The survey of 1,300 enterprise leaders and F&A professionals in seven markets (US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Singapore, Australia) was carried out by impartial researcher Censuswide and examined the influence of COVID-19 on a randomly chosen pattern of huge organizations. Findings counsel that whereas companies now acknowledge the crucial function monetary knowledge has to play in informing enterprise technique and continuity, poor visibility and a scarcity of entry to real-time knowledge is hindering firms’ potential to answer unstable market modifications.
When requested in regards to the influence the pandemic has had on their group, 4 in 10 (42%) respondents globally stated their group has turn into extra centered on monetary state of affairs planning and stress testing due to the continuing influence of COVID-19. The same quantity (40%) stated that F&A is more and more being known as upon by their boards of administrators to assist with state of affairs planning, highlighting the rising significance of economic insights as firms attempt to transfer from disaster mode into restoration.
Nevertheless, greater than 1 / 4 (28%) of respondents are apprehensive that their F&A departments usually are not capable of present knowledge rapidly sufficient for his or her firm to answer unpredictable market modifications. A combination of distant and office-based working over the following 12 months might make this much more difficult; multiple in 4 point out that hybrid working fashions will make it harder for F&A groups to collaborate (27%) and that this might result in inaccuracies in monetary knowledge (27%).
Moreover, greater than 1 / 4 (27%) of C-suite executives admit that they haven’t any visibility into monetary state of affairs planning or stress testing at their group, suggesting that key enterprise leaders may very well be making choices primarily based on an incomplete image of their group’s monetary well being.
This lack of visibility is undermining belief within the knowledge used for key monetary processes and planning, significantly among the many C-suite. Solely round half (56%) of C-level executives stated they’re utterly assured within the accuracy of their firm’s monetary knowledge, in contrast with seven in 10 (71%) C-suite respondents surveyed in 2018. When F&A professionals had been requested the identical query, solely 30% agreed they had been utterly assured within the accuracy of their firm’s monetary knowledge (in comparison with 38% of these surveyed in 2018).
When respondents who didn’t utterly belief the accuracy of their group’s knowledge had been requested why, the principle purpose (cited by near 4 in 10 (37%)) was their continued reliance on clunky spreadsheets and outdated processes that depart F&A groups at nighttime till month-end. Extra respondents felt this was an issue in 2020 than in 2018 (28%), suggesting that digital transformation initiatives in F&A nonetheless have an extended option to go.
“Along with the numerous implications for individuals’s well being and wellbeing, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a substantial enterprise influence on organizations throughout the globe,” stated BlackLine CEO Marc Huffman. “Because the state of affairs continues to evolve, firms should rethink and reconfigure how they function to make sure they’re planning rigorously for various outcomes and utilizing strong and complete knowledge to make speedy, clever choices. Firms which can be in a position to do that might be higher positioned to outlive and even thrive over the approaching months.”
“Many firms are nonetheless battling visibility and entry to real-time monetary knowledge, however there’s additionally widespread recognition that this wants to alter,” continued Mr. Huffman. “Our analysis suggests that companies leaders have acknowledged the worth in having strong monetary info and are able to act.”
Outcomes present that the pandemic has created a renewed urgency round digital transformation and funding in know-how. Near a 3rd (32%) of these surveyed stated developments over the past yr have made individuals at their firm worth real-time entry to monetary knowledge extra and an identical quantity (31%) stated there’s now extra urgency to revamp core enterprise processes.
Moreover, relating to one of the best practices that may assist firms to stay aggressive over the following yr, know-how that allows higher administration and visibility over monetary knowledge has a pivotal function to play. Simply over a 3rd (34%) stated that investing of their firm’s knowledge analytics capabilities will assist their group retain a aggressive edge and the identical quantity are contemplating implementing or scaling automation options to assist improve the accuracy and reliability of their group’s monetary knowledge.
Extra info, together with an in depth whitepaper on the analysis, may be discovered here.
Notes to Editors:
The survey was carried out by impartial analysis agency Censuswide, with 645 C-level and 655 F&A professionals in seven markets (US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia and Singapore). The survey included a breakdown of respondents by job title. Respondents labored at a randomly chosen pattern of huge organizations with minimal annual revenues as follows:
- UK: 50m GBP
- France: 50m EURO
- Germany: 50m EURO
- Singapore: 20m SGD
- Canada: 75m CAD
- US: 150m USD
- Australia: 20m AUD
The survey was carried out on-line between Nov. 25th and Dec. 2nd, 2020.
About BlackLine
Firms come to BlackLine (Nasdaq: BL) as a result of their conventional guide accounting processes usually are not sustainable. BlackLine’s cloud-based solutions and market-leading customer support assist firms transfer to trendy accounting by unifying their knowledge and processes, automating repetitive work, and driving accountability via visibility. BlackLine offers options to handle and automate monetary shut, accounts receivable and intercompany accounting processes, serving to massive enterprises and midsize firms throughout all industries do accounting work higher, sooner and with extra management.
Greater than 3,200 prospects belief BlackLine to assist them shut sooner with full and correct outcomes. The corporate is the pioneer of the cloud monetary shut market and acknowledged because the chief by prospects at main end-user assessment websites together with Gartner Peer Insights, G2 and TrustRadius. Primarily based in Los Angeles, BlackLine additionally has regional headquarters in London, Singapore and Sydney. For extra info, please go to blackline.com.
SOURCE BlackLine
