{"id":6826,"date":"2020-01-30T06:21:36","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T11:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/?p=6826"},"modified":"2026-01-16T05:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T10:48:24","slug":"cfo-cloud-financial-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/cfo-cloud-financial-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"CFO 3.0 and cloud financial reporting: A match made in heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMoney Matters<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCFO 3.0 and cloud financial reporting: A match made in heaven\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\tOwen Sweeney<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Is cloud financial reporting a key component for you and your finance team?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporting is crucial in any finance department. And CFOs have always focused a lot of their attention on analysing these reports. This is a critical part of any modern business and an important measure to understand the business performance of a company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether CFOs are compiling these reporting statements themselves or assigning others to create them, their role doesn\u2019t stop with the handing over the numbers. CFOs are charged with producing reporting that is useful to leadership and key stakeholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will understand the performance metrics, indicators and targets that need to be hit for the organisation to move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, CFOs<\/a> have been limited to looking backwards through a rear-view mirror. They would be reviewing financial reports and balance sheets that will create the state of the business at the end of a period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world has changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial reporting is still highly important. However, technology and the availability of data has made it possible for businesses to get real-time information about company performance \u2013 and even how the business can perform in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a huge amount of untapped power and potential<\/a> in what is a legal requirement in most countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s been the problem with financial reporting?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Financial reporting has always been challenging and time-consuming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the modern finance function<\/a>, end-to-end reporting means carrying out a number of complex tasks, which have to be done to supreme accuracy. Mistakes in the process could make the entire effort invalid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your business might be reliant on multiple spreadsheets for financial reporting. But there\u2019s a good chance that errors could creep in, while hours of effort are likely to be spent on maintaining and keeping spreadsheet reports up to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it\u2019s not just a spreadsheet issue, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With legacy IT on-premise infrastructure, the increasing complexity of the business can put pressure on systems. This can slow down processes and cause performance to suffer. The IT team might have to do a lot of firefighting, leaving a lengthy backlog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial reporting is crucial to a business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as performance, it is needed for areas such as regulatory compliance and investor relations. As a result, there are pressures that CFOs and their departments could be feeling from the business when it comes to getting better financial data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. A corporate mandate to improve the quality of financial and accounting data<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. A management focus on improving the productivity of financial\/accounting staff<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Stakeholder demand for financial data access and the need for more regular disclosure (monthly instead of quarterly or annually, for instance)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. A need to augment financial reporting with non-financial performance data.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    According to CFO 3.0: Digital transformation beyond financial management<\/a>, a research report by Sage that looks at how CFOs can move from historians to visionaries within their companies, decision-makers are still spending as much time collecting and preparing data as they are analysing it, due to unwieldy legacy systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As a result, 70% of CFOs<\/a> said administration has a significant impact on team productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Why cloud computing can help<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The benefits of financial cloud solutions are already well documented. Research and advisory firm Gartner describes the major benefits as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n