Leveraging Microsoft Excel for Faster Monthly Closes and Ad Hoc Financial Reporting

If you want to make data-informed financial decisions in your organization, you need quick, accurate reports from your ERP system. Unfortunately, standard tools can be time-consuming and frustrating to use for month-end closing, ad hoc analysis, reconciliation, and other complex reporting tasks. If irritating ERP systems stop you from getting the right data you need when you need it, learn to use Microsoft Excel to your advantage.

The Trouble With Standard ERP Reporting Tools

With standard ERP reporting tools, users often rely on IT programmers to extract data from the complex ERP base tables. Then, finance users must format it for their tool of choice: Excel. They may even find themselves rekeying a text dump from their system into Excel, which leaves room for errors.

Some tools provide an “export-to-Excel” function. But the process still requires several steps, and the data that lands in Excel is static. All of these scenarios can introduce inaccuracies. They also cost time and money when users need to pull monthly closing, ad hoc, and other reports.

One fix would be to is to use Excel-based financial reporting software that works well with Oracle or SAP. This type of software offers a reliable way to circumvent the time-consuming processes imposed by standard ERP reporting tools. Finance users can create and distribute reports faster and access real-time data in a dynamic format.

The Reality of Real-Time Data

During monthly closes, accountants and financial analysts need a quick view of accurate data, trial balances, and last-minute journal entries in the general ledger. Without access to real-time data, users are stuck going back through a long data extraction process, which delays close.

With Excel-based financial reporting tools that integrate into ERP system, analysts simply click to refresh reports that reflect new journal entries in the balances as soon as they post to the ERP system. Such capabilities can easily shave at least one day off the monthly close process, according to users of these reporting tools.

On the ad hoc reporting side, financial analysts rapidly build specialized reports using Excel formulas, IF statements, pivot tables, and VLOOKUP with an Excel-based reporting tool. Wizards and step-by-step instructions speed up the process, and users can be confident in the real-time data because it comes directly from the ERP system. Users easily locate specific transactional information for managers waiting on their ad hoc requests.

Accounts payable/accounts receivable (AP/AR) reconciliations are also more efficient with the drill-down capability of an Excel-based reporting tool. That’s because these tools support looking deeper into account details than standard ERP reports do. Users can pull one or more accounts and account listings, so that AP and AR information is available in one drill down for an easy pivot off the information. Journal source and category sections in the criteria page allow drills into sales invoices for a set time frame.

Consolidation and Report Distribution Efficiencies

With standard ERP reporting tools, users must individually open each report in the monthly financial package. Then they must generate, refresh, and execute each report. Some Excel-based tools let users consolidate this package into one Excel workbook with multiple tabs. The first tab is a control page where users change the time frame, choose “Refresh All,” and receive the entire updated monthly financial package, which is drillable to live data.

Another important aspect of reporting is the distribution process. Excel-based financial reporting tools allow users to create templates that execute financial reports. Then they can send the reports to a shared directory or email them to specified contacts.

With one mouse click, users can refresh and email monthly departmental reports, automating the distribution process. Reports may be in a static format, such as Excel, HTML, or PDF, so that managers can easily view them with no additional software. Reports for some ERP systems can be protected by passwords to ensure ongoing data integrity.

With Excel-based financial reporting tools, accountants and business analysts are empowered to create their own reports. They can run reports with a simple click and retrieve up-to-the-minute data. These efficient reporting and distribution processes mean everyone involved—from finance to mid- and upper-level management—have more time to analyze and react to critical business trends.

If you like the familiar feel of Excel and want to find out about more advanced ways to handle reporting and save time, explore our webinars.

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