Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) is the cornerstone of any healthy organisation.

It’s the process of using financial data to create forecasts, budgets, and plans that drive informed decision-making.

But in today’s fast-paced business environment, traditional FP&A methods can be cumbersome and time-consuming.

This is where technology steps in, offering a powerful toolset to streamline processes and unlock valuable insights.

How Technology Streamlines FP&A Processes

Technology has revolutionised the way FP&A teams work, making tasks that used to take days or weeks achievable in hours.

Advanced software and algorithms allow for the gathering and analysis of large amounts of data, allowing for more accurate forecasts and budget planning.

With real-time data, FP&A professionals can quickly identify trends, patterns, and outliers that may impact financial performance.

This enables them to make more informed decisions and adjust plans accordingly.

In addition, technology automates routine tasks such as data entry and report generation, freeing up time for FP&A teams to focus on higher-value activities.

For example, SunSystems, a powerful financial management system, is designed to help your business become more efficient by simplifying and streamlining processes, eliminating unnecessary paperwork, and enabling full visibility of your finances from anywhere at any time.

SunSystems accounting software empowers organisations to manage all aspects of their financials, including the ability to access and analyse multiple ledger data in one place and prepare tailored financial and management reports without the need to manipulate data manually.

Even more, the software allows you to access all financial and accounting information, from multiple GAAP standards to IFRS standards, in real time, allowing you to make effective data-driven decisions quickly.

How Emerging Technologies Help CFOs Make Better Decisions

In terms of decision-making, predictive analytics and machine learning are revolutionising FP&A.

These technologies can analyse vast amounts of historical data to identify trends, predict future performance, and even recommend optimal financial strategies.
This means that CFOs can make more accurate and data-driven decisions, taking into account all relevant factors.

This is especially useful for budgeting and forecasting. Instead of relying on traditional methods, which may be time-consuming and prone to human error, CFOs can leverage emerging technologies for more efficient and reliable results.

By eliminating unnecessary paperwork and manual processes, these technologies also help streamline financial operations.

With real-time data available at their fingertips, CFOs have full visibility of their finances from anywhere at any time. This not only saves time but also enables them to stay informed and make quick decisions when needed.

Moreover, by integrating various business systems, CFOs can access critical information in one place, allowing them to manage multiple aspects of their organisation’s finances with ease.

A good example is SunSystems integrating with UniFi, a powerful and complete accounting and finance automation platform with next-gen business intelligence.

UniFi integrates with any system using the data connector tool. This middleware will enable you to automate data exports from other business systems, such as SunSystems, into UniFi, providing one unified view and a single source of truth. This will provide real-time data to improve the timeliness and accuracy of your organisation’s decisions.

UniFi also offers advanced reporting capabilities, allowing you to create custom dashboards and visualisations to track key metrics and KPIs in real-time. This helps you make informed decisions based on up-to-date information.

Selecting and Implementing FP&A Software: Best Practices

Choosing the right FP&A software is crucial. Here are some key considerations:

Business Needs

Identify your specific needs. Does your organisation require advanced features like scenario modelling or regulatory reporting? SunSystems offers a modular design, allowing you to tailor the solution to your requirements.

Scalability

Consider future growth. SunSystems is a scalable platform that can adapt to your organisation’s evolving needs.

Integration

Ensure the software integrates seamlessly with your existing systems for smooth data flow. SunSystems offers integrations with your existing core business systems.

User-Friendly Interface

Ease of use is essential for successful adoption. SunSystems has a user-friendly interface, making it easy for employees at all levels to use and navigate the software.

Data Security

Protecting sensitive financial data should be a top priority. SunSystems uses advanced security measures to keep your data safe from cyber threats.

Reporting Capabilities

Choose software that can generate comprehensive reports in real-time. With SunSystems, you can create customisable reports that provide accurate and up-to-date insights into your financial performance using Infor Q&A.

Support and Training

Ensure the software provider or Implementation Partner offers excellent customer support and training resources for a smooth implementation and successful adoption.

Data Security and Privacy: A Top Priority

With increased reliance on technology comes the critical aspect of data security and privacy.

Infor SunSystems helps you manage all your accounting processes in a way that reduces risks and ensures compliance. The software’s modern architecture ensures data security, transaction traceability, and data integrity, among other things.

The cloud version is an extremely agile solution that enables you to add new modules to meet changing requirements or implement them immediately in a supported environment.

The Sun accounting system ensures greater data security with state-of-the-art security features like 256-bit encryption and user authentication.

The software also has an extremely flexible security structure that allows you to control user access and data visibility simultaneously.

This enables businesses to manage risk exposure, improve performance and protect IP.

Since Infor SunSystems is an industry-specific solution, it already complies with the latest industry standards, making it easier for you to subsequently comply with changes.

Real-World Success Stories

Several companies have leveraged technology to elevate their FP&A function.

For example, Life & Peace Institute, an international peacebuilding organisation founded in 1982, had been using one financial software. However, the software couldn’t efficiently meet the organisation’s requirements.

With donations from global donors coupled with the challenge of effectively managing resources to meet the organisation’s goals across different countries, Life & Peace Institute had very specific accounting needs:

• Being an international organisation with multiple operations in different countries, they needed a reliable financial management system with a multi-company and multi-entity setup.
• They needed a system with support for complex donor reporting and multi-currency functionality — that is, a tool that supports different reporting requirements in different currencies. The reason is that Life & Peace Institute’s transactional currencies are very different and usually need to feed into differing reporting currencies, such as the Swedish Krona or Euros. For example, they might spend in Kenyan Shillings and then report in Euros.
• They also needed a system that could segregate/aggregate data so they could break down data per donor’s reporting needs.
• They wanted automation functions such as data entry. They use Excel to upload data and so needed a system that had this flexibility.
• Finally, the institute needed a system with multi-dimensions per transaction string. They needed 9, and Infor SunSystems provided 10, including key analysis dimensions, country code (each a country), budget code, sub-budgets against that code (extended analysis), donor code, donor budget code (extended analysis), supplier code, partner code, staff advance code, strategic priority code (for higher grouping), and currency code.
  During their evaluation of alternative accounting software, Infor SunSystems’ superiority stood out instantly. The organisation knew this was the tool for them as SunSystems could meet all the above-listed requirements.

The next step was deciding on who to pick as their SunSystems implementation partner.

As the most trusted SunSystems provider in the world, FinanSys’ track record of successful FMS projects, combined with decades of experience and deep knowledge of the not-for-profit industry, made it extremely easy for Life and Peace Institute to choose a SunSystems Partner.

Conclusion

Technology is no longer an option but a necessity for effective FP&A.

By embracing solutions like SunSystems, CFOs can gain a deeper understanding of their financial health, make data-driven decisions, and achieve long-term business success.
FinanSys can help you leverage technology to optimise your FP&A processes.

Contact us today to learn more about SunSystems and how it can empower your organisation.