Best Tools and Solutions for Generating Financial Statements

Now-a-days, there are a number of tools that help you with preparing financial reports of your own business. These tools also help you in better understanding the information you include in your annual reports for your stakeholders such as shareholders, investors, banks, customers and financial institutions.

It’s important to have an accountant or finance specialist to look after your books. However, you’ll feel more in control of your company if you’re able to generate/create your own financial statements as well as understand its content. If you wish to generate your own financials then there are some financial management and reporting tools and software you should give a try.

NetSuite ERP

This is a very popular financial management and reporting solution. This solution is considered as one of the most comprehensive solutions for small and medium size businesses. It offers its users end-to-end functionality, including vendor and customer contact information, marketing analysis, and, of course, the option to generate financial statements. If you’re using NetSuite ERP then it’s not necessary for you to have knowledge regarding how financial statements are prepared but instead the software generates all the financial reports on your behalf.

Any authorized employee can access any financial report from their desktops or mobile devices. In addition, you can use this financial reporting solution to customize your financial reports by region or profit center. This software normally ranges from $8,000 to $15,000 per annum but can increase depending on the number of users.

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is considered by many as an excellent tool for creating different financial reports. Microsoft Excel is one of the most popular and reliable spreadsheet programs in the world. Spreadsheets are used for organizing data in rows and columns, especially numerical data such as information about an entity’s profit or loss. Microsoft Excel offers its users multiple templates/ formats for customized financial reports, such as balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity and cash flow statement. A number of formats and templates are also available on Microsoft’s website which you can download for free.

While Microsoft Excel is a very good tool when it comes to preparing financials but it requires its users to have basic understanding of accounting terms and concepts, such as matching and prudence concept and difference between current and non-current assets etc. In addition, Excel doesn’t catch errors or mistakes such as wrong data entries. Since, Excel doesn’t have any fail-safe mechanism, you need to be extra careful when preparing financials in Excel.

Adaptive Planning

Adaptive planning is a firm that is well-known for providing performance management solutions at the enterprise and corporate level. This solution includes flexible benchmarking, forecasting and budgeting tools as well as intuitive analysis and attractive graphics.

Managers can make business decisions more quickly by using data mining tools this solution offers. It generates various reports, including income statement and statement of cash flows. Further, it also provides its users with variance analysis and budgeting tools for understanding and interpreting different financial reports and results.

Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct is a software that can be easily customized to meet your needs and requirements. With this software, you can access different accounting tools and features. This financial reporting solution guarantees compliance with all the International Accounting Standards and at the same time also takes care your industry specific needs and requirements.

The Takeaway

Selecting the right financial reporting tool can help you in reducing the time you spend on gathering and organizing financial data/information. This would allow you to have more time to spend on your core business activities which would help you in increasing your profitability and manage growth. Whether you prefer a customized configuration like Sage Intacct or a financial management tool ready for immediate use like Excel, these financial solutions and tools can help you with planning a better financial course for your business.