{"id":6937,"date":"2019-11-06T19:33:07","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T19:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/?p=6937"},"modified":"2026-01-29T10:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:21:17","slug":"business-reporting-growth-complexity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/business-reporting-growth-complexity\/","title":{"rendered":"Business reporting: With great growth comes great complexity&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/category\/money-matters\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Money Matters<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBusiness reporting: With great growth comes great complexity&#8230;\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2019-11-06T19:33:07+00:00\">6 November, 2019<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"Business reporting: With great growth comes great complexity&#8230;\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/business-reporting-growth-complexity\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/author\/asavinwattanajantra\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/03\/Asavin-350x350.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"Asavin\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/03\/Asavin-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/03\/Asavin-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/03\/Asavin-810x810.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/03\/Asavin.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 40px) 100vw, 40px\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Asavin Wattanajantra<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>You want to grow your business. Doing so allows you to increase your market presence and profitability. These are likely to be two things you&#8217;ve been chasing from the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, with great growth comes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/manage-complexity-business\/\">great complexity<\/a> and different types of business reporting to deal with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bigger your business gets and the more international it becomes, the more you will need to deal with. You&#8217;ll move into different markets, offer more product and service categories, and deal with a variety of customer segments and channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In turn, complexity can kill growth if it&#8217;s not handled well. It could hit areas that originally made your business succeed, such as decision making, productivity, customer service and innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Complexity is a fact of life, with countries, economies and people interconnected more than in any time in history. And connections are increasing all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You need to deal with a variety of conflicting demands from multiple stakeholders \u2013 and it&#8217;s in finance that there is a demanding responsibility in dealing with business transactions across investors, regulators and the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read this article to find out how business reporting can help you as things get more complex in your growing company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-complexity-in-financial-business-reporting\">Complexity in financial business reporting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/cfos-power-trapped-data\/\">Financial reporting and analysis<\/a> are central to modern business. Not only is it likely to be a legal requirement, making use of this data to make better decisions will be necessary as the size of your company grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Naturally, financial reporting is an area that gets more complex the larger your business gets. This is because demands will increase when it to comes to declaring:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The health of your company \u2013 your business and financial condition based on current knowledge and expectations for the future.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Accurate reports of your operating results and cash flow.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Financial statements to reflect economic and business reality, helping investors make decisions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-transparency\">Transparency<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At a basic level, growing companies need transparency when it comes to reporting \u2013 customers will place more loyalty in your business and it&#8217;s critical that anybody in a financial leadership position gets this right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a number of ways you can provide this. For transparent reporting in a complex environment, you need the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-a-dedicated-team-with-values\">A dedicated team with values<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It starts with the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you build a team that is dedicated to making sure the organisation keeps to certain values, you&#8217;ll find it easier to press the importance of compliance and keep precise reports of both good and bad financial activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;ll give you and your fellow leaders a complete idea of how complex your business is and where you sit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;ll need your team to put financial controls and checks in. Responsibilities should be segregated so records can&#8217;t be manipulated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Different team members should initiate, approve, record and reconcile transactions, while you could put fail-safes in place in areas such inventory management by adding a third-party review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-auditing\">Auditing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Complex organisations should undergo regular audits to ensure transparency. It shows you have the confidence to let outsiders review your work for any mistakes, and that you&#8217;re looking after the company finances with a keen eye and level temperament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Auditing is a process that highlights any inefficient processes \u2013 an inevitability as you grow and get more complex. Audits will also indicate what you&#8217;re doing right and what you must do going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-to-share-your-financial-information\">To share your financial information<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if the business is privately owned and you don&#8217;t have to, sharing quarterly and annual statements provides transparency as your employees and board grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sharing gains and losses will provide stakeholders with trust and a sense of collaboration, particularly if complexity starts to make an impact. Put in place ways to mitigate issues that affect your growing business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-mitigating-complexity-with-analytics\">Mitigating complexity with analytics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As your business grows, so does complexity. You will be presented with multiple data sources and disparate solutions that may well not integrate together, causing poor communication and collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the finance function, you may be still working with spreadsheets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It takes time and energy to pull and summarise this data, and you won&#8217;t be able to refresh information in real time \u2013 you&#8217;ll generally access information that is out of date and inaccurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You won&#8217;t be able to develop forecasts and create &#8216;what-if&#8217; scenarios, which are crucial in understanding the reasons for your success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is difficult to change all your systems in one go, so it may well be worth investing in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/big-data-predictive-analytics\/\">analytics solution<\/a> that can improve your ability to gather, organise and analyse your data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a number of capabilities you should be looking at to ease the complexity of your finances. You will want to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-connect-and-analyse-financial-and-operational-data-through-automation\">Connect and analyse financial and operational data through automation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>With the ability to connect to data and analyse it, you can start building a repeatable and reliable process that leads to automation, increasing the speed and reliability of your analytics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can certainly save time here \u2013 time that was previously spent on slow, manual and unwieldy processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-consolidate-multiple-entities\">Consolidate multiple entities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You need to establish data imports across multiple entities. This allows you to use up-to-date information that will ensure your forecasting and planning is accurate. This will positively impact internal compliance and customer service,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-create-reports-and-charts-in-a-self-service-capacity\">Create reports and charts in a self-service capacity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of forcing your reporting through IT, it will pay to empower users with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/products\/sage-200cloud\/\">business management software<\/a> that offers strong analytical capabilities, allowing your business to streamline analysis without any reporting delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;re now overloaded with information and bombarded with numerous data points that often conflict with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With all these uncertainties and unknowns, causal relationships have been difficult to track, making it difficult to decide whether a course of action is right or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With analytics, you can now get to the data and provide a quality picture of what&#8217;s happening in your business. You can cut complexity within your business by understanding the root causes of issues through a single version of the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-conclusion-on-business-reporting-and-complexity\">Conclusion on business reporting and complexity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Do remember that dealing with complexity is not simply about predicting the future or reducing your risk \u2013 it&#8217;s about continuously adapting and learning at speed to make the most of every worthwhile opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You need structure and conditions that push adaptability, learning and creative problem solving, and you must encourage an environment where pooled intelligence is allowed to flourish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That means agility, with an ability to communicate in real time where expert individuals have the right information when they need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Subscribe to the Sage Advice newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Join more than 500,000 UK readers and get the best business admin strategies and tactics, as well as actionable advice to help your company thrive, in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-b1a63862-3fa0-4a5e-bb67-c76b88bbc6b8\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Subscribe now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1-1440x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1-1440x810.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You want to grow your business but with that, things can get more complicated. Learn how business reporting can help to mitigate increasing complexity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":356,"featured_media":6927,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[135,164,15,159],"business_type":[3],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[68,71],"imagine_tag":[96],"coauthors":[351],"class_list":["post-6937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-money-matters","tag-business-finances","tag-finance","tag-grow-business","tag-midsized-business","business_type-medium-sized-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-gb","author_name":"Asavin Wattanajantra","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2019\/10\/me-gcc-ethnicity-business-builder-7.28916.jpg","imagine_tags":{"96":"Medium businesses"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice UK","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/356"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/6927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6937"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=6937"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=6937"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=6937"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=6937"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=6937"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=6937"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}