“Collaboration tools can drive cycle-time reduction and enrich finance’s ability to capture explanatory content on challenging issues during the close process.” – CFO Magazine*

We agree! When finance teams use technology to collaborate, we find they have more time to examine complex account reconciliations while reducing the amount of time it takes to close.

How does entering data into an online workflow tool versus a spreadsheet save time?

In ART, for example, clients have the ability to require supporting documentation to be uploaded on certain account reconciliations before a preparer can send it for review. This prevents a reviewer from needlessly working on a reconciliation that does not have proper documentation. A spreadsheet can’t do that.

Uploading documents, even small documents, takes time. In the case of prepaid accounts, documentation stays with the account throughout its amortization schedule. Spreadsheets don’t carry items forward automatically.

Would you like to reduce the number of accounts your preparers work on without sacrificing internal controls? ART can auto-reconcile low activity and zero balances accounts, leaving your team with fewer accounts to reconcile. Can spreadsheets? Nope.

Standardization of account reconciliations via forms greatly reduces a reviewer’s time spent reviewing accounts. ART has a limited number of forms that preparers can use. Reviewers are spared having to interpret and guess. Spreadsheets… well you get the point.

At SkyStem we call this “cycle-time reduction” – streamlining the financial close. See how ART, our account reconciliation automation tool, helps you collaborate and save time.

* Friedman, Frank (2015). What Will the CFO Role Look Like in 2020?. Retrieved from http://ww2.cfo.com/training/2015/08/will-cfo-role-look-like-2020/