Solving Pain Points with Automation
1. Financial Data Quality
“Good quality FP&A analytics starts from clean and reliable data. In other words, data quality is an essential characteristic that determines the reliability of data for making decisions. When different systems and tools do not speak to each other, finding “the one source of truth” can be a very time-consuming and expensive exercise.” –FPA Trends
In the business world, you are surrounded by high quality data. But, accessing and consolidating it all is a chore. You are left bouncing between Excel, online banking portals and other platforms to collect everything you need. This process is lengthy and chalk full of moving pieces, which leaves it vulnerable to human error. Once you have finally collected all the data, you have to normalize and organize it into a spreadsheet, then insert formulas and plug and chug to create your report.
This process is far from efficient and leaves the business in analysis paralysis waiting for reports. By adopting automation, Finance Professionals can pair down the steps and platforms necessary to forecast. Trovata uses API integrations to collect real-time cash data from across all banks and accounts. By cutting out the middleman and digitizing data collection, you can reduce the level of human error and improve forecast accuracy.
2. Long Forecasting Cycles
“The fastest 25% of organizations can prepare a financial forecast in eight days or fewer, while the slowest take 16 days or longer. At the median are the organizations that need 12 days to prepare a financial forecast.” –CFO.com
The manual forecasting cycle is too long. The process of wrangling data and configuring it into a forecast can take weeks. By the time the forecast is done and reviewed, the data could be outdated, and there’s little time left for analysis.
Automated forecasting platforms like Trovata, use machine learning algorithms and real-time cash data to provide you with automated forecasts. AI technology works to identify cash trends, improve forecast accuracy, and minimize human bias. Not only does automated forecasting give you time to focus on strategy and action instead of report generation, but it allows you the time to play around with forecast variables and plan for specific scenarios/business segments.
3. Strategic Planning
“Technological disruption is affecting all corners of business… It is expected to empower finance to deliver more value with less effort, respond quickly to the needs of the business, and truly shift from traditional processing to strategic partnering.” –KPMG
Why do businesses use cash forecasting? To manage liquidity, anticipate financial speed bumps and prepare for them. Long forecast cycles keep teams wrapped up in number crunching, and leave little room for the analysis that the forecasts are created for.
By adopting automated cash forecasting your team can divert their attention from report generation to analysis and developing strategy. In addition, Trovata’s flexible forecasts allow Finance Professionals to incorporate scenario planning, and experiment with forecast variables. Trovata pulls your team out of the weeds and allows them to better apply their financial expertise.
Trovata can help financial planning and analysis teams increase efficiency in data collection, reduce the length of forecasting cycles, and allow for strategic planning. But, don’t just take my word for it.
Book a product tour and see firsthand how Trovata can elevate your forecasts.
