Accurate financial reports are vital for driving financial stability. Financial reports should proactively direct an organization toward the right path, generating reliable insights that identify trends, reveal problem areas and pinpoint opportunities.
With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you gain a unified view of your operations and financial health on an intuitive cloud platform. From account schedules to default financial report templates, you can leverage a variety of built-in financial reporting capabilities and tools.
But deciphering when and how to use these out-of-the-box reporting tools can be daunting. The need for advanced financial reporting can require specialized development to build and maintain them.
Let’s explore the importance of an effective financial reporting tool, some of Business Central's financial reporting limitations and how to select an add-on solution that meets your financial reporting needs.
The Importance of Accurate Financial Reporting
From forecasting future performance to assessing the impact of past financial decisions, financial reports act as the compass for business strategy. They offer a snapshot of financial health, revealing revenue streams, expenses and profitability.
Here are some of the benefits of thorough financial reporting:
- Informed decision-making: Data-driven insights mean choices are grounded in fact, not guesswork
- Strategic planning guidance: Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) and other financial metrics steer strategic planning efforts
- Regulatory compliance and trust: Complying with financial regulations builds credibility with stakeholders and the market at large
- Opportunity identification: Pinpointing avenues for cost savings and resource efficiency
- Stakeholder trust: Cementing trust with stakeholders, including investors, lenders and the board, through financial transparency and honesty
Understanding Financial Reporting In Business Central
Business Central offers a suite of financial reporting tools to enhance financial decision-making. These include account schedules, core financial reports (like agings and trial balance reports), Excel integration and default financial report templates, such as balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements.
Despite its numerous advantages, the reality is that Business Central's built-in reporting and analytics tools require different levels of knowledge and expertise to use correctly. This impacts how your finance and accounting users access data and build, modify and share reports.
Business Central's financial report functionality can have inherent challenges, including:
- A lack of robust report formatting options makes creating customized and visually appealing reports for stakeholders difficult.
- Limited drill-down functionality restricts users from quickly exploring underlying data within reports for deeper insights.
- A reliance on technical expertise requires users to have advanced knowledge or outside assistance to generate complex financial reports.
- Challenges in handling multiple entities lead to inefficiencies and errors when consolidating financial data across different subsidiaries.
- Difficulty integrating with extensions or add-ons, which can limit the ability to enhance reporting capabilities with third-party tools.
- Issues with data organization and accuracy result in potential discrepancies that can undermine confidence in financial reporting.
- Scalability and performance issues, particularly when handling large datasets, can slow reporting processes and hinder real-time decision-making.
These challenges can create significant roadblocks in obtaining the accurate and timely financial reporting that growing businesses need to make informed decisions. While Business Central offers a solid foundation, its limitations in these areas can impact overall business performance, especially as your organization scales. Fortunately, strategies and tools are available to overcome these challenges and unlock the full potential of your financial data.
Overcoming Business Central's Financial Reporting Challenges
Addressing these financial report-building limitations and identifying suitable solutions is essential to ensure the smooth operation of your financial reporting processes. The good news is that Business Central is and has always intended to be a highly flexible cloud platform with advanced financial reporting options to fit your needs. This is why most Business Central users invest in a third-party reporting and analytics solution built specifically for the adaptable cloud platform.
Third-party reporting software helps businesses expand their Business Central financial reporting capability by offering intuitive self-service reporting tools for non-technical users, enhanced report formatting features, simplified integration with extensions and more. For example, Cosmos is a cloud reporting and analytics solution specifically built for Business Central.
Unlock Superior Reporting With Cloud-Based Solutions for Business Central
Embracing cloud-based reporting tools can transform how businesses utilize their data, offering enhanced usability and robust performance that elevate the overall reporting experience. These solutions amplify the strengths of Microsoft's cutting-edge business management platform by delivering greater speed, seamless accessibility, collaborative capabilities and added value.
Below are some of the standout benefits:
Enhanced Usability
Universal Access
Users can generate and view reports from any location with an internet connection, ensuring everyone stays connected and informed.
Seamless Collaboration
Effortlessly share reports, dashboards and insights, fostering a collaborative environment, promoting transparency and improving collective decision-making.
Automatic Enhancements
Cloud-based solutions continuously evolve with regular updates and automatic feature enhancements, which allows users to benefit from the latest advancements and security improvements, ensuring their reporting tools remain cutting-edge and secure.
Superior Performance
Scalable Solutions
Whether handling larger datasets or accommodating more users, scalability ensures consistent performance even during peak usage.
Simplified Infrastructure Management
Businesses eliminate the complexities of maintaining on-premises hardware and infrastructure. This reduction in infrastructure demands leads to lower maintenance costs and frees up IT resources for other strategic initiatives.
Optimized Data Processing
The robust cloud infrastructure enhances the speed and efficiency of data processing, allowing for quicker report generation and more responsive data analysis.
Global Accessibility
For enterprises operating internationally, cloud reporting provides the capability to access and analyze data from various geographic locations. All relevant stakeholders, regardless of physical location, can access vital information seamlessly.
Cloud Financial Reporting Built for Business Central
Built on the secure Microsoft Azure cloud platform, Cosmos integrates seamlessly into your existing Microsoft technology stack and provides the tools you need to extract, analyze and report on your Business Central data.
By leveraging optimized data in a modern, user-friendly interface, everyone on your finance and executive team can easily build, modify and share financial reports in Business Central. The Cosmos platform can be up and running in 30 minutes, which means your controller can customize one of the pre-built financial reports available in no time.
Other perks of Cosmos include:
- Simplicity of use
The familiar Excel user interface makes creating, exporting and formatting custom reports and dashboards easy, even without deep technical expertise or training. - Efficiency in operation
Create, run and manage limitless reports at lightning speed — without tying up Excel or other business applications. - Get started immediately
Start building financial reports instantly with access to a pre-built report library, self-paced training videos and live support. - Power BI & Business Central integration
Leverage optimized Business Central data directly in Power BI with the unique two-way integration functionality.
Watch the video below to learn more about Cosmos.
Need Help?
If you're interested in seeing how easily you can start building accurate, fast financial reports in Business Central with a third-party add-on solution, like Cosmos, contact us online or give us a call at 410.685.5512.
