As fractional CFOs and Controllers our team engages with organizations in either a short-term or part-time capacity. One area where we often lend our expertise is in ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and MRP (Material Requirements Planning) installations. Properly implementing and managing the accounting and finance elements of these systems requires a depth of financial acumen that is best suited for an experienced CFO to handle because there are wide reaching business implications to consider with this type of strategic execution.

In the many years that we have been helping clients with accounting systems conversions, we have noticed the same pitfalls tend to trip up organizations time and again. We are sharing those with you today in the hopes that calling them out can serve as cautionary lessons to help you avoid moving forward with an accounting system conversion that you will end up regretting later.

On to the cloud… Accounting and finance applications have been expanding into the cloud ever since the advent of the internet.  In Seattle, Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure are betting their future on the cloud which has had a huge impact on the local community.  I see more and more cloud based  accounting and financial applications that perform critical business functions. Each makes the promise to bring cost savings and efficiencies to the business owner. 

To determine how cloud applications were impacting our clients, I surveyed our associates (contract CFOs, controllers, accountants and bookkeepers) to see how extensive cloud-based applications are being used.

All organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit, use accounting software. All have varying degrees of complexity and features. Regardless of the available features, most of us still rely on exporting data into a spreadsheet to improve adjustability. In fact, most of us over-rely on this process. There are better ways to improve your accounting software capabilities.