A CFO’s Secret Weapon for Controlling Outbound Cash Flow
Guest Post from Canon Imaging Solutions Division: With an integrated invoice processing solution, CFOs can control their company’s outbound cash flow and drive financial growth
Read time: 3.5 min.
After years of defensive strategies, CFOs are squarely focused on helping grow their business. According to Accenture, most CFOs say that a top priority is helping their business develop strategies for growth. To accomplish this, CFOs must partner with management teams across the organization to align everyone in achieving the same goals. Supporting technology, often including the core enterprise systems, plays a key role in the ability to achieve these goals. Because of this, the IT leadership team becomes a vital partner in executing initiatives related to overall company strategies outlined by the CFO.
Control is necessary
CFOs will need to get better control of their outbound cash flows to achieve growth.
- Sixty-nine percent of CFOs say they need better control over their working capital.
- Most businesses have visibility of only half of their enterprise spending.
- Forty-five percent of CFOs say they cannot readily access accounts payable data.
These statistics from the Institute of Finance and Management (IOFM) paint a sobering picture for CFOs who want to harness outbound cash flows to help drive corporate growth and profitability. They contend that businesses will never achieve strong control over their cash without automating the invoice processes that feed their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
Poor control over outbound cash flows negatively impacts:
- Budgeting, forecasting and planning
- Cash management
- Payment strategies
- Supplier relationships
Financial visibility is key
Regardless of the ERP you use, in a manual or semi-automated invoice processing environment:
- Key information is not captured
- Data is poorly organized
- Information is not available to the ERP in a timely manner
- Systems and processes are poorly integrated
- Decision-makers cannot access key variables
Eighty-one percent of accounts payable professionals describe financial visibility as “critical” or “important” to controlling their cash, the IOFM reports.
For example, automating the invoice processes in your JD Edwards system provides businesses with greater control over their outbound cash flows. By leveraging OCR for data extraction, workflow and deep integration with JD Edwards, you enable visibility and collaboration that was previously impossible. Data is organized, timely and easier to access, while documents are organized and available within transaction screens via Café One.
Use dashboards to track outbound cash flow
Configurable dashboards track accruals and other information in real time, which enables CFOs to quickly access the data they need to accurately predict their cash needs. Data can also be pulled in from other systems, providing a 360-degree view of outbound cash flows. Additionally, CFOs can drill down into data and instantly access key metrics, such as the volume of invoices out for approval, the dollar amount of invoices in each stage of processing and invoice data by month, supplier and type of invoice.
Integrating an automated invoice processing solution with JD Edwards provides two-way data integration to ensure that data on outbound cash flows is synchronized in both systems.
The insights provided by JD Edwards are made even more powerful if you are leveraging One View Reporting. A tightly integrated automated invoice processing solution, such as the one from Canon Imaging Solutions Division (CIIS), puts unprecedented control into the hands of CFOs to manage their organization’s outbound cash flows. At a time when CFOs and CIOs are looking for ways to grow their organization, this control over cash flows is critical.
This guest post is brought to you by Terillium’s partner, Canon Imaging Solutions Division.
Related Resources
Managing Your JD Edwards Upgrade Project: Six Practical Principles for Success
Navigating Change and Other Obstacles: How Successful Executives Do It
Four Ways CFOs are Transforming the Wholesale Distribution Industry
About Canon Imaging Solutions Division
Terillium is pleased to partner with Canon Imaging Solutions Division (CIIS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc. CIIS brings together Canon’s world-class imaging technologies and information management expertise to assist organizations in achieving their digital transformation objectives. With a focus on innovation, CIIS’s software development and solutions delivery capabilities scale across several practice areas: Business Process Automation, including Procure-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash automation, Document Solutions, Information Management Services with a focus on content capture, management and collaboration and Security and Infrastructure Management. With expertise in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analytics, CIIS deploys its solutions in partnership with leading technology providers and offers comprehensive consulting and professional services that are trusted by organizations of all sizes. Additional information about the company, its programs and mission can be found at ciis.canon.com.