Navigating Finance Systems: Importance, Benefits, and Implementation Options

As we move further into 2024, we have noted a marked increase in the number of clients implementing new finance systems. Many of those are cloud-based systems, and we see this as a marked trend in how organisations are looking to manage their finance processes, teams, and transactions.

Flexible and Hybrid Working and the Finance System

A key benefit enjoyed by companies who adopt cloud systems is that it can be easily accessed, which dovetails nicely with the ongoing debate that we find in almost every client we are dealing with - that being how they manage a clear transition back to working more in the office, and moving away from the ultra-flexible hybrid working enjoyed during and immediately after COVID.

We are seeing more clients implementing the ‘3 and 2’ working week, with 3 days in the office and 2 at home, and the ease with which employers can access the system is essential for efficiency.

Finance Systems and Company Growth

Cloud-based systems allow you to increase storage capacity and sign up users quicker and easier than some legacy systems. We often work with Private Equity-owned organizations on a ‘buy and build’ strategy, and a cloud-based system allows new entities to be integrated into the parent company with relative ease.

How Savant Can Help with Systems

Recruiting a Finance Systems Manager on a permanent basis can be challenging; however, having a member of the team who owns full responsibility for the system has its benefits. An accountant who has driven their career towards systems management jobs can be an excellent conduit for the team's user requirements and act as a representative for all users when engaging with the IT team. Additionally, it allows the finance team to focus fully on producing reports and ongoing accountancy tasks.

It's historically challenging to recruit a systems specialist accountant. Two tips are to plan ahead and have the person in situ well before the pressures of system management become a big distraction that increases the staff's workload beyond what is acceptable, resulting in people moving on and ‘voting with their feet’.

Professional Contractors Supporting Implementation

Bringing in additional resources when implementing a system is essential. Your options are:

• Bring in a ‘professional contractor’ who will manage routine finance tasks, while an existing member of the team is seconded to the systems implementation. This can be less expensive and allows you to directly control the process, rather than relying on a contractor.
• Engage with a systems-specialist contractor. This can be expensive, but it allows the company to ‘buy in’ the knowledge, if it doesn't already exist within the team.

In summary, systems implementations are always a time of added stress and pressure. However, times of economic change, exceptional growth, or company restructures demand flexibility. The right system can support that flexibility, while ‘future proofing’ your business. A knowledgeable and experienced recruitment company such as Savant will be able to help you plan the project, give advice on costs and timescales, and allow any change of system to be as seamless as possible.