Author: Cal Zielinko

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Real-Time Financial Reporting vs. Monthly Close: The New Frontier in Financial Efficiency

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Nov 28, 2023 by Cal Zielinko

Introduction: Shifting Paradigms in Financial Closing

In the fast-paced world of modern business, the financial closing process is critical. Traditional methods, notably the monthly close, have long been the standard. However, they are increasingly viewed as outdated due to their time-consuming nature and the delayed financial insights they provide. In contrast, the concept of real-time financial reporting emerges as a revolutionary approach, offering immediate access to financial data and significantly enhancing decision-making processes.

The Outdated Monthly Close

The monthly close process, deeply rooted in traditional accounting practices, involves a series of labor-intensive tasks: recording journal entries, reconciling bank statements, and producing trial balances. This approach culminates in financial results that are often outdated by the time they are compiled. The primary issue with this approach is the delayed financial insights it offers. By the time the accounting team completes this process, the data is no longer timely, reducing its value for strategic decision-making. Moreover, the focus on closing the books for the previous month leaves little room for forward-looking activities such as forecasting and data analytics, crucial for guiding business strategy.

Emergence of Real-Time Financial Reporting

Real-time financial reporting, a concept gaining significant traction, offers a dynamic and efficient approach. This method involves keeping accounts updated on a continual basis, thereby providing financial information in real-time. Driven by advancements in technology and a growing need for timely financial data, real-time financial reporting represents a shift from reactive to proactive financial management. It leverages modern integrated systems to ensure financial data is accessible and current, without the necessity of posting daily to the general ledger.

The Benefits of Real-Time Financial Reporting

• Enhanced Real-Time Decision-Making: Real-time financial reporting provides immediate financial insights, drastically improving decision-making capabilities. This approach aligns financial data closely with daily business operations, enhancing both the relevance and accuracy of financial reports.
• Increased Efficiency and Time Savings: By providing real-time financial data, this approach allows accounting teams to focus on more strategic tasks, thereby enhancing overall productivity. It reduces the time spent on manual tasks like data entry and reconciliation.
• Improved Compliance and Accuracy: Real-time financial reporting leads to fewer errors in financial reporting and enhances compliance. By providing more accurate and transparent record-keeping, it simplifies the auditing process and enhances compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Boost in Employee Satisfaction: Shifting to real-time financial reporting alleviates the intense pressure and workload associated with the month-end rush. By providing immediate access to financial data, it leads to higher job satisfaction and engagement among accounting teams.

The Crucial Role of Accounting Automation Software

In the era of real-time financial reporting, automation software plays a critical role. These solutions streamline various aspects of financial reporting, including automation software is integral to the implementation of real-time financial reporting. These tools are designed to automate transaction recording, reconciliation, and various other aspects of financial reporting, thereby enhancing efficiency and accuracy.

• Automating Routine Tasks: Software solutions, such as Numeral, automate the collection of real-time data from multiple sources, providing a continually updated financial picture. This capability is crucial, as it eliminates the need for manual data entry and reconciliation, which are traditionally time-consuming and error-prone aspects of the closing process.
• Real-Time Data Synchronization: As transactions occur, automation software ensures that they are instantly reflected in the financial records. This immediate updating of data provides a constantly accurate financial picture, aiding in more effective decision-making.
• Enhancing Compliance and Reducing Errors: Automated systems result in fewer errors and more visibility over financial activities. Accounts are easier to audit, as the clarity of real-time data simplifies understanding financial transactions over cumbersome manual processes used in traditional month-end closures.
• Supporting Remote Workforces: In an era where remote working is increasingly common, these tools facilitate the management of distributed teams by providing centralized access to financial data and documents, streamlining communication and collaboration.
• Cost Reduction: Real-time financial reporting, supported by automation software, can lead to significant cost savings. By reducing the reliance on manual processes, businesses save on labor costs associated with the traditional month-end close. Additionally, the reduced need for extensive auditing due to more accurate and up-to-date records can also lower external audit fees.

Conclusion: Embracing the Future of Financial Reporting

The shift from traditional monthly close to real-time financial reporting, supported by automation software, represents a significant advancement in financial reporting. It enhances the efficiency and accuracy of financial processes and plays a pivotal role in strategic decision-making. As businesses navigate a rapidly changing economic landscape, adopting real-time financial reporting will be key to staying agile and competitive.
In this era of digital transformation, real-time financial reporting is not just an option but a necessity for businesses looking to leverage financial data as a strategic asset. By embracing this approach and the technological solutions that support it, organizations can unlock greater potential, drive innovation, and achieve sustained growth.

Want to see how Numeral can help you achieve real-time financial reporting? Schedule a commitment-free demo here today!

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Real-Time Financial Reporting vs. Monthly Close: The New Frontier in Financial Efficiency

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Nov 28, 2023 by Cal Zielinko
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Comprehensive Guide to Transaction-Level Cash Reconciliation

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Nov 21, 2023 by Cal Zielinko

Introduction

Cash reconciliation, a fundamental aspect of accounting for any business, becomes particularly intricate in the world of digital products and services. This comprehensive guide aims to break down the concept of transaction-level cash reconciliation, delve into its specific challenges, particularly in high-volume businesses, and explore solutions to these complexities.

Understanding Cash Reconciliation

What Is Cash Reconciliation?

Cash reconciliation is an accounting process where businesses verify that their internal financial records (sales records, ledger entries) match external records (bank statements, payment processor reports). This process is crucial for ensuring the accuracy of financial data, particularly in businesses that have high transaction volumes.

What Is Transaction-Level Cash Reconciliation?

Transaction-level cash reconciliation is taking this process further to the most granular level, where reconciliation occurs at the individual transaction level, not at the summary batch level.

Systems Involved in Transaction-Level Cash Reconciliation

Transaction-level cash reconciliation is a complex process that involves various financial systems within a company. These systems can vary depending on the company’s size, business model, or technological maturity. The four most common systems involved in cash reconciliation are:

1. Billing System: This system creates and manages customer invoices, reflecting the expected cash to be collected from sales.
2. Payment Processor: Payment processors relay customer payment information to the company’s bank and handle verification and fund transfers.
3. Company’s Bank: The bank collects and deposits cash from successfully processed transactions, serving as the final system in the reconciliation process.
4. Revenue Recognition System: This system calculates revenue for the current period and liabilities for future deferred revenues, using data from billing systems and payment processors.

Stages of Transaction Processing

 1. Transaction Occurrence: The process begins when a customer makes a purchase of a product or service.
2. Record Keeping: This transaction is then recorded in the company’s billing system and recognized as revenue.
3. Payment Processing: Concurrently, payment processors handle the customer’s payment, transferring funds from the customer’s bank to the payment processor’s “wallet”.
4. Banking Transactions: The funds are transferred from the payment processor’s “wallet” and received/recorded by the company’s bank.
5. Reconciliation Activity: The company then reconciles these records – ensuring the amounts in their internal records match what’s in the bank and with what the payment processors have transferred.

The Complexity of Transaction-Level Cash Reconciliation

In businesses with high transaction volume and multiple systems housing accounting-impacting data, transaction-level cash reconciliation can be a multifaceted process that involves several intricate challenges. To truly understand its complexity, we’ll explore the six primary challenges in detail:

1. Taxes

Challenge: Tax regulations, rates, and compliance obligations across different regions introduce complexities into the cash reconciliation process. Accounting for taxes accurately is paramount.

Tax complexities can vary widely between countries and regions, and they significantly impact cash reconciliation. Different tax rates, rules, and compliance requirements can affect the timing and amount of cash flows related to taxes.

2. Transaction Fees

Challenge: Transaction fees imposed by payment processors can erode cash balances, and properly accounting for these fees accurately is essential.

Payment processors often charge fees for processing payments. These fees can vary based on factors such as transaction volume, payment method, and the specific financial institution involved. Accounting for these fees accurately is crucial to reconcile cash balances correctly.

3. Foreign Exchange Rates

Transactions conducted in diverse currencies can lead to discrepancies in cash balances. Currency fluctuations add an additional layer of complexity.

Currency differences are a significant hurdle in cash reconciliation, especially for businesses that have multiple entities and whose customers pay in different currencies. When transactions occur in various currencies, the exchange rates at different periods of the reconciliation process must be considered. This introduces the potential for differences between the expected and actual cash amounts.

4. Deposits in Transit

Challenge: Deposits in transit (DIT), sometimes referred to as undeposited funds, refer to funds that have been recorded in one system (e.g. payment processor’s “wallet”) but have not yet cleared to the bank. Identifying and reconciling these funds is crucial for accuracy.

There is often a couple of days delay when moving money between systems (e.g. transferring money from the payment processor’s “wallet” to a bank account). This can result in significant balance discrepancies between what’s expected and what’s actually in the bank account.

5. Chargebacks

Challenge: Chargebacks occur when customers dispute a transaction with their bank or credit card company, resulting in the reversal of funds. Handling chargebacks correctly is essential for reconciliation.

Chargebacks can be a common occurrence in businesses that accept credit card payments. When a customer disputes a transaction, the funds are typically reversed, impacting the company’s cash balance. This occurs days, weeks or months after the original transaction, making accounting for chargebacks extremely cumbersome.

6. Timing Differences Between Systems

Challenge: Multiple systems operate off different time zones. The cut-off period for a day’s worth of data may be in UTC for system A and may be in PST for system B. Very rarely are all systems within a financial tech stack aligned to a uniform time zone.

These timing differences can wreak havoc on any reconciliation process as the definition of a day’s worth of data data can differ from system to system.

The Transaction-Level Cash Reconciliation Process

Step-by-Step Breakdown

1. Data Collection: Gathering transaction data from billing systems, payment processors, and bank statements.
2. Matching and Verification: Matching transactions across these systems and verifying their accuracy.
3. Discrepancy Identification: Spotting and investigating any mismatched records.
4. Resolution of Discrepancies: Adjusting records to rectify any identified discrepancies, such as FX rate impact, timing differences, or unrecorded chargebacks.
5. Final Reconciliation: Ensuring comprehensive accuracy across all systems.

The Value of Transaction-Level Cash Reconciliation for Businesses

Granular cash reconciliation offers several benefits for businesses, including:

– Verification of proper operations and collection of all sales.
– Prevention of revenue leakage.
– Provision of trustworthy cash balances and revenue calculations for investors and stakeholders.
– Testing and assurance of data integrity across financial systems.

Problems Without Transaction-Level Cash Reconciliation

Without proper cash reconciliation, businesses may encounter several problems, including:

– Inconsistent cash reporting across financial systems.
– Erroneous decision-making based on inaccurate data.
– Over/underpayment of tax obligations.
– Inconsistent metrics and KPIs on financial statements.

Numeral’s Role in Streamlining Cash Reconciliation

Simplifying the Complex with Technology

In the landscape of high-volume businesses, traditional manual reconciliation methods can be overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of transactions making transaction-level reconciliation impossible. This is where tools like Numeral can come in to help businesses automate their reconciliation process with ease.

Conclusion

In the dynamic and fast-paced sector of digital goods, mastering the art of transaction-level cash reconciliation is vital for maintaining financial accuracy and health. The challenges, while significant, can be effectively managed with a robust understanding of the process, diligent practice, and the support of advanced reconciliation tools. This guide serves as a foundation for businesses to build upon, aiming for excellence in their cash reconciliation endeavors.

Want to see what Numeral can do for your business? Schedule a demo here today!

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Comprehensive Guide to Transaction-Level Cash Reconciliation

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Nov 21, 2023 by Cal Zielinko
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A Deep Dive into the Order-to-Cash Process for High-Volume Businesses

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Nov 15, 2023 by Cal Zielinko


In the ever-evolving digital payments landscape, understanding the order-to-cash (OTC) process is critical for businesses, especially those that process a high volume of transactions. This article explores the OTC process, highlighting its importance in the seamless operation of such businesses.

Defining the Order-to-Cash Process

The order-to-cash process in today’s digital age is a sequence of steps that often begins with a customer placing an order online or via an app and ends with the company recording the payment in its books. This process is particularly crucial for high-volume businesses, where millions of transactions a month are common, and each stage of the process needs to be optimized for efficiency and accuracy.

The 6 Steps of the Order-to-Cash Process for High-Volume Businesses

Here are the key steps of the digital OTC process for high-volume businesses that accept digital payments.

1. Customer Submits Order: This is where the journey begins, typically with the customer placing an order directly on the company’s website or app, processed immediately by a billing or order management system.
2. Company Invoices Customer: Once the order is placed, the company generates an invoice for the customer. This step is crucial for recording the financial transaction, although it does not yet impact the general ledger.
3. Customer Pays Invoice: In many digital transactions, especially for SaaS businesses, payment is required upfront before the order can be processed. This step is crucial for revenue recognition and impacts certain ledger accounts like accounts receivable.
4. Company Fulfills Order: For digital products/services, fulfillment often means provisioning access to the service or software, which often happens immediately. This step ensures the customer can use what they’ve paid for.
5. Company Delivers Order: Delivery in a digital context is typically synonymous with fulfillment, especially for high-volume companies, where providing access to a product/service or software is key. The first five steps in the OTC process often happen immediately or within a couple of days for high-volume businesses.
6. Cash is Recorded in General Ledger: The final step in the OTC process is recording the cash payment in the company’s general ledger, aligning the bookkeeping with the actual cash flow.

Optimizing the Order-To-Cash Process

Streamlining the OTC process is essential for digital businesses to improve margins and scale efficiently. Automation plays a key role in creating an effective OTC process, particularly in high-volume transaction environments. Automating processes like revenue recognition and cash reconciliations can drastically reduce manual workload and error potential, enabling more accurate and faster financial reporting.

Enhancing the Order-To-Cash Process with Numeral

In the digital age, solutions like Numeral can be invaluable. By automating the reconciliation process across various financial systems, Numeral helps ensure that every sale is accurately accounted for from figurative credit card swipes to cash being deposited into the actual bank account. This is particularly beneficial for companies dealing with high-volume digital transactions, where traditional methods of reconciliation can be time-consuming and error-prone.

Numeral’s automation tools not only save time but also bring precision to the reconciliation process, reducing the risks of revenue leakage and ensuring reliable financial data for stakeholders. This level of accuracy and efficiency is crucial for businesses operating in the digital domain, where transaction volumes are high, and the growth is explosive.

Conclusion: The Order-To-Cash Process as a Growth Catalyst

For high-volume businesses, mastering the OTC process is more than an operational necessity; it’s a strategic asset. An optimized OTC process, supported by advanced tools like those offered by Numeral, can significantly enhance a company’s ability to scale, manage cash flow, and maintain robust financial health. As we continue to advance in the digital era, businesses that prioritize and refine their digital processes, with a keen eye on automation and accuracy, are well-positioned to thrive in this dynamic landscape.

Want to see what Numeral can do for your business? Schedule a demo here today!

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A Deep Dive into the Order-to-Cash Process for High-Volume Businesses

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Nov 15, 2023 by Cal Zielinko
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Numeral: Shaping the Future of Accounting Software

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Nov 6, 2023 by Cal Zielinko

The Evolution of Enterprise Resource Planning: A Brief Retrospective

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been the linchpin of corporate efficiency since the 1970s. Evolving from Material Requirement Planning (MRP) systems, which orchestrated the procurement and inventory management for manufacturers, ERPs expanded to serve a diverse array of business operations across various industries.

From the era of Netsuite introducing the first cloud-based ERP in 1998, these systems have transformed into a unified database aiming to consolidate company-wide data – an invaluable single source of truth that has become indispensable.

The Great Unbundling: A Shift in Paradigm

However, the last two decades have witnessed a seismic shift – the unbundling of ERPs. Point solutions, each a specialist in its own right, have chiseled away at the monolith, offering tailored functionalities that exceed the jack-of-all-trades approach of traditional ERPs. Today’s businesses are intricate ecosystems, each facet too nuanced for a one-size-fits-all solution.

High-growth companies are no longer turning to behemoths like Oracle or SAP for a full suite of products. The reality is a tapestry of 25 different systems managing 25 distinct processes, each superior in its domain than any all-encompassing ERP could aspire to be.

The Ripple Effect on Accounting and Finance

This fragmentation has introduced significant challenges, especially for accounting and finance departments. The month-end close has turned into a tough and time-consuming task, as teams scramble to collect, reconcile, and report financial data from various different systems.

Introducing Numeral: A Visionary Solution

Numeral acknowledges this complexity and introduces a revolutionary approach. Imagine a platform that consolidates financial data from every nook and cranny of your business operations, cleansing it, and transforming it into a standardized, actionable format. That is Numeral – a unified hub for all your financial data, speaking the universal language of clarity and precision.

Our smart way of handling accounting makes it clear and straightforward. Think of it as just following a recipe—simple steps that guide how money is tracked and managed. We take care of jobs like figuring out sales earnings and keeping tabs on cash flow.

With Numeral, you won’t just get a pile of numbers. Our tools turn data into easy-to-understand charts and give you answers to help make fast, smart business choices. Say goodbye to waiting for the end of the month and hello to up-to-the-minute information.

The Future as We See It

Numeral isn’t just a tool; it’s a paradigm shift. We envision a world where financial statements are living documents, updated in real time. Where accounting teams don’t dread the month-end but engage in it as strategic analysts, shaping the company’s direction with up-to-the-minute data.

We are spearheading a future where the term ‘ERP’ is a relic, and a system like Numeral – focused, agile, and integrative – is the norm. A future where the ERP doesn’t do everything but connects to everything. This is the essence of the Numeral.

In this future, month-end isn’t a deadline; it’s a launchpad for strategic decision-making, with Numeral as the trusted co-pilot.

Want to see what Numeral can do for your business? Schedule a demo here today!

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Numeral: Shaping the Future of Accounting Software

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Nov 6, 2023 by Cal Zielinko