The financial processing and reporting process provides an accurate picture of a company’s cash balance as well as outflows and inflows, which are important to businesses of all sizes. It also assists in identifying opportunities and trends to capitalize on or minimize. It also helps satisfy various legal and regulatory requirements. For example, a publicly-held firm may need to submit its financials to the Securities and Exchange Commission, while an electricity-generating utility may be required to report its financials to a government agency or lender.
Financial reports are a method for companies to share information about their financial health. They provide key insights to employees, which can boost productivity and protect against blunders. In addition, they help management make informed decisions to achieve their organization’s financial goals.
In order to produce effective reports, it is essential that the processes and systems are in line with the company’s internal policies. The implementation of these systems does not only improve the quality of reports, but also speeds up data processing. This could reduce invoice processing times and later financial reporting processes including ad-hoc analysis or budget balancing.
To ensure that each transaction is easily identified, a thorough description should be included with each transaction. This will help distinguish a particular transaction from other transactions in the general ledger or Finance Mart reports. The description should be brief and clearly describe the reason for the entry to be booked, including a detailed calculation if applicable. Other elements that should be added to every record are the date of posting chartfield, date of posting and type of transaction.
