Most finance departments rely on spreadsheets extensively. Although a spreadsheet is a very handy tool, over-reliance on spreadsheets and manual number crunching makes the finance organization unproductive. There is usually a fair amount of data redundancy, duplication of effort, errors, inaccuracies and reliability issues surrounding use of spreadsheets. Many finance departments use excel on a regular basis as part of their routine activities like monthly closing and reporting.

With the ever increasing amount of data and processes, excel spreadsheets tend to grow in size and complexity in terms of the number of formulas and if-then-else statements or v-lookup statements or links to other spreadsheets. Such complex spreadsheets increase the risk of generating unreliable information and the potential for inadvertently changing a formula or deleting a cell increases exponentially especially with a new user.

Many finance professionals are not trained in advanced excel techniques like using excel macros to automate and schedule routine processes. Such automation has the potential to drastically reduce employee overtime, inadvertent errors and at the same time reduce costs. The reliability for reported data increases dramatically and the finance organization transforms themselves from data aggregators to information analysts.

Most organizations would prefer to enter data only once and then expect their systems to be integrated such that all subsequent data requirements are shared and handled automatically behind the scenes without having to re-key the data a second or third time.

It is frustrating to maintain the same employee information in the administration department, HR department, Payroll department as well as the Finance Department, each version presenting a slightly different version of the truth. It is possible to share information through the organization instead of maintaining multiple versions of the same information. Automate your business processes and report with confidence with custom solutions provided by Halogen. Spend time understanding your business and making decisions instead of massaging endless data. Enable you finance staff to work smarter and unlock value for your business.