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Stop Sending Out The Wrong Financial Reports

Report requirements vary greatly throughout a company, from the C-level executive who requires high-level consolidated statements down to detailed statements for individuals in various cost centers. You’re responsible for making sure that the right financial reports reach the right people when and how they need them.

If you’re still using an Excel-based report writer, your report distribution process is likely not as streamlined as it could be. You might be at risk of compromised data integrity, unwanted file versions, and a lengthy process that could easily be automated with the right tools. Excel was never intended to handle the complex accounting landscape that today’s businesses work within. While it may be suitable for certain situations and some smaller businesses, for most it is compromising time, resources, and the accuracy of your data.

What’s wrong with your current reports?

If you rely on Excel for your financial reporting, the system is inherently flawed. Excel depends upon a system of manual formulas that take time to develop, as opposed to an automated report writer that can do the heavy lifting for you. With so much manual work required, it is a very timely, and therefore costly, endeavor. And when errors occur, it can take hours, if not days, to isolate the problematic formula and make the adjustment. If it’s so easy to make an error, can you ever really trust the data?

And on that note: Excel does not present a centralized hub of data in the way that a cloud-based accounting solution does. Various employees can have a copy of a spreadsheet saved on their desktop, and over time, it may be difficult to determine whose version is the most current. With a cloud-based accounting solution, users have access to a centralized hub of data from any device with an internet connection, which greatly enhances data accuracy and integrity–as well as accessibility.

FYIsoft for your financial reports

FYIsoft’s cloud-based report writer enables finance teams to pre-package any number of reports and assign access rights to each report.

At FYIsoft, the focus is on developing the best financial reporting software available. Integrated with your general ledger, FYIsoft provides all the benefits of the cloud, without compromising the security of your core financial data.

Faster period close can save up to five days, allowing more time for analysis
Easier consolidations, even for complex multi-company entities
Streamlined, accurate report distributions – automatically formatted every time
Secure, 24/7 access to transactional data, from anywhere, anytime

Contact FYIsoft today to learn more.

Can Your Financial Reporting Solution Adapt To Change?

Organic growth, acquisitions, capital expenditures, and new investments can cause you to quickly outgrow a simplistic, Excel-based financial reporting solution. Excel has its limitations, and your growing business needs a solution that is automated, feature-rich, reliable, and accurate.

Excel can be suitable for the simplified accounting needs of small businesses, but most companies need a solution that does more. Your financial reporting solution should be able to tackle:

Multiple GL systems: Standardize data so you can integrate with as many GL systems as you need, saving weeks or even months of time.

Currency conversions: The ability to automate currency conversions is a must-have for multinational corporations to greatly simplify the consolidation of global financials.

Multiple entities: Companies that generate 100+ reports every month require software that can slice and dice any distributions needed to deliver the right data to the right people.

Cloud-based financial reporting solutions are much more adaptable to the changing accounting landscape that your business is working within. Your business requires a solution that can navigate the various regulatory and compliance concerns of the finance world, and you should be able to count on the accuracy and integrity of your data.

The best solution will encourage:

Faster period close: By cutting even 2-5 days off your period close process, you have time left on the calendar for other tasks to better serve your business.

Easier report generation: Component-based cloud architecture can simplify consolidations for even the most complex entities.

Efficient report distribution: Secure, automated distribution processes ensure you get the right data to the right people.

Mobile access: Access to reports 24/7 from any device with an internet connection ensures you’re always ready with accurate, reliable data.

Data integrity: To keep data accurate, users can drill down and analyze their own expenses without the ability to make changes.

ROI within weeks: A low total cost of ownership combined with increases in productivity will deliver ROI in as little as eight weeks.

FYIsoft produces solutions that adapt to change

FYIsoft ensures that all impacted reports are updated automatically, saving you and your staff countless hours. FYIsoft is a powerful financial reporting solution that helps customers reduce their reporting time up to 50%.

Financial reports provide the data and insight from which all business decisions are made. For today’s finance teams, it is crucial that those reports be accurate, easy to produce, and board-ready at a moment’s notice.

The report applications found in most ERP systems just don’t cut it. That is FYIsoft’s focus.

FYIsoft is committed to delivering the best available cloud financial reporting software, specifically designed to integrate with your GL system and dramatically improve reporting processes, even in the most complex financial environments.

Contact FYIsoft today to learn more.

Why Changing your Financial Reporting Process Now is Crucial Before the New Year

We all like a fresh start with the new year rolls around on January 1. There’s no better than time than now to prepare your business for a brighter future. Set your business up for success now by revamping your financial reporting process so the big changes you’re looking to achieve are possible in 2019.

Why change your financial reporting process now?

Financial reports provide the data and insight from which all business decisions are made. For today’s finance teams, it is critical that these reports be accurate, easy to produce, and board-ready at a moment’s notice.

The report applications found in more ERP systems don’t cut it for today’s complex accounting needs. That is why partnering with a cloud-based solution provider is the first order of business to revamp your financial reporting process. A cloud-based solution that is specifically designed to integrate with your existing GL system and dramatically improve reporting processes makes it easy to improve upon your existing processes.

Still using FRx?

Microsoft retired its outdated FRx reporting solution over five years ago. If you’re of the many still using this outdated and retired solution, once FRx crashes, it’s too late. Don’t risk another financial close relying on unsupported legacy software.

Plan ahead

If you want to make a change to your 2019 financial reports, waiting until the last week of December is not the way to do it. If new software is what you’re after, start researching and building a case for it now. If process improvements are your plan, setting them in motion now will only help you as the new year draws closer.

How FYIsoft can help

A cloud-based solution like FYIsoft can help you meet your financial reporting goals for the new year.

For one, FYIsoft offers a FRx report conversion. With a familiar architecture that’s similar to FRx, FYIsoft’s cloud financial reporting software easily converts your FRx reports at the database level so the conversion process is accurate and consistent.

Furthermore, FYIsoft focuses on one thing: developing the best financial reporting software available without compromising the security of your core financial data.

The benefits include:

Faster period close can save up to five days, allowing more time for analysis
Easier consolidations, even for complex multi-company entities
Streamlined, accurate report distributions – automatically formatted every time
Secure, 24/7 access to transactional data, from anywhere, anytime

Start the new year off on the right foot. Contact FYIsoft today to learn more about how FYIsoft can help your business achieve its goals.

Why Are So Many Businesses Still Using Excel for their Financial Reporting Needs?

Microsoft Excel has been an industry standard for accountants since its release in the 1980s, but the program was never designed for the complex accounting needs of today’s business. Still, many organizations and accountants continue to use the tool in spite of cloud software that has been developed to address the many shortfalls of spreadsheet accounting.

Why are businesses still relying on Excel?

Excel is a source of comfort and familiarity to many, despite its shortcomings. It was one of the first tools of its time to offer comprehensive financial tracking–a trailblazer in its own right that allowed companies to phase out the paper trail in favor of a more streamlined electronic method.

Many have remained loyal to Excel, and while it has evolved over its years, it falls short in many aspects. Above all else, the Excel spreadsheet is still a manual tool, making way for manual errors. In the age of automation, cloud-based solutions provide much that Excel cannot.

What cloud-based software can bring to the table

Excel is a comfortable and familiar choice–but it’s not the best choice for modern accounting.

One arena that cloud-based software reigns supreme is in backing up data. With any software that is locally installed, there comes the risk of losing important data if the system should crash. Cloud-based data is stored on remote servers, providing data back-ups and enhanced security.

Additionally, cloud-based programs are browser-based, so any device with an internet connection can access the same data–24/7. This also ensures that everyone is working off the same numbers and not saving local versions of reports to their desktop. If everyone is working off a different version, it’s very difficult to determine whose version is accurate.

Cloud-based software is also built with reporting in mind. Excel users must build reports from scratch. It can be a very timely endeavor. Fortunately, reporting is simplified–both in creation and distribution–with cloud-based products.

Cost and infrastructure is another area that favors cloud-based software over local solutions like Excel. Cloud-based solutions don’t require local servers or hefty IT support–enabling accountants to advocate for themselves and allowing IT to provide exceptional service to other departments and needs.

Consider FYIsoft

If you’re thinking about dipping your toe in the water to supplement or replace your reliance on spreadsheet accounting, consider FYIsoft. Contact FYIsoft today to learn how a move to the cloud can benefit you so you can work smarter.

What Does it Mean to be SOC 2 Compliant?

Service Organization Control (SOC) reports were first introduced in 2011.

While there are three types of SOC reports, SOC 2 is the report that is most pertinent to technology and cloud computing entities in 2018. SOC 1 deals with financial transactions and SOC 3 is a public document that summarizes the SOC 2 report for public consumption.

What are SOC 2 reports?

The five criteria that comprise a SOC 2 report are: Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy.

1. Security

The security principle refers to protection of system resources against unauthorized access. Access controls help prevent potential system abuse, theft or unauthorized removal of data, misuse of software, and improper alteration or disclosure of information.
IT security tools such as network and web application firewalls, two-factor authentication and intrusion detection are useful in preventing security breaches that can lead to unauthorized access of systems and data.

2. Availability

The availability principle refers to the accessibility of the system, products or services as stipulated by a contract or service level agreement (SLA). As such, the minimum acceptable performance level for system availability is set by both parties.
This principle involves security-related criteria that may affect availability. Monitoring network performance and availability, site failover, and security incident handling are critical in this context.

3. Processing Integrity

The processing integrity principle addresses whether or not a system achieves its purpose (i.e., delivers the right data at the right price at the right time). Accordingly, data processing must be complete, valid, accurate, timely and authorized.

4. Confidentiality

Data is considered confidential if its access and disclosure is restricted to a specified set of persons or organizations. Examples may include data intended only for company personnel, as well as business plans, intellectual property, internal price lists and other types of sensitive financial information.

Encryption is an important control for protecting confidentiality during transmission. Network and application firewalls, together with rigorous access controls, can be used to safeguard information being processed or stored on computer systems.

5. Privacy

The privacy principle addresses the system’s collection, use, retention, disclosure and disposal of personal information in conformity with an organization’s privacy notice, as well as with criteria set forth in the AICPA’s generally accepted privacy principles (GAPP).

Personal identifiable information (PII) refers to details that can distinguish an individual (e.g., name, address, Social Security number). Some personal data related to health, race, sexuality and religion is also considered sensitive and generally requires an extra level of protection. Controls must be put in place to protect all PII from unauthorized access.

SOC 2 Auditing

SOC 2 provides flexibility to the data provider on just how they’d like to meet the criteria. This makes SOC 2 reports unique to each company; providers review the requirements, determine which are relevant to their business, then write controls to satiate those requirements. SOC 2 auditing is simply an auditor’s opinion of how well the company’s controls are fitting the requirements. Being that auditing is more subjective in this case, the auditor’s reputation is imperative.

The importance of SOC 2 compliance

SOC 2 is extremely important and relevant right now because the public is especially interested in trusting data providers with confidential information. A clean SOC 2 report indicates that the organization can be trusted to provide compliant and secure hosting.

For organizations looking to outsource data storage or finance information, SOC 2 compliance is a must. If you are seeking a vendor that is unwilling to share their SOC 2 reports, consider finding a new vendor.

FYIsoft and Algorithm, Inc., Team to Provide Macola ERP Customers Stronger Financial Reporting Solution

FYIsoft, a provider of cloud financial reporting solutions, announces a strategic partnership with Algorithm, a technology services company dedicated to helping businesses improve business processes and maximize the value of their ERP investments in Macola and Acumatica. The partnership will initially focus on bringing more modern, powerful financial reporting capabilities to Macola users.

“FYIsoft provides the ideal solution we’ve been looking for to meet the growing need for stronger reporting capabilities among Macola users,” said Michael Oswalt, CEO of Algorithm. “We are very pleased to partner with FYIsoft to offer a faster controlled solution that will make users’ lives better.”

Like many report writers in the market, Macola’s offering is an Excel-based reporting solution that adequately serves small companies that don’t have multiple reporting units to accommodate. But for companies with more complex reporting needs, such as consolidating multiple entities, divisions or products, or preparing financial statements for auditors and SEC filings, Excel-based reporting can be a tedious, manual process that poses significant risks. Key advantages of FYIsoft’s reporting solution include:

Easier Multi-Entity Consolidations: Once reports are set up, an infinite number of report consolidations can be completed with the click of a button.
Speed: With FYIsoft, the reporting process can be completed within minutes, saving up to weeks of time during the financial close process.
Distribution: FYIsoft’s report distributions are automated to deliver the right reports to the right people – all perfectly formatted straight out of the system.

“We are excited to welcome Algorithm into our strategic partner network, and the new opportunities that our Macola integration will bring to our joint customer base,” said FYIsoft President, Jennie Cheng. “Our focus is on making it easy for companies to add more sophisticated financial reporting capabilities to their existing ERP systems, so that they can gain tremendous efficiencies without the costs or burdens of replacing their entire ERP. Algorithm shares our vision and our commitment to meet this growing need in the marketplace.”

Macola is the latest general ledger integration for FYIsoft, which integrates with dozens of systems including Sage, NetSuite, Acumatica, Epicor, Flexi, and many more.

How to Eliminate Risk and Increase Security with Financial Reporting

Eliminating risk and increasing security with financial reporting is more important than ever in today’s accounting landscape. Financial reports empower you to make sound business decisions–and generating, packaging, and distributing reports quickly allows for extra time for review and analysis to do so.

Fortunately, adopting a cloud-based accounting solution can help you accomplish just that.

Eliminating risk and increasing security

Moving away from locally-installed accounting software can help tremendously when it comes to eliminating risk and increasing security. Cloud-based solutions offer enhanced security by storing data on remote servers rather than on-site servers. With remote data storage, back-ups, and encryption, data is more secure than ever before.

Additionally, cloud-based accounting solutions enhance data integrity. With automation and 24/7 access through any device with an internet connection, the data view is always the most current and up-to-date available. Gone are the days of emailing Excel spreadsheets, altering the data, and then saving them locally–and then comparing the numbers against your colleague’s own altered version of the same report.

Other benefits of cloud-based accounting software

To accelerate productivity, your financial reporting solution must provide an intuitive user experience that addresses your individual needs. It should also embody a host of powerful features and capabilities not found in the majority of less sophisticated, out-of-box reporting solutions on the market today.

Leverage the ability to customize and distribute a variety of financial reports based on the information relevant to the recipients’ needs. From one consolidated report, you can separate the information by department, regions, geography, management level, etc., and only share the specific data that is needed. This minimizes risk and enables you to streamline the close process knowing your data is accurate.

Consider FYIsoft for your needs

FYIsoft increases the relevancy and value of your financial reports and enables staff to gain the insight needed to run your business more efficiently. Its features are a natural fit to help you eliminate risk and increase security.

With a software solution like FYIsoft, you can expect:

Anytime, Anywhere Report Access
Flexible Deployment Options
Currency Translation
Multi-Company and Data Source Consolidations
Presentation-Quality/Multi-Dimensional Financial Reports
Drill-Down to Transaction Details
Maintain and Manage a Report Library
Zero Suppression
Side-by-Side Balance Sheets
GL Integration
Advanced Report Distribution
Audit Ability for Increased Accuracy
User-Friendly Report Concepts (Rows, Columns, Orgs)
Rolling Forecasts
Flexible Report Design
Account Collections
Custom Security Controls
Pull Forecasts From Excel
FRx Report Conversion

Contact FYIsoft today to learn more about how FYIsoft can help your business achieve its goals.

3 Repercussions of Having the Wrong Data in Your Quarterly Reports

Your organization’s leadership expects that your quarterly reports are consistent and accurate. The most critical role of your accounting team is the ability to produce accurate reports whenever they’re needed. Developing, producing, and distributing these reports must be proven and effective because the health of your business depends on it.

In spite of this, mistakes happen. Data can be inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent. It isn’t just a headache for your accounting team–it can have critical effects on your business far beyond that.

Below are the top three repercussions of having the wrong data in your quarterly reports.

Unsound business decisions

Your executive board uses the information from your quarterly reports to make informed business decisions. If that data is unknowingly incorrect or incomplete, this can have devastating effects on the business decisions you make. Especially if sales, profits, and losses are inaccurately recorded, how can you ensure that revenue is on track?

Tax fees, penalties, and audits

If your data isn’t compliant, you could face tax fees, penalties, and audits. This puts your business in a vulnerable spot–not only are your executives potentially making unsound business decisions based on inaccurate data but now you are paying fines on top of it. This affects your reputation and your bottom line and is avoidable by taking the right steps to ensure data integrity.

Support for your company depends on it

Your advisors, vendors, investors, and even your customers depend on the accuracy and transparency of your quarterly reports. If your reports are inaccurate or incomplete, you may lose out on crucial support and profits. Just as no man is an island, no business is either–it is this support that helps you keep your doors open and stay profitable, so don’t risk it.

How can FYIsoft help?

FYIsoft focuses on one thing: developing the best financial reporting software available. By relying on FYIsoft, you can trust that your financial reports are accurate and compliant. Integrated with your existing general ledger, FYIsoft provides all the benefits of the cloud without compromising the security of your core financial data.

Benefits include:

Faster period close can save up to five days, allowing more time for analysis
Easier consolidations, even for complex multi-company entities
Streamlined, accurate report distributions – automatically formatted every time
Secure, 24/7 access to transactional data, from anywhere, anytime

Contact FYIsoft today to learn more about how FYIsoft can help your business achieve its goals.

Why Accountants Should No Longer Be Scared of the Cloud

Cloud accounting software provides several benefits to accounting professionals, yet some accountants are still wary of embracing the cloud. While cloud-based systems introduce a certain amount of unfamiliarity and risk, the rewards make the leap of faith worth it.

Why should your organization embrace the cloud?

Cloud-based accounting solutions provide several benefits. Among the multitude of benefits are improved access and mobility, increased security, intuitive interfaces and enhanced ease of use, and faster period closes.

Improved access and mobility

Cloud-based solutions are easy to access. Rather than relying on software locally installed on your hard drive, you can access the solution from any web browser of any device with an active internet connection. In today’s remote workplace, this on-the-go functionality keeps everyone current with the latest and most significant data and reporting–from the office, from the airport, and even from the beach. And, when everyone is working off of the same data, there is less chance of data discrepancy between departments, leading to enhanced data integrity.

Increased security

Additionally, browser access rather than local installation leads to increased security. One aspect of this security is redundancy. If an on-site server crashes, you may lose critical data. Cloud data, however, is backed up. Many accountants falsely believe that local hardware is more secure than cloud software when in actuality data that is stored on remote servers is less prone to attack than local data. The lack of physical, on-premises access makes it much more difficult for third parties to locate and tap into data. Additionally, multi-tiered levels of defense and encryption are implemented by cloud service providers.

Intuitive interfaces and enhanced ease of use

Cloud systems are built with the user in mind. Many cloud-based accounting solution providers use drag-and-drop report builders, making it easier than ever to run reports–and save them for future use. In fact, with mobile access, the data is always just a few clicks away, and permissions can be set to protect data and users. It’s easier than ever to gain access to exactly the information you’re seeking.

Faster period closes

Closing the books is stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. With automation, enhanced reporting capabilities, and easier report distribution, it’s easier–and faster–than ever to close. This not only gains your team access to critical data days ahead of time, but also gives time back to the accounting team to focus on analysis, strategy, and advisory services. When your accountants have time back to do more, your firm stays relevant in this competitive marketplace.

Consider FYIsoft for your cloud accounting needs

FYIsoft can help you transition to the cloud. Realize faster period closes, easier consolidations, streamlined reports, and secure 24/7 access. Contact FYIsoft today to learn how a move to the cloud can benefit you.

Is Trump Trying to Get Rid of Quarterly Financial Reporting?

President Donald Trump recently proposed a scaling back of the frequency in which publicly traded companies are required to report financial results. Currently required to report earnings quarterly, the new system would require only semi-annual reports. This would be a drastic change to the longstanding tradition of quarterly reporting set by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the 1930s.

The proposal tweeted in August, was prompted by a conversation with “some of the world’s top business leaders,” one of which was later identified as Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, about what would improve business and the U.S. job market. Nooyi is stepping down as CEO of PepsiCo in October 2018.

Defenders of the proposal believe that the semi-annual system would allow for greater flexibility and allow companies to save money.

Some believe that the quarterly system is costly and distracts companies from creating and focusing on long-term strategy, instead of putting the focus on short-term performance and stock price gains, while others believe that the quarterly system sets a precedent for transparency and reduces the incentive for insider trading and other unethical practices.

The SEC, established during the Great Depression in the 1930s, has required public companies to report on profit and revenues every three months since the regulation was first established in the ‘30s as a means of giving investors confidence. As recently as 2016, the SEC considered doing away with the quarterly reporting requirement, so the president’s proposal was not entirely out of the blue.

Jay Clayton, SEC chairman, made a statement following Trump’s proposal indicating that the SEC “continues to study” the rules and requirements for publicly-owned companies.

While the future frequency of financial reporting for public companies is yet to be determined, proponents on both side have been weighing in since Trump’s proposal in mid-August. Though companies would be freer to focus on long-term growth, critics are concerned with earnings manipulation and reduced transparency.

No matter the frequency of your financial reports, FYIsoft can help

While the U.S. and the SEC make determinations on the right frequency for reports to be disseminated to the public, you can focus on your organization’s reporting. With automation and cloud-based solutions comes enhanced data integrity, efficient reporting, and speedy report distribution.

Contact FYIsoft today to learn how a move to the cloud can benefit your organization and enhance your reporting.