Bridging S&OP and S&OE for a Connected Supply Chain 4 Apr 7:52 AM (yesterday, 7:52 am)
Navigating the supply chain is a delicate process of overseeing and managing constantly moving and interconnecting parts. Two key components are Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) and Sales and Operations Execution (S&OE). By making a plan with S&OP and executing it with S&OE, the two steps complement each other to streamline supply chain and business management.
Because of the vast scale and complexity of the supply chain, it can be easy for S&OP and S&OE to become bottlenecked, increasing the risk of delays and unforeseen costs. When faced with these S&OP and S&OE challenges, how do you bridge supply chain gaps to ensure on-time-in-full (OTIF) delivery?
S&OP and S&OE Defined – Complementary but Distinct
S&OP and S&OE are both crucial to ensuring smooth sailing through the supply chain. What sets them apart, and why is it so important for them to work in harmony?
S&OP focuses on the strategic and tactical alignment of demand, supply, and financial planning. It involves collaboration across multiple departments such as finance, marketing, and operations, to create feasible and profitable plans for the medium to long term. Supported by tools like AI and predictive analytics, S&OP ensures businesses can adapt to shifting demands while achieving strategic goals.
S&OE, on the other hand, operates in the chaos of the day-to-day. It manages real-time disruptions like supply delays, sudden stock shortages, or unexpected shifts in customer demand. Acting as the crucial link between strategic planning and day-to-day operations, S&OE ensures tactical plans are executed effectively to keep the supply chain on track.
While S&OP provides the long-term vision and strategy, supply chain disruptions are inevitable. That’s where S&OE steps in—to address immediate challenges and ensure execution stays aligned with the strategic goals. Recent technological changes such as the advancement of generative AI technology have transformed the way we track and evaluate the supply chain, but geopolitical struggles, tariffs, and shifts in global regulations all have the potential to impact the way the supply chain operates moving forward. You may not be able to predict trouble in the Suez, but you can navigate supply chain issues for your organization with effective S&OP and S&OE.
| Aspect | S&OP | S&OE |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Long-term strategic planning | Short-term tactical execution |
| Goals | Align demand, supply, and financial planning | Address real-time disruptions and imbalances |
| Time Horizon | 3 months to several years | Immediate to a few months |
| Frequency | Monthly meetings | Weekly or more frequent meetings |
| Key Outputs | Medium- to long-term plan for supply chain goals | Execution of operational plans to meet targets |
When you experience supply chain snags, that’s where S&OE kicks into gear. When the supply chain doesn’t move as planned, S&OE ensures you can expertly pivot to ensure on-time delivery. Data is an important element of ensuring supply chain success–clear visibility into inventory and shipping status will ensure you can continue to make informed decisions even during times of supply chain instability.
Strengths and Limitations of AI for the Supply Chain
AI has transformed supply chain management, offering powerful tools for data analysis and planning. Particularly, AI provides strategic support for high-level planning in S&OP. Key benefits of AI for the supply chain include:
- Enhancing S&OP through data pattern recognition
- Sensing future product demand
- Long-term predictions
However, AI isn’t without its shortcomings–as advanced as AI technology has become, it often falls short in addressing the immediate, dynamic demands of S&OE. S&OE requires interpreting nuanced, process-level data and addressing immediate exceptions. While AI excels in recognizing patterns for S&OP, it struggles with the quick, flexible decisions that S&OE requires. AI can make predictions based on patterns in your existing data, but it lacks the creative ability to think outside of the box and come up with the type of innovative, flexible decisions required of S&OE processes.
The good news is you can bridge the gap between the strengths of AI-driven strategy and agile, real-time execution with the right tools. By bridging the strategic foresight of S&OP with the agile problem-solving of S&OE, businesses can create a resilient supply chain that is both proactive and adaptable. This alignment is essential for managing complexity in today’s fast-paced market and ensuring optimal performance.
A Unified Approach for S&OP and S&OE
When S&OP and S&OE align, you gain control over the supply chain, improve service, and cut costs. But how do you avoid bottlenecks? Angles for SAP can help you align these functions by transforming ERP data into actionable insights across both strategic and operational domains.
With Angles for SAP, you can tackle supply chain issues before they spiral into costly delays. With Angles for SAP, you’re able to quickly identify delays, resolve siloed processes, and eliminate transactional errors. With Angles’ intuitive interface, prebuilt analytics templates, and cross-process intelligence, you can uncover hidden insights that are accessible even to non-technical users.
Angles for SAP takes the guesswork out of S&OP and S&OE:
- Avoid late deliveries by identifying bottlenecks across procurement, production, and logistics.
- Optimize stock levels by highlighting dead inventory or polluted orders.
- Improve operational KPIs by enabling teams to trace issues to their root causes and act quickly.
Want insider tips for smoother supply chains? Tune into our on-demand webinar to ensure on-time in-full deliveries for supply chain excellence.
Ensuring On-Time In-Full Deliveries for Supply Chain Excellence
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New Features Improve Real-Time Performance for Hubble Web and Desktop Users 31 Mar 8:00 PM (5 days ago)
Does your team have the latest, cutting-edge upgrades for reporting in their hands? Can they communicate and collaborate via a central platform? Are they enabled to flexibly format reports to fit different target audiences?
Hubble’s latest version, 24.4, introduces Doc Assist, which will save time and keep you focused on tasks by providing instant product assistance through an in-app chat. Using an in-app chat window, you’ll be able to ask Doc Assist natural language questions and get highly relevant answers in moments. No more losing time or focus by switching back and forth between applications. By combining proprietary documentation with advanced AI technology, you’re empowered to access precise product insights without ever leaving the Hubble application.
Follow along as we navigate through how our latest version of Hubble featuring Doc Assist takes your reporting to the next level so that your team achieves its goals.
It’s Time to Move on From Native Reporting Tools
Hubble remains the ideal reporting solution for JD Edwards (JDE) and Oracle EBS, working with and complementing Oracle native reporting tools. Traditional tools often force users to spend time defining and categorizing the data they need, and then manually exporting it into Microsoft Excel, where users are compelled to manipulate and format it to create their reports.
Do these challenges sound familiar?
- Your month-end close process takes days or weeks to complete: You’re likely spending more time consolidating data than you are on regular financial processes.
- You’re making strategic business decisions without accurate information: Manually exporting data into Excel to create reports and analyze data is not just inefficient, it’s also prone to errors.
- You don’t have the technical skills to build your reports or dashboards: Out-of-the-box reporting tools provided with JDE and Oracle EBS tend to require heavy IT involvement to customize.
Hubble Delivers Top-Level JDE and Oracle EBS Performance
Hubble by insightsoftware will provide you with a deep understanding of your business systems. Gain real-time access to your JDE or Oracle E-Business EBS ERP data and analyze it alongside other sources of data. Users will love the automatically populated reports for streamlined analysis, without all the complexity. Finance teams can see up-to-the-minute revenue forecasts, while operations teams can track production volumes for the current shift against daily targets.
Get up and running fast:
- Easy to install, easier to use
- Time to value in 1-2 days
- Minimal IT impact
Hubble Stays Cutting-Edge With New Version
Now we can dig into what’s new with Hubble. Gain access to our newest enhancements for Hubble version 24.4, which aim to increase productivity and ease of use so you can get the most out of your Hubble investment. New, cutting-edge benefits for our Hubble Desktop and Hubble Web customers include:
New Features for Existing Hubble Desktop users:
What’s in it for Hubble Desktop customers? Faster, Easier Access to Useful Tools and Information. Our latest highlights include optimized system performance and streamlined workflows with improved logging management tools. By granting admins granular control over user activity, the Hubble experience has been enhanced significantly. Key benefits include:
- Identifying and addressing performance issues: Quickly pinpoint system slowdowns by filtering logs by machine name and username.
- Monitoring user behavior: Easily track Hubble usage patterns to identify excessive logins or potential security risks.
- Saving time and effort: The display of available machines/devices in the Log Stream Configuration dialog streamlines the process of configuring log streams, saving time and reducing errors.
New Features for Existing Hubble Web users:
What’s in it for Hubble Web customers? Hubble’s new distribution interface offers a fresh look and feel, making it simpler for users to manage their tasks. This update allows users to view all their scheduled distributions in the distributions tab for better organization and to quickly see if a distribution is running, paused, or complete.
Next Steps for Your Next-Level Hubble Experience
Hubble for JD Edwards and Oracle EBS is easy to install and easy to use, getting you up and running in less than an hour. Access live JD Edwards or Oracle EBS data and generate accurate custom analysis without IT support. Free online training will get you up to speed so you can use dozens of pre-built reports immediately and easily answer ad hoc requests.
Find out more about what’s new with Hubble by tuning into our on-demand webinar.
Maximize Your Oracle JDE Data: What’s New for Hubble
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Navigating the Choice: Buy, Build, or Partner 31 Mar 1:44 PM (5 days ago)
So you’re looking for a reporting solution for Oracle. Out of the box, Oracle ERPs feature different reporting options like Oracle Financial Reporting Studio and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE). However, Oracle’s native reports don’t cover the full gamut of an organization’s reporting needs while OBIEE requires technical expertise to operate and maintain.
As you look for an alternative, where do you start? When faced with different options like building technology from scratch, buying the right tool, or going through a partner, the process can be overwhelming. Here’s your guide to navigating the choice.
Buy
Oracle-driven finance teams are overwhelmed by data. A significant portion of time is wasted with manual processes. Our research shows that some tasks, such as financial system maintenance (43%), management report generation (38%), or audit preparation/support (36%), are highly automated amongst Oracle-driven teams, often using tools like Oracle Financial Reporting Studio. However, many other tasks still require a high level of manual effort due to limitations in automation, increasing inefficiencies while running the risk of human error.
Shaping the Future: Conquering Finance Challenges in 2025: Oracle Edition
Download NowSome tasks, such as account reconciliation, ad-hoc custom reports, or data entry, are still conducted manually. The lack of automation exacerbates the burden of time-consuming processes that can’t be automated with Oracle-native reporting tools.
Purchasing financial and operational reporting tools is a direct answer to these challenges. Buying an automated reporting tool allows users to implement a modern, connected reporting environment to Oracle that automates tedious and error-prone processes.
When searching for a tool, look for one that not only covers typically recurring reports, but self-service, ad hoc reporting capabilities as well. That way, you can save time on manual work while answering questions quickly and efficiently, even if that information is only accessible by generating a custom report.
Customized dashboards are also a helpful feature in a reporting solution. Customized dashboards enable you to see regularly updated information straight from Oracle in a way that’s clear to read and communicate to stakeholders. Search for a solution with pre-built business views to make it easier to explore data, solve business problems, and make more informed decisions.
Build
Larger, enterprise businesses have unique needs to fulfill when it comes to financial and operational reporting, many of which are hard to satisfy with an out-of-the-box reporting solution. For these organizations, building a custom solution is an attractive option. Building a reporting solution comes with a slew of benefits, for example:
- Reporting tailored to your organization’s specific needs
- High levels of customizability
- Easy access to organizational data
While building a custom solution ensures that you can tailor a solution to your business use cases, it comes at a significant time and monetary cost. insightsoftware and Hanover Research recently found that nearly half of organizations that build their own analytics devote 40%-59% of their software development budget to building and supporting their custom systems.
Embedded Analytics Insights for 2024
Download NowThis leaves only half of their IT team’s time to dedicate to other value-added tasks, leaving little time for maintaining critical technical infrastructure and reporting requests from the finance team. And finance teams actively seek self-service in their reporting capabilities–in a study of Oracle-based finance teams by insightsoftware and Hanover Research, 78% of Oracle teams felt over-reliant on IT.
While building custom reporting can create a comprehensive system for your Oracle reporting, it is possible to fill even the most specific needs with out-of-the-box reporting software. When searching for a solution, look for one that has features like self-service reporting, effortless integration with Oracle, and simplified reporting that anyone in your team can operate regardless of technical expertise.
Partner
In the search for an Oracle reporting solution, you don’t have to go about it alone. Many organizations go through partners to find the right fit, whether that’s in the form of a single product or a mix of different technologies. Organizations benefit from strategic partnerships–solutions partners can help throughout the buying process and after with continued training and support.
However, this comes with its fair share of challenges, chief among them integration with existing systems. In a recent survey of organizations that purchased financial planning and analysis (FP&A) software through a solutions partner, 99% of organizations relied on their ERP and other systems in tandem, such as customer relationship management and human resources management systems. As such, they need a reporting solution that can work with not only their ERP, but with the other systems they have in place as well.
Buying through multiple partnerships add another layer of complication–whereas 100% found advantages to buying through a partner, 95% found disadvantages to buying through multiple partners.
When buying a reporting solution through a partner, find one where you can purchase a one-stop shop for Oracle reporting. They should excel at tailoring solutions to address your team’s specific business needs, pointing you to technology that can easily integrate with Oracle while giving you a bird’s-eye view of your data. A partner with a knowledgeable sales and technical team can empower your organization with clear communication and expert guidance throughout the process of adopting new technology.
Finding the right reporting solution for Oracle isn’t a cut and dry process–building, buying, and partnerships all come with benefits and challenges. And as the data landscape becomes increasingly more complex as technology continues to evolve, a robust reporting solution for your Oracle ERP becomes even more critical.
insightsoftware’s Reporting for Oracle helps simplify the process. Reporting for Oracle delivers a contextual, process-rich business data model, a library of pre-built, no-code business reports, and a high-performance process analytics engine for Oracle Business Applications, OCA, or EBS.
This integrated solution supports both Excel and your BI solution to help you unlock your organization’s data in the tool that works for you and gain actionable insights to act decisively in an uncertain and quickly changing world.
Ready to learn more? Tune into our on-demand webinar to learn more about navigating the choice to build, buy, or partner.
From Strategy to Success: How to Choose the Right Oracle Reporting Approach
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The Future is Leasing: How EZLease Lessor Simplifies PaaS Accounting 31 Mar 1:35 PM (5 days ago)
Businesses are moving away from the traditional “sell it and forget it” model, and it’s no surprise. The rapid shift toward leasing and subscription-based services—often referred to as Product-as-a-Service (PaaS)—is changing the landscape of how goods and services are offered. But while this shift opens doors for innovation, it also brings a complex web of accounting challenges that can slow down growth and expose companies to compliance risks.
PaaS offers you the flexibility to access the latest technology without heavy upfront costs, paying in smaller, manageable amounts. It’s a win for your business too, as it creates a steady stream of recurring revenue and the ability to bundle additional services for more profit. As Blake Mulligan, Director of Solutions Consulting at insightsoftware, puts it: “Leasing breaks down large purchases into manageable payments, lowering the barrier to entry and securing long-term revenue.”
But while PaaS might simplify transactions, it can complicate accounting. The complexity of managing leases, tracking compliance with accounting standards, and ensuring accurate financial reporting creates a major headache for finance teams.
Understanding Lease/Lessor Accounting and Compliance
Lease accounting can get complicated with different lease types—operating, sales-type, and direct financing—each having its own rules and reporting requirements. Factor in the added challenge of staying compliant with ASC 842, IFRS 16, and GASB 87, and it’s clear: relying on outdated systems or manual processes simply won’t work. These standards demand precision and up-to-date tracking to avoid errors, penalties, and misstatements in your financial reports.
To keep up, you need a modern, automated lessor accounting solution that handles it all—ensuring compliance and streamlining your operations. These tools reduce the risk of human error, give you clear financial insights, and save time by automating everything from lease tracking to generating detailed reports. With the right solution in place, you’ll not only stay compliant but also drive better financial decisions, improving efficiency and setting your business up for long-term success.
Your Guide to Lessor Accounting
Download NowKey Benefits of EZLease Lessor
EZLease Lessor by insightsoftware is your go-to solution for seamless lessor accounting. More than just software, it’s a strategic partner that automates processes to keep you compliant, organized, and audit-ready. With features like automated journal entries, centralized lease data, and robust reporting, it reduces manual errors, simplifies financial analysis, and ensures compliance with ASC 842, IFRS 16, and GASB 87. Plus, it provides detailed insights into leased assets, profitability, and cash flow, empowering finance teams to make smarter, data-driven decisions while staying efficient and audit-ready.
EZLease Lessor offers:
Comprehensive Lease Lifecycle Management: From inception to termination, EZLease Lessor covers every stage of the lease/lessor lifecycle, ensuring that each phase is handled efficiently and accurately. This includes managing complex back-to-back agreements, providing clear visibility into contract terms, payments, and adjustments throughout the entire lease term. By automating these processes, it reduces the administrative burden and ensures that all lease/lessor data is updated in real-time.
Disclosure Reporting: Generates all necessary financial disclosure reports to meet regulatory requirements with ease, including ASC 842, IFRS 16, and GASB 87. EZLease Lessor not only simplifies the preparation of these reports but also ensures they are accurate, timely, and compliant. This helps businesses avoid penalties and audit risks while providing transparent and detailed insights into lease obligations, making it easier to communicate with stakeholders.
Asset-Level Tracking: Provides deep visibility into leased assets, enabling precise tracking and analysis of each individual asset’s financial performance. Whether it’s for depreciation, maintenance, or utilization, EZLease Lessor gives businesses a comprehensive view of asset status, helping to optimize asset management and identify opportunities for cost savings or operational improvements. The detailed tracking also aids in forecasting and budgeting, providing a clear understanding of the total cost of ownership.
Seamless ERP Integration: Integrates effortlessly with ERP systems, ensuring smooth data flow across financial platforms and eliminating the need for manual data entry or duplicate entries. This integration ensures that lease/lessor information is synchronized with other business functions, such as procurement, finance, and reporting, streamlining operations and enhancing decision-making. With seamless data exchange, businesses can maintain consistency and accuracy in their financial systems, improving efficiency and reducing the risk of errors. Navigating the Complexity of PaaS
PaaS: Here to Stay
The rise of PaaS is transforming how businesses generate revenue, deepen customer relationships, and stay competitive. But this transformation introduces new challenges in lease/lessor accounting and financial reporting. As businesses expand their PaaS offerings, the need for a structured approach to lease/lessor accounting becomes crucial.
Investing in EZLease Lessor ensures that businesses can automate, comply, and integrate seamlessly with existing financial systems. With better visibility, reduced errors, and streamlined operations, companies can scale their PaaS programs confidently, focusing on growth and innovation rather than getting bogged down in accounting complexities.
By adopting EZLease Lessor by insightsoftware, businesses are setting themselves up for long-term success—navigating the evolving world of PaaS with confidence and efficiency. Learn more.
EZLease Lessor: Effortless Accounting
Download NowThe post The Future is Leasing: How EZLease Lessor Simplifies PaaS Accounting appeared first on insightsoftware.
The Case for Implementing an Autonomous Yet Integrated Tax Solution With Longview Tax 31 Mar 1:22 PM (5 days ago)
The efficiencies and financial gains targeted by enterprise organizations increasingly depend on fintech solutions that streamline financial activities. Enterprise tax software is a key component of these efforts, automating tax processes, optimizing task management, providing advanced analytics, and ensuring compliance. But as tax regulations evolve and finance departments operate under growing complexity, traditional software solutions that require heavy IT involvement or manual oversight are no longer sustainable. An autonomous tax solution is needed to eliminate inefficiencies, reduce risks, and enable real-time decision-making.
The Case for an Autonomous Tax Solution
Today’s CFOs understand that tax activities don’t exist in isolation from the broader finance function. Just as budgeting, financial consolidation, planning, and balance sheet management are core to financial operations, tax management must integrate seamlessly within a CFO’s tech stack. However, the rapid expansion of enterprise technology presents significant integration challenges.
Without an autonomous tax solution, organizations face:
- Increased IT Burden: Traditional tax software often requires constant IT support to configure, update, and integrate with other financial tools.
- Manual Data Handling Risks: Errors and inefficiencies from manual data transfers can lead to compliance risks, costly penalties, and inaccurate financial reporting.
- Delayed Insights: Reactive tax planning hinders a company’s ability to adapt to changing regulations and optimize tax positions in real time.
- Limited Scalability: Legacy solutions struggle to support growing global tax complexities and the need for seamless multi-system communication.
An autonomous tax solution mitigates these risks by providing real-time automation, AI-driven insights, and seamless integration across your finance ecosystem—without the need for extensive IT intervention.
Key Features and Capabilities of Enterprise Tax Software
To fully support modern tax operations, an autonomous tax solution must offer:
Automated Provisioning
Provisioning is critical for projecting full-year tax scenarios based on real-time data. A manual approach is time-consuming and prone to errors. Autonomous tax software automates data validation and provisioning tasks, ensuring accurate projections and better financial decision-making.
Intelligent Tax Planning
Scenario planning is essential for adapting to regulatory changes. An autonomous tax solution integrates with corporate financial data, enabling proactive tax strategy adjustments. AI-driven predictive analytics enhance planning accuracy, allowing organizations to optimize tax positions in advance.
Global Tax Transparency & Compliance
Multinational corporations face complex tax requirements across jurisdictions. An autonomous tax system ensures compliance by automating reporting, tracking regulatory changes, and facilitating cross-border tax analysis.
Task Management & Workflow Automation
Managing tax activities efficiently requires structured workflows. Autonomous tax software automates task assignments, deadline tracking, and collaboration tools, ensuring tax obligations are met without last-minute rushes or compliance risks.
AI-Powered Reporting & Analytics
Tax data is a valuable source of insights, but extracting meaningful trends manually is time-intensive. Autonomous tax solutions leverage AI to generate real-time reports, identify inefficiencies, and optimize tax strategies, transforming tax from a cost center into a strategic asset.
Seamless Integration with Payroll, HR, and Finance Systems
Disconnected tax systems create bottlenecks. An autonomous tax solution integrates effortlessly with payroll, HR, and ERP systems, ensuring tax compliance is aligned with compensation structures and broader financial planning.
Centralized Data & Single Source of Truth
Data inconsistencies can lead to costly errors. Autonomous tax solutions centralize tax data, ensuring accuracy and consistency across finance systems while minimizing reconciliation efforts.
Complex Tax Calculations With a Single Source of Truth
Download NowIntegrating an Autonomous Tax Suite into Your Tech Stack
Managing a fragmented tech stack increases integration risks and maintenance burdens. An autonomous tax suite simplifies this complexity by:
- Reducing the number of separate tax tools requiring integration
- Streamlining data flow across finance and compliance functions
- Offering self-configuring features that adapt to evolving regulatory requirements
A best-in-class autonomous tax suite minimizes manual oversight, allowing tax teams to focus on strategy rather than administrative tasks.
Improving Tax & IT Alignment with Autonomous Solutions
Adopting an autonomous tax platform reduces IT dependency by offering low-code/no-code customization options. Tax professionals can modify features, create reports, and adjust workflows without extensive IT involvement. Additionally, AI-powered automation enhances data transparency, improving collaboration between tax and IT teams while delivering real-time insights into financial performance.
Conclusion
Some organizations consider building custom tax platforms in-house to meet their specific needs. However, developing and maintaining proprietary software is costly, time-consuming, and difficult to scale. In contrast, autonomous tax solutions like Longview Tax by insightsoftware offer rapid deployment, seamless integration, and intelligent automation, ensuring compliance and efficiency without burdening IT teams.
For today’s finance leaders, investing in an autonomous tax solution isn’t just a matter of improving efficiency—it’s about future-proofing tax operations to drive agility, compliance, and strategic growth.
Learn more about Longview Tax by insightsoftware here.
Achieving a Fast Close with Efficient Month-End Best Practices
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insightsoftware Recognized in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Financial Close and Consolidation Solutions 31 Mar 11:59 AM (5 days ago)
insightsoftware is proud to announce that we have been recognized in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant
for Financial Close and Consolidation Solutions (FCCS) for the second consecutive year. This recognition reflects our ongoing commitment to delivering powerful, innovative solutions that empower the Office of the CFO to drive strategic business decisions with confidence. In case you want to.
Understanding the Magic Quadrant
The Gartner Magic Quadrant provides a graphical representation of how technology providers are positioned based on their completeness of vision and ability to execute. It helps business leaders evaluate providers in a rapidly evolving market and make informed decisions about which solutions best meet their needs.
Niche Players, like insightsoftware, offer highly targeted and effective solutions that cater to specific business needs. A Niche Player’s strength lies in specialized capabilities, such as automating complex financial processes or enhancing tax compliance. These solutions are often designed to integrate seamlessly with existing ERP systems, providing focused value and deep functional expertise.
Our Financial Close and Consolidation Solutions
Our recognition in the Magic Quadrant reflects the strength and value of our close and consolidation portfolio:
Close and Consolidation
Longview Close
Longview Close by insightsoftware is a powerful financial consolidation and close management solution designed for large enterprises. It automates and streamlines the financial close process, enhancing accuracy and reducing manual effort. With robust integration capabilities and an intuitive user experience, Longview Close ensures faster, more accurate reporting and compliance with accounting standards.
IDL Konsis
IDL Konsis by insightsoftware supports midmarket companies with efficient and accurate financial consolidation. It automates data collection, consolidation, and reporting, enabling organizations to generate reliable financial statements quickly. IDL Konsis simplifies complex consolidation processes, improving efficiency and reducing errors.
Clausion Consolidation
Clausion Consolidation by insightsoftware, designed for businesses based in the Nordics, offers specialized support for complex financial consolidation across multiple entities. It provides a comprehensive view of financial performance, ensuring compliance with local and international accounting standards while simplifying reporting and analysis.
Disclosure Management
Certent Disclosure Management (CDM)
Certent Disclosure Managment by insightsoftware streamlines the creation and management of accurate and compliant reports for internal and external stakeholders. Whether preparing annual reports, sustainability reports, or regulatory filings, CDM ensures consistency and reduces the risk of errors. When integrated with Longview Close or IDL Konsis, it accelerates the close-to-disclose cycle, improving efficiency and reducing reporting time.
Tax Reporting
Longview Tax
Longview Tax by insightsoftware automates and optimizes the tax lifecycle, from data collection to compliance and reporting. It supports complex tax regulations, including Country-by-Country Reporting and BEPS Pillar Two, ensuring accurate and efficient tax management as part of the financial close process.
Longview Transfer Pricing
Longview Transfer Pricing by insightsoftware enables businesses to manage operational transfer pricing effectively. It provides a centralized platform for defining policies, monitoring performance, and adjusting pricing strategies. This solution ensures data accuracy, reduces manual effort, and aligns transfer pricing with business objectives and market conditions.
Elevate Your Tax Function Into a Strategic Asset With Longview Tax
Download NowLooking Forward With JustPerform
A new solution to the insightsoftware portfolio is JustPerform, which was not a part of the Gartner Magic Quadrant evaluation that took place in 2024. JustPerform strengthens our planning, forecasting, and financial close capabilities. The financial performance companion makes life easier for finance teams by letting them define their processes just once so anyone can follow them step-by-step for consistent results, every time. Learn more about how JustPerform allows finance professionals to hit the ground running.
Lineos, AI Powered by insightsoftware
We launched Lineos, AI powered by insightsoftware, in February. The suite of AI-driven capabilities is designed to enhance insightsoftware’s financial planning and analysis (FP&A), accounting, and operations products. Lineos supports finance professionals by simplifying complex data into actionable insights, addressing real-world challenges, and enabling confident decision-making.
Why insightsoftware
We are honored to be recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Financial Close and Consolidation Solutions. This recognition underscores our expertise and ongoing commitment to helping businesses achieve faster, more accurate financial close and consolidation.
With a strong roadmap for 2025, including the addition of JustPerform and enhanced AI capabilities such as predictive forecasting, insightsoftware remains a trusted partner for financial transformation.
Interested in learning more? Join us for our upcoming webinar on April 10, 2025, at 10 am ET, to discover how JustPerform is designed for people, not processes. Learn how it simplifies complexity, enabling your team to focus on actionable insights that drive smarter decisions and deliver better results.
Gartner Objectivity Disclaimer:
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Financial Performance, for the Way You Work
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Finally, A Finance System Made for Humans 31 Mar 10:57 AM (5 days ago)
We don’t need to tell you that the role of Finance has changed. You live it every day. But here’s what we can do: we can tell you that the challenges you face – the labyrinth of outdated systems, the workarounds, the need to spoon-feed systems that are built on out-of-date manual processes – all that stuff is changing, too.
We understand the pressure you’re under from every angle. But without the right tools, it’s no wonder most teams feel out of their depth. Gone are the days when Finance teams worked in isolation, buried in spreadsheets. Yet, your systems seem to have missed that memo.
You’ve probably experienced it: that frustrating reliance on technical support whenever something breaks or the numbers don’t add up. You’re not alone—76% of finance teams report feeling overly dependent on IT support. It’s a vicious cycle—IT gets overwhelmed, you’re left waiting, and time keeps slipping away. One small glitch, one delayed process, and suddenly, everything is out of sync.
This is exactly why a human-centric finance system isn’t just “nice to have;” it’s a complete game-changer. It’s not about creating more complexity or asking more of your team. It’s about designing systems that meet you where you are and make it easy for everyone to contribute, analyze, and act.
What Does a Human-Centric Finance System Look Like?
Here’s the question you’re probably asking now: “What does this ‘human-centric’ approach really mean in practice?” At its core, this approach is all about designing systems around the needs of the people using them—not the other way around. It’s about creating tools that work for your team, not forcing your team to bend to the system.
Here’s how it helps you take control:
- Built for Finance. You shouldn’t have to rely on another team for every update. A human-centric finance system lets you call the shots. Update plans, make changes, or adapt to new business needs without a single line of code. It puts the power back where it belongs—with you.
- Simple Setup, Big Results. Who wants a tool that slows you down with complicated workflows or endless training sessions? With an intuitive interface, you can point, click, and get things done. No roadblocks, no “how do we figure this out?” moments.
- Step-by-Step Guidance. Finance has its share of stress already. You don’t need systems that make things worse. A human-centric platform guides you every step of the way, ensuring that anyone on your team can confidently jump in and contribute, no matter their technical background.
- Works With Excel, Not Against It. If you work in finance, you probably have Excel burned into your muscle memory. That’s okay! A modern finance system embraces what you already know and love. It’s Excel-friendly but also powerful enough to break free from old manual workflows.
- Seamless Integration. Disconnected systems are productivity killers. A human-centric solution pulls your data together from all the tools you use (CRM, ERP, you name it) so you’re never waiting for the latest numbers to trickle in. Real-time access means you can focus on strategizing, not wrestling with your tools.
Put simply, a human-centric system removes the friction. It’s not just about streamlining processes; it’s about giving you the clarity and control you need to thrive.
Is Your Current Finance System Holding You Back?
It’s important to ask yourself if your current finance system is truly helping your team or just adding more challenges. A human-centric system can make a huge difference by being easy to use, giving your team more autonomy, and integrating smoothly with other tools. Here are some key considerations when evaluating your system:
- How much control do you have? Can your team make changes or updates without having to go through another team? A system that gives your finance team more control allows them to manage tasks like creating reports or adjusting parameters without technical help. This kind of autonomy speeds up processes and reduces dependence on external teams.
- Is it easy to use? Take a close look at how user-friendly your system is. Is it simple to navigate, or is it slowing your team down because it’s clunky or hard to figure out? A system that’s intuitive and easy to use means your team can work faster and with less training, without getting bogged down by confusing interfaces.
- Does it offer support when needed? Does your system guide users through tasks with clear instructions or helpful prompts? A good system provides easy-to-follow steps for complex tasks like planning and budgeting, ensuring that everyone can contribute confidently without needing constant support from IT or others.
- Are your data sources connected? How well does your system integrate with other tools and platforms? If your system pulls data smoothly from sources like your ERP or CRM, it eliminates the need for manual input and reduces delays. This connectivity helps your team stay on top of things and work more efficiently.
- What do your team members think? Get feedback from the people actually using the system. How do they feel about its functionality? A human-centric system should support your team’s workflow, improve collaboration, and make decision-making easier. If your team is frustrated or struggling with the system, it’s time to take a fresh look.
If your team spends more time wrestling with the system than making things happen, it’s time to find a better way.
The Future of Finance Starts with You
At its core, a human-centric approach is about designing systems around the needs of the people who use them—not the other way around. You deserve a system that doesn’t just meet the bare minimum but one that adapts to how fast and complex your work is becoming. That’s where human-centric finance tools like JustPerform from insightsoftware step in.
With JustPerform, you get:
- No-Code Simplicity that lets you take control without needing a tech expert.
- Clear, Guided Steps that make even the most complex tasks manageable.
- Excel-Friendly Workflows that feel familiar and help you work smarter, not harder.
- Seamless Integration with over 80 platforms, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
- Scalability and Security that grow with you, keeping your data safe and secure.
It’s not just about getting faster or more efficient. It’s about designing a system that works for your team, letting you focus on what matters most—smarter planning, faster closing, and crystal-clear reporting.
It’s time to stop forcing your team to bend to outdated systems. Take control. Take back your processes. Just Plan. Just Close. Just Report.
JustPerform.
Want to see how it works? Download our EPM Buyer’s Guide to find a human-centric finance solution for your team.
The EPM Buyer’s Guide
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insightsoftware Drives Global Expansion of JustPerform, a Financial Planning, Forecasting, and Closing Companion 31 Mar 5:00 AM (5 days ago)
Financial performance platform is now available in North America, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand
RALEIGH, N.C. – March 31, 2025 – insightsoftware, the most comprehensive provider of solutions for the Office of the CFO, today announced the global expansion of JustPerform, an all-in-one financial planning, forecasting, and close companion. The financial performance platform is now available in APAC, North America, the UK, and Ireland.
Finance teams often struggle with the complexity of implementing and maintaining traditional systems, hindering their ability to plan, close, and report effectively. JustPerform addresses this with an all-in-one solution enabling effortless collaboration on plans, faster closes, accurate reporting, and confident decision-making without IT reliance. Featuring an intuitive, Excel-like interface and step-by-step guidance, the platform simplifies even the most complex tasks. Users can master processes in under five minutes and establish consistent workflows for reliable, repeatable results.
“Growing expectations for finance to serve as a strategic business partner fuel demands among finance professionals for a unified approach to planning, forecasting, and closing,” said Monica Boydston, General Manager, EPM & Controllership at insightsoftware. “JustPerform’s intuitive interface enables finance teams to hit the ground running. Finance-driven ownership empowers teams to streamline processes and focus on delivering strategic insights that drive business impact.”
Key Capabilities Include:
- All-in-One Simplicity and Cloud Scalability: JustPerform connects planning, close, consolidation and reporting. Whether an organization deploys on the public or private cloud, it handles unlimited data volumes, dimensions, and metrics, letting models grow in size and complexity without slowing down.
- Simplified Processes: Pick up any process in under five minutes. Even the most complex tasks feel simple with an Excel-like interface and step-by-step guidance.
- Direct Integration and Excel-Friendly Transition: Native connectors link to over 80 systems, including SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics, without delays or extra steps. With an Excel-like interface and modern Microsoft 365 connector, it makes moving from spreadsheets to JustPerform seamless.
- Real-Time Planning: Live data updates keep financial and operational planning connected across teams. Members stay in sync, making decisions faster and smarter, without missing a step.
“JustPerform successfully addresses the key requirements of the planning, forecasting, and reporting market with its unified, cloud-native platform designed around the needs of finance professionals,” said Craig Schiff, President and CEO of BPM Partners. “Many finance teams struggle with patching together siloed systems and legacy products. JustPerform delivers a truly modern and connected experience. Its human-centered design simplifies complex processes, ensuring accessibility and adaptability. The platform easily scales as user count and data volume grow over time, combining usability and precision—essential traits for financial professionals seeking both efficiency and flexibility.”
Discover how JustPerform provides 60%-time savings in data transformation, a 50% reduction in manual close cycles, 40% faster budget preparation, and twice the return on investment. Join the “Financial Performance, for the Way You Work” webinar on April 10, 2025, at 10 am ET to learn more about how this finance companion helps organizations hit the ground running. Register here.
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About insightsoftware
insightsoftware is a global provider of comprehensive solutions for the Office of the CFO. We believe an actionable business strategy begins and ends with accessible financial data. With solutions across financial planning and analysis (FP&A), accounting, and operations, we transform how teams operate, empowering leaders to make timely and informed decisions. With data at the heart of everything we do, insightsoftware enables automated processes, delivers trusted insights, boosts predictability, and increases productivity. Learn more at insightsoftware.com.
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The post insightsoftware Drives Global Expansion of JustPerform, a Financial Planning, Forecasting, and Closing Companion appeared first on insightsoftware.
Are You Aware of These FP&A Best Practices? 28 Mar 6:37 AM (8 days ago)
The human heart is the most important organ of the body as it supplies the most critical oxygenated blood to all the organs of the body so that they function efficiently and smoothly.
Just as blood is critical to the human body, cash is critical to every business organisation. Therefore, the finance team plays a critical role similar to the human heart by planning, managing, analysing, and allocating the organisation’s cash to various departments to ensure efficient and smooth functioning and achieve organisational goals.
Finance is the heart, and cash is the blood. Just as the heart pumps blood to keep the body alive, financial planning is the process that keeps an organisation’s goals alive by deciding how to use this crucial resource, cash, in the best possible manner.
Therefore, financial planning is a crucial process. But what is the best manner to execute this process? Have you considered this question in your role as a finance professional or business manager?
To answer this question, let us look at what one of the greatest scientists in history has to say about this. Issac Newton put it very succinctly in the historical letter to Robert Hooke in 1675:
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
What does this mean? It means learning from people who have already succeeded in the relevant domain of expertise. In other words, it means to learn from the ‘best practices’.
Therefore, in this blog, we will learn industry leaders’ best practices for Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A). Before that, let us look at what FP&A means for business organisations.
Understanding the Role of FP&A
What Is FP&A?
Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) is a crucial function within finance that focuses on budgeting, forecasting, and analytical processes that maintain the organisation’s sound financial health and support strategic decision-making.
For FP&A managers, the scope includes developing financial models, analysing financial data, and providing actionable insights to guide business goal setting and implement business strategy, driving the right performance.
“I think great FP&A in my mind is a function that is deeply integrated into the strategic planning and the decision-making of any organization.” – Jon Laudie, CFO Zerorez
The Corporate Finance Institute states, “Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) teams play crucial company roles by performing budgeting, forecasting, and analysis that support major corporate decisions of the CEO, CFO, and the Board of Directors.”
Now that we have a basic understanding of FP&A and the role played by FP&A teams, let’s examine their key responsibilities.
Key Responsibilities of FP&A Teams
Broadly, the FP&A teams are responsible for:
Budgeting and Forecasting:
Creating and managing detailed financial forecasts and budgets.
Financial Analysis:
Conducting variance analysis and financial performance reviews.
Strategic Planning:
Supporting long-term planning by aligning financial goals with business objectives.
Reporting:
Developing and presenting financial reports to senior management.
Data Management:
Ensuring data integrity and accuracy in financial systems.
Cross-Functional Collaboration:
Partnering with various departments, involving them in the goal-setting process, gathering inputs, and providing financial insights.
These responsibilities help organisations make informed decisions and maintain financial stability.
So far, we have seen that FP&A teams are as important for an organisation as the heart is to the human body. We then looked at what FP&A is and what the key responsibilities of FP&A teams are. Let us look at FP&A teams’ challenges in performing their key responsibilities.
Common Challenges
Any business activity always has challenges due to the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous nature of the business environment in which we operate. Therefore, even the FP&A activity conducted by the finance team has many challenges. Let us look at them from the point of view of the key responsibilities that FP&A teams have.
Let us take the perspective of an automobile manufacturing company with HQ in Singapore, operations in Southeast Asia and suppliers & vendors across the globe. What are the challenges that FP&A teams face while having to fulfil their key responsibilities:
1. Budgeting and Forecasting:
Predicting financial outcomes is highly complex due to fluctuating raw material costs, diverse market demands, and geopolitical factors affecting supply chains, to name a few.
For example, a sudden increase in steel prices from China disrupts budget projections, necessitating swift adjustments to forecasts and strategic plans.
This scenario requires an immediate re-evaluation of cost projections and financial forecasts to maintain profitability and align with revised budgetary constraints.
To be agile and flexible enough to accommodate these changes is a challenge for FP&A teams.
2. Financial Analysis:
As part of the financial analysis, it becomes challenging for the FP&A teams to conduct variance analysis with inconsistent data from various production plants and international suppliers.
For example, quarterly performance analysis reveals data discrepancies in production costs across different factories in Thailand and Indonesia due to variations in reporting standards and multiple data formats.
These discrepancies could arise from historical practices in which each plant was established independently, often following local practices and standards. The lack of standardised reporting systems across these facilities could lead to inconsistent data, making it difficult to perform accurate variance analysis and pinpoint areas requiring efficiency improvements.
3. Strategic Planning:
Aligning financial goals with long-term business objectives requires understanding market trends, consumer preferences, and internal capabilities across diverse regions.
For example, developing a strategic plan for launching electric vehicles involves integrating market research, competitor analysis, and internal manufacturing capacity from factories across the globe, all of which can change rapidly.
The rapid evolution of market trends and consumer preferences, coupled with varying regulatory environments, makes it challenging to create a unified strategic plan.
Additionally, internal manufacturing capabilities across different geographies must be evaluated and optimised to meet the demands of new product lines, such as electric vehicles, which require different production processes and supply chain adjustments compared to traditional vehicles.
4. Reporting:
Creating clear, actionable financial reports for senior management involves synthesising complex data from production, sales, and supply chain operations across multiple countries.
For example, preparing end-of-year financial reports involves condensing extensive data on production efficiency from Philippine plants, sales performance across ASEAN markets, and supply chain trends in Europe into concise executive summaries for the board in Singapore.
The complexity and volume of data from different regions and departments requires a meticulous data consolidation and analysis approach. Each region operates under different market conditions and regulatory frameworks, leading to diverse data sets that need to be harmonised to present an accurate financial overview to senior management.
5. Data Management:
Ensuring data integrity is challenging with data from various production lines, international suppliers, and market sources.
For example, integrating financial data from different production units in Indonesia and suppliers from Europe and India can lead to discrepancies, requiring meticulous reconciliation and validation.
Data integrity issues arise due to the use of multiple disparate systems for data entry and management across the production and supply chain network. These systems often lack integration, leading to inconsistencies and errors in data reporting.
Ensuring accurate data requires extensive reconciliation efforts and implementing centralised data management systems to standardise data collection and reporting practices.
6. Cross-functional Collaboration:
Differing priorities and communication barriers across regions can hinder effective collaboration with various departments.
For example, working with the sales team to forecast demand for new car models is difficult if sales in Vietnam use different metrics or have varying priorities compared to the sales team in Malaysia, leading to potential misalignments in projected revenue.
Regional sales teams operate semi-autonomously to cater to local market conditions, resulting in different performance metrics and strategic priorities. While this decentralised approach is beneficial for local adaptability, it poses challenges for cross-functional collaboration and alignment of objectives.
Effective collaboration requires establishing common goals, improving communication channels, and integrating diverse perspectives to create a cohesive strategy.
How Can Technology Solve These Challenges
Technology can solve these FP&A challenges by offering advanced data analytics capabilities for precise forecasting, ready-made, customisable templates for consistent reporting, unified platforms for non-duplication of efforts, and inbuilt AI capabilities for financial planning.
Cloud-based FP&A solutions can ensure data integrity by integrating disparate sources and enable improved cross-functional communication with a unified platform experience.
Overall, technology enhances agility, accuracy, and efficiency in financial planning and analysis. Also, leveraging technology is the only way forward for FP&A managers, as FP&A expert Brian Kalish put it,
Today, CFOs expect FP&A to do twice as much analysis than is currently being generated. But I don’t hear anyone talking about adding twice as much staff. So how do you bridge that gap? It’s going to be technology that will enable the capability to collaborate.
Best Practices for Effective FP&A
Standardise Data Management and Reporting
It is essential for FP&A teams to standardise data management and reporting practices to ensure consistency and reliability of financial data across various locations.
The FP&A team also needs to develop and enforce standardised reporting templates and data management protocols across all production plants and vendors. This can be done using pre-built branding-compliant templates across the organisation.
By doing this, FP&A teams can ensure consistent and accurate data reporting, facilitating easier consolidation and analysis of financial data.
Let us relook at the example of the Singapore-based automobile manufacturer.
For example, when the FP&A team uses the same reporting templates across production plants in Thailand and Indonesia, it eliminates discrepancies in financial data formats, denominations, etc., making it easier to compare and consolidate financial reports from different locations.
Pro Tip: Involve team members from each location in the development of standardised reporting templates. Their on-the-ground insights can help identify and address potential discrepancies early, ensuring the templates are practical and effective across diverse contexts.
Regularly Review and Update Financial Models
By regularly reviewing and updating the financial models, the FP&A teams ensure that they remain relevant in changing market conditions.
This can be ensured by establishing a routine for regularly reviewing and updating financial models, updating the dimensions, revising the variables, incorporating the latest market data, etc., feedback from different departments, and updating assumptions.
When this happens, the financial models remain accurate and reflective of current business realities, aiding in effective decision-making.
For example, the FP&A team schedules quarterly reviews of their financial models, incorporating new market data from the Middle East and updated cost projections from European suppliers. This keeps their models accurate and ensures strategic plans are based on the most current information.
Pro Tip: During financial model reviews, include scenario planning sessions with cross-functional teams. This allows you to validate model assumptions against real-world conditions and gather diverse perspectives, ensuring the models are robust and adaptable to unforeseen changes.
Establish Clear KPIs and Performance Metrics
Why should FP&A teams establish clear KPIs and performance metrics? To measure the effectiveness of FP&A activities.
By defining and tracking the right KPIs that align with the organisation’s strategic objectives, the FP&A teams can improve the effectiveness of FP&A. Also, regularly reviewing these KPIs to assess performance and make necessary adjustments is a good practice.
This helps the FP&A teams by ensuring that they have a measurable framework for evaluating FP&A activities, ensuring alignment with business goals and continuous improvement.
For example, the FP&A team defines KPIs such as budget variance, revenue growth, cash conversion cycle, NPV for new projects, etc. These metrics are reviewed monthly, and any deviations are analysed to improve future financial planning and analysis.
Pro Tip: To ensure that KPIs and performance metrics provide a comprehensive view of the organisation’s performance, implement a balanced scorecard approach. This method goes beyond financial metrics to include customer, internal process, and learning and growth perspectives.
Use Benchmarking Against Industry Peers
To understand performance relative to competitors and identify areas for improvement, it is essential for FP&A teams to use benchmarking against industry peers.
The FP&A team must regularly benchmark its financial performance and processes against industry peers to gain new insights and adopt best practices.
This helps the company gain valuable insights into competitive standing and opportunities for strategic improvement.
For example, the FP&A team benchmarks the company’s financial performance against other automobile manufacturers in Southeast Asia. By identifying areas where they lag behind competitors, they adopt best practices to improve efficiency and profitability.
Pro Tip: Instead of treating benchmarking as a periodic exercise, integrate it into an ongoing process. This continuous approach helps in staying current with industry trends and swiftly adopting best practices.
Enhance Cross-Functional Collaboration
When a company operates across time zones and geographies, it is important to ensure alignment and effective collaboration across departments.
This can be ensured by establishing common goals, improving communication channels, and integrating diverse perspectives. From a technological point of view, the use of collaborative platforms to facilitate seamless interaction is always helpful.
This results in better alignment of objectives, more effective collaboration, and a cohesive strategy.
For example, the FP&A team collaborates closely with sales and operations teams across Southeast Asia and the Middle East. By establishing common goals and using collaborative tools, they ensure that financial planning aligns with sales targets and operational capabilities, leading to a more unified and effective strategy.
Pro Tip: To enhance cross-functional collaboration, create a “shadowing” program where team members from the FP&A team spend time working within other departments, such as sales or operations, on a rotational basis. This firsthand experience fosters a deeper understanding of each department’s challenges and processes, leading to more effective collaboration and alignment.
Integrate ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Considerations
In today’s modern business world it is important to align financial planning with sustainability goals and regulatory requirements.
Incorporating ESG factors into financial models, budgeting, and reporting processes makes the FP&A practice up to date and relevant. Tracking and reporting on ESG-related KPIs is a good practice especially for those FP&A teams that have a global presence.
This supports long-term sustainability, compliance with regulations, and enhances corporate reputation.
Pro Tip: Appoint ESG champions within the FP&A team who are responsible for staying updated on sustainability trends, regulatory changes, and best practices. These champions can then embed ESG metrics into financial models and ensure that sustainability goals are consistently aligned with financial planning and analysis.
Invest in Continuous Training and Development
All the best practices can be implemented only if the team has the right skills.
Therefore, keeping the FP&A team’s skills up-to-date with the latest tools and trends is important.
Finance functions lose the potential to steer their organizations to success when they defer performance management to other functions.
-Jack Alexander, FP&A expert
The FP&A manager must provide the team with ongoing training programs, certifications, and opportunities to attend industry conferences and workshops.
This will result in an FP&A team that is equipped with the latest knowledge and skills, thus improving overall efficiency and effectiveness.
Pro Tip: Establish a rotational learning program within your FP&A team. This involves rotating team members through different roles and projects within the finance department and other related departments. This hands-on experience enhances their understanding of the entire business, promotes skill diversification, and fosters a more holistic approach to financial planning an analysis.
Foster a Culture of Transparency and Accountability
To build trust among stakeholders and ensure alignment with financial goals, fostering a culture of accountability and transparency is essential.
The FP&A manager should share relevant financial information and insights openly across the organisation and clearly define roles and responsibilities within the FP&A team and other departments.
This results in enhanced collaboration, better alignment of objectives, and a more cohesive approach to financial planning.
For example, the FP&A team holds regular meetings with department heads to share financial insights and updates. Fostering open communication and clearly defining responsibilities ensures everyone is aligned with the company’s financial goals and strategies.
Pro Tip: Designate “Transparency Hours” where the FP&A team is available to address questions, discuss financial data, and provide insights to other departments in an open, informal setting. This promotes a culture of openness and demystifies financial information, making it more accessible to non-finance team members.
Adopting a Cloud-Based Solution for Effective FP&A
All the above best practices can be automatically implemented by adopting cloud-based solutions for FP&A. Adopting a unified cloud-based FP&A solution ensures data centralisation and streamlines the financial planning process.
Implementing such a platform integrates data from all production sites, suppliers, and markets, supporting real-time data updates. The inbuilt advanced data analytics and forecasting capabilities, along with various scenario planning and sensitivity analysis templates, improve the accuracy of forecasts and budgets.
Leveraging scenario planning and sensitivity analysis within the unified platform allows the FP&A team to prepare for potential business scenarios, mitigate risks, and ensure business continuity, all while handling the complexity of diverse markets and supply chains.
Pro Tip: Prioritise thorough user training and ongoing engagement when implementing a cloud-based FP&A solution. Equip your team to effectively utilise advanced features like scenario planning and sensitivity analysis tailored to your business needs. Solicit regular feedback to refine workflows and maximise the platform’s impact on financial planning and analysis efficiency. This approach enhances adoption rates and fosters continuous improvement within your FP&A operations.
How Did JustPerform Improve the Accuracy and Agility of Pan Pacific Hotels Group’s FP&A Process
Pan Pacific Hotels Group (PPHG), one of the largest hospitality companies in Singapore, owns and/or manages more than 50 Hotels, resorts and serviced suites across three brands, Pan Pacific, PARKROYAL COLLECTION, PARKROYAL – in more than 30 Cities across Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and Africa, providing luxury hospitality at its best.
Previously, PPHG’s budgeting processes were manual and laborious, relying on offline Excel worksheets. Each department and section would prepare its own spreadsheet and submit it to the Finance Team, who would then have to manually compile the figures or link up the spreadsheets to generate the Budget Profit and Loss Statement, investing a lot of valuable time by doing it manually.
After finalisation, manual mapping into another template was required to upload information into the Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) system. Integrating data into the EPM system was also manual and inefficient.
“The complexity of managing over 50 properties, 60 entities, and a growing pipeline of properties necessitated a more scalable and agile solution, so we engaged JustPerform to address these challenges.” -Valerie Foo, Senior Vice President, Finance, PPHG
JustPerform allowed PPHG to seamlessly reconstruct their Budgeting and Forecasting with the added metrics and dimensions on the Enterprise Structure that was required for enhanced analysis such as multi-segmentation, multi-currency and multiple versions.
[INSERT PAN PACIFIC HOTEL GROUP CASE STUDY LINK, make it a button]
Also, JustPerform’s allocation engine enabled PPHG to set the rules to define allocation methodologies across properties without external dependencies. This was pivotal in simplifying and bringing transparency to PPHG’s inter-property allocations.
You too can enjoy the benefits of a streamlined and accurate FP&A process. Book a demo today to learn how JustPerform can positively transform your FP&A process.
Conclusion : FP&A Best Practices
In conclusion, adopting best practices such as leveraging advanced technology, standardising data management, and fostering collaboration can significantly enhance the effectiveness of FP&A processes.
Pan Pacific Hotels Group’s experience exemplifies the transformative impact of cloud-based FP&A solutions, i.e. improving accuracy, agility, and strategic alignment.
By embracing these practices, organisations can ensure robust financial planning and analysis, driving efficient decision-making and long-term success.
Look no further. Adopt a solution like JustPerform to revolutionise your FP&A process today.
Financial planning and analysis are a vital for maintaining financial health, involving budgeting, forecasting, and data analysis.
FP&A teams face challenges such as fluctuating costs and data inconsistencies but can overcome these with advanced technology to ensure financial stability and efficiency. Learn best practices from industry leaders to optimize your FP&A processes.
The post Are You Aware of These FP&A Best Practices? appeared first on insightsoftware.
Are You Tracking These KPIs for Your Hospitality Group 28 Mar 6:37 AM (8 days ago)
Everybody knows that diabetic patients need to keep track of their sugar levels, and cardiac patients need to keep track of their cholesterol levels. And both of them need to keep track of their vitals such as BP, weight, etc.
What happens if cardiac patients keep track of their sugar levels and diabetic patients keep track of their cholesterol levels? They will not see any impact on the doctor’s prescription, as they are tracking the wrong metrics.
Just like the human body, businesses have many important KPIs that the FP&A team needs to monitor to gauge the company’s financial health and performance.
There could be KPIs specific to your industry and KPIs that are generally important for any business, regardless of its industry.
In this blog, we will examine the important KPIs that hospitality group FP&A teams should track.
Let’s get started.
Understanding KPIs
KPIs provide a clear and measurable way to assess progress towards organisational goals. By tracking KPIs, businesses can identify trends, measure performance against benchmarks, and make informed decisions to optimise operations.
For example, in the hospitality industry, RevPAR KPIs such as occupancy rates, average daily rate (ADR), F&B Revenue, and customer satisfaction scores are critical in gauging the health of a hotel’s operations and guest experience.
FP&A teams play a central role in monitoring KPIs within organisations. FP&A teams can provide actionable insights to senior management and stakeholders by focusing on relevant KPIs.
They track performance over time, identify deviations from expected outcomes, and recommend corrective actions when necessary.
This proactive approach helps manage risks and enhances the organisation’s overall financial health and stability.
Industry-Specific KPIs for the Hospitality Industry:
Industry-specific KPIs for the hospitality sector encompass a range of metrics vital for measuring performance and operational efficiency within hotels, resorts, and other hospitality establishments.
These KPIs are tailored to reflect the industry’s unique dynamics and priorities, focusing on three crucial aspects, which are, guest satisfaction, revenue generation, and operational excellence.
All KPIs for the hospitality industry broadly fall under these three categories, while they can also be categorised under multiple categories in different contexts.
Before diving into the multiple categories, let us look at an example for each of the three broad categories mentioned above.
Occupancy and room utilisation are two of the primary hospitality KPIs that highlight operational efficiency. Occupancy rate is a key metric that indicates the percentage of available rooms occupied over a specific period.
It provides insights into demand patterns and the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts. For instance, a hotel aiming for optimal revenue might set a target occupancy rate and use this KPI to adjust pricing strategies or promotional activities accordingly.
Revenue per available room (RevPAR) is another critical KPI in hospitality. It measures the average revenue generated per room that is available for occupancy, factoring in both occupancy rate and average daily rate (ADR).
RevPAR helps assess pricing strategies, demand fluctuations, and overall revenue performance. Hotels use RevPAR to benchmark against competitors and evaluate the effectiveness of revenue management strategies.
Customer satisfaction and service quality are paramount in hospitality, making customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores and customer retention rates essential KPIs.
These metrics gauge how well the establishment meets guest expectations, and influences repeat business and referrals.
CSAT scores often include feedback from guest surveys, online reviews, and direct feedback mechanisms, providing actionable insights for improving service delivery and guest experiences.
With this said, let us now look at significantly different KPIs from a business function point of view.
Financial KPIs:
Average daily rate (ADR) is a critical financial KPI in hospitality. It represents the average revenue earned for each occupied room in a given period.
This metric reflects pricing strategies, market demand, and the establishment’s perceived value of services.
A high ADR typically correlates with higher revenue per room night and contributes significantly to overall financial performance.
Revenue per available room (RevPAR) is an operational KPI and a vital financial metric. It combines occupancy rate with ADR to provide a comprehensive view of revenue generation per available room.
RevPAR helps hospitality businesses assess pricing strategies, demand trends, and market competitiveness, enabling them to optimise room rates and maximise revenue potential.
Food and beverage revenue is a KPI that focuses on profitability within dining and beverage services offered by hotels and resorts. It measures the average spending per guest on food and beverages, indicating the effectiveness of menu offerings, pricing strategies, and operational efficiency in food service departments.
This metric helps identify opportunities to enhance profitability and optimise menu offerings based on guest preferences and consumption patterns.
Operating KPIs:
Labour cost percentage is a key operational efficiency KPI in hospitality. It measures the proportion of total revenue spent on labour costs, including salaries, wages, benefits, and payroll taxes.
Maintaining a balanced labour cost percentage is crucial for managing operational expenses while ensuring adequate staffing levels to deliver quality service.
High labour cost percentages can indicate inefficiencies in scheduling, training, or workforce management, whereas low percentages might suggest understaffing and potential impacts on service quality.
Room maintenance cost per available room (PAR) is an operational KPI that measures the average cost of maintaining and servicing each available room. It includes expenses related to repairs, maintenance, and housekeeping supplies.
Monitoring PAR helps hotels assess the efficiency of their maintenance operations, identify cost-saving opportunities, and ensure well-maintained rooms that meet guest expectations and minimise downtime.
Energy consumption per occupied room is a sustainability-focused operational KPI increasingly important in hospitality. It measures the energy used per occupied room, including electricity, heating, and cooling.
Lower energy consumption per room reduces operational costs, demonstrates environmental responsibility, and supports sustainability initiatives, which are increasingly valued by guests and stakeholders.
Marketing KPIs:
Direct bookings percentage is a significant marketing KPI for hotels and resorts. It measures the proportion of bookings made directly through the hotel’s website or reservation system, excluding third-party booking channels.
A high direct bookings percentage indicates effective digital marketing strategies, strong brand presence, and direct engagement with potential guests, reducing dependency on commission-based third-party channels and increasing profit margins.
Repeat guest rate and loyalty program participation are KPIs that track customer retention and loyalty in hospitality.
Repeat guest rate measures the percentage of guests who return to the establishment for subsequent visits, reflecting satisfaction with previous experiences and loyalty to the brand.
Loyalty program participation tracks the number of guests enrolled in the hotel’s loyalty program and their engagement levels, indicating the effectiveness of loyalty initiatives in fostering repeat business and increasing customer lifetime value.
Apart from the above metrics, there are many more important metrics that are applicable to the hospitality industry as much as any other industry; therefore, they have not been mentioned in this blog.
Operating in the VUCA world means embracing the uncertainty and risks involved in business operations. Therefore, there are a few KPIs to measure the risks the business faces.
Some of them are occupancy variance, cancellation rate, customer complaints resolution time, health and safety incidents, etc.
Conclusion: Tracking the Right KPIs for Your Hospitality Group
In conclusion, tracking the right KPIs is crucial for the hospitality industry’s financial health and operational excellence.
FP&A teams can provide actionable insights to enhance performance, optimise revenue, and ensure guest satisfaction by focusing on industry-specific metrics like occupancy rates, ADR, RevPAR, and CSAT scores.
Monitoring financial, operational, and marketing KPIs also enables proactive decision-making and risk management, fostering sustainable growth and competitive advantage.
Embracing these metrics allows hospitality businesses to navigate the dynamic landscape effectively, ensuring resilience and long-term success in an ever-evolving market.
Hospitality establishments can continuously improve and deliver exceptional customer experiences by prioritising the right KPIs.
JustPerform helped Pan Pacific Hotels Group transform its budgeting & forecasting process by measuring these critical KPIs. Hear the Senior Vice President of Pan Pacific Hotels Group talk about how JustPerform helped them bring agility into their planning and budgeting.
[INSERT PAN PACIFIC CASE STUDY HERE, make it a button]
The blog emphasises the importance of tracking KPIs for the hospitality industry’s financial health and operational efficiency. FP&A teams play a crucial role by monitoring industry-specific metrics like occupancy rates, ADR, RevPAR, and CSAT scores, providing actionable insights to enhance performance and revenue.
Understanding and implementing these KPIs enables proactive decision-making, risk management, and long-term success. For more detailed insights, read the full article.
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The post Are You Tracking These KPIs for Your Hospitality Group appeared first on insightsoftware.