FMS – Financial Management Systems
You can find an accounting software package for a few pounds or dollars per month these days, and they certainly do the basics for small organisations with simple requirements. Whilst these may literally be defined as financial management systems (FMS) the reality is that the sophistication sought by larger, international organisations cannot be met by entry level providers.
“A financial management system (FMS) is the software and processes an organization uses to manage assets, income and expenses. An FMS performs various functions: reducing accounting errors, maintaining audit trails and ensuring compliance with applicable accounting standards.”
gartner.com
You may need to manage currency complexities where international transactions are reporting back to HQ. Or you may need audit trails and data reconciliation functionality to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley.
Small systems or traditional financial management systems lock you in to rules, structures, and business models that can’t evolve to meet your changing needs. Organisations in the globally demanding and competitive world need to redefine their systems on the fly, and respond to changing requirements and evolving strategies.
Wave has chosen Infor SunSystems as a financial solution that works the way you want it to—so when your needs change, your system can keep up. You can meet change with confidence and easily manage growth with Infor SunSystems.
Meet change with confidence with Infor SunSystems, designed to support and reinforce today’s best financial management practices and address your key challenges. You’ll be able to adapt to change without changing, get the information you need when you need it, and grow in any market.
This flexible, easy to implement solution can be easily reconfigured to support changes in your financial processes and business operations, and because of Infor SunSystems’ open architecture and unparalleled interoperability it can integrate with other systems that you already have.
Designing the FMS that works for you
When evaluating FMS software applications to build your perfect solution it’s all too easy to focus on the capabilities of the software instead of your own criteria and requirements. It’s important to remember why you are looking for new software. Make a list of the challenges you’d like the software to address and separate it into two categories; Needs and Wants. Your Needs list should be very brief and should consist only of the features necessary for the software to work for your company. Your Wants list can be much broader, and features should be listed in order of importance, encompassing all the capabilities that will make life easier.
For us, here at Wave, we pride ourselves on really delivering the FMS that you need and want. This is why we offer a stand-alone FMS as well as an integrated ERP offering which incorporates an FMS.
These next 2 videos will give you a high level overview of the key benefits of trusting your FMS to either Infor SunSystems or Oracle NetSuite. First up is our Infor SunSystems overview showcasing the range of wins and Infor SunSystems FMS will deliver for you.
Next, Oracle NetSuite includes all you need to manage your FMS within your ERP platform (possibly including integrated CRM) and this summary video introduces what they can do for your organisation, in particular from a CFO’s perspective.
So, with all that fresh in your mind, do head over to our product pages to find out more about Infor SunSystems for a stand-alone FMS or take a look at NetSuite for an integrated FMS/ERP.
Your FMS should deliver near real-time integration with all your other critical business systems where transactions are generated with suppliers, customers and employees so they can be captured into your FMS. These will be stored for financial impact within your FMS being automatically allocated to the right analyses and be ready to provide daily insights about the accurate financial position across your organisation.
Time is almost the only thing we can’t buy enough of and it conspires to frustrate us continually. Thus, automation is a reaction to manage the limitations of available time. None more so beneficial than getting management information to the leadership of our organisations as quickly as possible. When it comes to month-end close it is critical that we perform all functions as swiftly but as accurately as possible. Your FMS should work for you to mask the challenge of time.
Risk management is the primary objective of any FMS and your FMS must be able to alert you when things require your exceptional attention. Spend over budget, cash receipts below target, revenue exceeding plan; these are all scenarios you would rather know about sooner rather than later. Make sure your FMS will let you know the things you need to know as quickly as possible.
Your FMS is going to survive many situations that you did not anticipate and it must be able to react , under your direction, without significant disruption or pain, to cope with changes required. There will be acquisitions and disposals, product launches that take off or conversely that tank ignominiously as well as growth and contraction following the ebb and flow of the economic cycle. Your FMS must enable you to embrace change and be on top of it reacting to absorb its impact.
Wave’s choices of FMS will cover all these bases for you.