The importance of data for insights and forecasting

Of course, whichever tool you’re using, the key to accurate reporting and forecasting is high-quality data – structured, verified and enriched with business context. An absolute must for making informed business decisions. Financial performance indicators can go far beyond what traditional accounting can do, they actually give an outlook on the business as a whole. The main focus here is understanding the company’s financial health as well as finding effective ways to move the business forward.

So, for quality insights and forecasting all expenses have to be coded properly in the accounting system. This builds a reliable basis for cash flow forecasting, cost projections, expenditure structure and much more.

A well-established granular authorisation system adds greatly to data quality; its setup includes various expense authorisation levels, custom authorisation criteria, rules for authorisation delegation and fraud monitoring procedures. A clearly defined authorisation process enables accounting practices to share accountability with the client, create the base for accurate financial projections and advise clients on their financial performance.

Validating data in ApprovalMax

When bills enter ApprovalMax, they first get reviewed and coded. In this step, the accounts and tracking categories are checked to confirm that the spend allocation is correct. It’s also possible to match bills and corresponding purchase orders in ApprovalMax, which includes copying certain information such as the bill’s coding from the original purchase order.

After this initial control, usually performed by the practice, bills are routed through the defined approval workflow on the client side. ApprovalMax runs a fully automated multi-step and multi-role authorisation process, which is based on one or several criteria pulled from the accounting system (supplier, amount, GL code, tracking category, etc.). The highly flexible approval matrix can easily be extended to suit growing businesses with increasingly complex spend tracking patterns and progressively more approval criteria that need to be taken into account. ApprovalMax reflects the delegated authority for the business and enforces internal controls.

Completing the ApprovalMax review and approval process ensures that only authorised and properly coded bills enter Xero to provide a reliable basis for accurate reporting and forecasting.

.

‍