Strong foundations

We've been working with a group of business in Dorset over the past month or two to assess their finance function, as part of our FD on Demand services.

Our findings are similar to other projects we have undertaken in the past - the sales team are using a CRM designed to meet their needs but the accuracy of financial data generated in the CRM is not always as accurate as it should be.

Finance processes are set up to work around this, but include mass data manipulation so are at risk of human error. Reporting has not been consistent and does't stand up to scrutiny when questioned by trained professionals.

The project continues, and has moved on to look at more than "just" finance processes. We are now looking at improving processes across the businesses.

We find this happens on virtually all our FD on Demand projects, emphasising the need to get commercially aware finance people on board with your business, who not only look at your numbers but what drives them.

We always talk about strong foundations being the building blocks for a successful business. In this case, the foundations need to be driven by automation so that the business can free up valuable time for people to make more sales.

Right people, doing the right thing at the right time, not hampered by poor systems or tech -it's got to be the way forward!