Best Practices to Strengthen Financial Decision-Making

As the uncertainty amidst the pandemic and economic disruption continues into 2021, companies need to use every tool at their disposal to support financial decision-making. Visibility into company spend data is extremely valuable for enabling data-driven decisions, but many companies struggle to manage spend information and maintain data accuracy. Best-in-class companies are driving productivity and even profitability in the current economy by connecting disparate sources of spend data for greater access and visibility into company spending.

A recent study by Aberdeen of 606 companies from around the globe shows that best-in-class performers are managing 74% of company spend using digital expense and invoice management technology – with most having integrated these systems with back-end ERP and other finance and accounting tools. In addition to managing cash flow, improving forecasting, and categorizing spend, these companies are 31% more likely to be using that data to track and manage budgets – helping to redirect money to top business strategic priorities.

In fact, best-in-class companies are more likely to report improvements in:

• Budget visibility
• Workforce productivity
• Customer satisfaction
• Speed of decision-making
• Data sharing and collaboration
• Employee trust in data
• Simplified analytics

The result:

In the past two years, best-in-class companies reported improvements of more than 26.1% in productivity and 24.3% in profitability – compared to -2.4% and -1.7% for others.

In 2021, the future regarding the pandemic and economy will remain unknown. Companies that are already leveraging their company spend data to the best of their ability should look for additional ways to empower their employees. Full company spend visibility can help finance teams with budget management to support strategic initiatives, improvements in budget compliance, and better understanding of how to adjust their budgets to align with corporate goals. Businesses should not be complacent with Best-in-class levels of performance—they should strive to put themselves in the best position to take advantage of new opportunities.

Read the full report to identify key areas to continue to improve upon for greater business resilience throughout the pandemic and beyond. It is those companies that continue to improve that will find themselves capitalizing during downturns and coming out stronger in the long-term.