, then instantly alerts managers so they can review and approve in a timely manner – sound useful?

This is made possible with the powerful capabilities of Sage Intacct, which handles this with ease – even across multiple locations and currencies.

5. Purchasing and Stock Management

Trying to manage stock and purchasing using spreadsheets isn’t an ideal solution. Multiple people accessing a spreadsheet to do their part can result in outdated versions, incorrect or outdated information on pricing or stock levels with dire consequences on stock control.

The open API connectivity of Sage Intacct connects with key business systems and other Sage Intacct modules, so data only need be entered once for instant access and visibility into pricing, orders and delivery as it’s all accessible in one easy to use system.

Read Article: Top Reasons To Move To The Cloud

With Sage Intacct you can set up automatic purchase order approvals and view your data in real-time whenever and wherever you need to – all you need is internet access!

Moving to the cloud with Sage Intacct has helped businesses gain tighter internal controls over purchasing and stock, to automate workflows and make the entire procurement-to-payment process faster with pre-designed templates and pre-defined approvals.

What’s Next?

At Acuity, we work together with our customers helping them select the right Sage solution (and after 30 years of doing so, we’ve gotten rather good at that!).

The only UK Sage partner offering fixed price implementations on all projects, you’ll always know where you are with us – and we’ll help you get where you want to go…

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