Connecting Your Financial Systems: A Guide to Seamless Business Integration

Disconnected financial systems cost your business every day.

You know it. CRM data over here. Accounting over there. Inventory records somewhere else. If someone wants to see your company's full financial picture, they're going to have to dig around in each system and manually compile reports.

The Problem:

Disconnected financial systems make it difficult for businesses to access the information they need to make smart decisions. Duplicate data entry creates errors. Time is wasted trying to reconcile information that should be automatically synced.

The Solution?

Connecting your financial systems with Sage 100 ERP software.

When implemented correctly, an enterprise resource planning solution will tie all of your critical business systems together onto one single platform. No more data silos. No more hoping everyone has the right info.

Let's dig in…

Contents

• Why Disconnected Systems Cost More Than You Think
• The Value of Financial System Integration
• ERP Software Features to Consider
• Your Step-By-Step Integration Plan
• Wrapping Things Up

Why Disconnected Systems Cost More Than You Think

Most small business owners aren't aware of just how much disconnected systems can cost them.

Businesses operating on disconnected, outdated legacy systems were found to spend up to 30% more time reconciling their financial reports when compared to their ERP utilizing counterparts.

That's almost a third of your accounting department's time disappearing into the ether.

It doesn't stop there though. Siloed departments lose critical information when there's no connectivity between them. The sales team seals a big deal but doesn't share customer specs with fulfillment. Finance has to manually key in information they can't access from other departments.

Here are some of the hidden costs of disconnected systems:

• Data is entered twice. If not more.
• Information is inconsistent from one department report to another.
• Leadership is flying blind when making important business decisions.
• You leave your company vulnerable to avoidable errors and security breaches.

That's why streamlined sage 100 accounting software solutions have become so popular.

Connecting your accounting software to your inventory management and other critical business systems on a centralised ERP system allows everyone to access the information they need from the Sage 100 ERP software platform.

It's really that simple.

The Value of Financial System Integration

Connecting your financial systems brings a myriad of benefits to your business. Here are a couple of the big ones…

Information Centralisation

When every system feeds back into one source of truth. Leadership has real-time visibility on what's going on. From cash flow to available inventory. Pending customer orders to accounts payable. Everything you need to know about the financial health of your business is right there.

Say goodbye to waiting until the end of the month to identify and correct issues.

Data Automatically Flows Between Systems

Information being inputted only once into your central ERP system means it only needs to be entered once. Close a sale and inventory is instantly updated. Receive payment on an invoice and accounts reflect it immediately.

Manual data entry is a thing of the past. Human error is drastically reduced.

Not only that but finance teams have more time to do actual analysis rather than spend their day stuck in data entry.

Informed Decision Making

All of this leads to better decision making across your business.

When you have access to accurate data at your fingertips. You're able to identify and correct problems before they happen. Spot trends quickly. Allocate resources according to actual needs rather than guessing.

Research shows that 66% of businesses see improved operational efficiency after implementing ERP systems.

We could go on but you get the point.

ERP Software Features to Consider

When considering Sage 100 ERP software or any other ERP software for that matter, there are some features you'll want to watch out for.

Not all ERP systems are created equal.

Here's what sets the good ones apart:

• They cover all your bases. Accounting and financial modules, inventory and warehouse management, sales and CRM, purchasing and vendor management, business intelligence and reporting. If it's crucial to the functioning of your business, a top notch ERP will have a module for it.
• Can scale with your business. Your ERP software should be able to grow with you. More sales volume? More users? Bigger inventory? You shouldn't have to stress about your software choking when it's time to expand.
• User friendly. Like we said before, you can have the most powerful system in the world but if your employees don't use it, you might as well not have it. A modern ERP system will have an interface that's clean and easy to navigate. Making training and adoption easy throughout your organisation.
• Offers integration capabilities. Every business has different integration needs. Whether you need to integrate your new ERP software with existing systems your business is using, look for ERP platforms that offer robust APIs and pre-built integration connectors to make the process as painless as possible.
• Strong reporting capabilities. All of this data won't do you any good if you can't easily digest it. Look for reporting tools that allow you to pull the information you need on-demand. Quickly and efficiently.

Your Step-By-Step Integration Plan

Integration may sound like a daunting task but when you take it one step at a time, it's actually pretty simple. Here's how to do it.

Step 1: Know Your Current Systems

The first step to connecting your financial systems is knowing what you're working with. List out every system your business currently uses. Where is data stored? Where do bottlenecks commonly occur? You'd be surprised at how many manual steps are involved in most business workflows once you start digging.

Step 2: Identify What You Want To Connect

Hold off on diving head first into everything at once. Instead, pick one or two systems you want to connect first. Integrating your accounting software with inventory management and sales is a great place to start for most businesses.

Step 3: Clean Your Data

Take the time to clean your data. Integration will only work if your data is accurate. Make sure any information that needs to transfer between your new connected systems is free of duplicates, consistent in formatting, and correct.

Step 4: Train Your Team

Implementing new technology into your business comes with a learning curve. Don't forget about your people. Ensure they're comfortable with the new changes by allowing ample time for training. Communicate the benefits of your new tools. And bonus points if you can find someone in each department to champion the new software.

Step 5: Test, Test, Test

You've got everything hooked up? Great! But wait... now go back and test every integration. Does data pull through where it should? Do reports come out correctly? Do your fail-safes kick in if something goes wrong? If you take anything from this list. Let it be this.

Implement in phases. Don't turn everything on at once.

Step 6: Monitor and Continue Making Improvements

Just because you connected your financial systems doesn't mean you can set it and forget it. Technology is always advancing. Continue to monitor how your systems are running. Seek out feedback from employees. And look for ways to optimise your workflows even more.

Wrapping Things Up

Operating on outdated financial systems that do not communicate with one another is the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot.

Why make critical business decisions with limited information? Why spend hours reconciling financials that should already match? Why not allow your employees to do their jobs more efficiently by connecting your financial data?

Connecting your financial systems through a comprehensive ERP solution:

• Eliminates data silos.
• Allows real-time visibility on the financial health of your business.
• Free's up your employees' time so they can focus on the stuff that actually matters.

We went over a lot. Here are the main points to take away:

• Running on legacy systems that don't communicate will cost you more than you think.
• Streamlining your business with an ERP gives you a competitive edge through increased efficiency.
• Take note of these features when searching for ERP software.
• Follow these six steps for a successful integration.
• Continue to make improvements.

Businesses that have taken the steps to integrate their financial systems are far and away ahead of their competition. While others are still buried under manual processes and slow decision-making, you'll be improving your workflows every chance you get.

Don't get left behind.

The question isn't if you'll integrate your systems. It's when.