How to transform financial reporting with ReconArt smart automation

Financial reporting acts as the cornerstone for financial transparency and accountability. Reports offer a deep dive into a company’s financial health metrics. They shed light on crucial areas such as cash flow, overall profitability, and other key performance indicators.

Moreover, the insights garnered from reliable reporting practices are instrumental in guiding the strategic decision-making processes of an organization. Stakeholders rely on this data to predict future trends, allocate resources efficiently, and navigate the complex financial landscape.

Types of financial reporting output

In general, there are two main forms of financial reporting – thematic reports and official financial statements. While financial statement preparation follows an invariable periodicity and scope, reports requests vary vastly. Financial statements, part of the statutory reporting obligation, become official documents circulating among a wider audience including regulatory bodies, banks and financing organizations, partners, and shareholders.

Reports, on the other hand, are commissioned by a specific recipient, with custom specifications of deliverables and can be requested at any time. Data in the report may require different degrees of aggregation and periodicity. Management accounting, for example, is focusing on KPI calculation and tracking. It taps numbers from multiple databases and additional attention on the calibration of the reporting tools.

Concerning recipients, managers of mid and high level in Sales, Risk & Compliance, Treasury and Finance functions tend to request daily updates on topics of interest. Accountants pull up AP / AR balances to provide a series of snapshots on the cash position, individual customer account status, and monitor for liquidity pitfalls. Monthly payroll reporting summarize data on salaries, employee benefits, and social security payouts.

Similarly, government institutions such as tax authorities, industry regulators (e.g. see FCA CASS reporting and SOX compliance) and statistical bureaus demand from businesses a range of reports with extensive data aggregations. They may include current overview of profit & loss, subsidies, certain asset classes, payroll & social security payments, tax liabilities, debt payments, pending receivables and many more.

Financial reporting pain points

The period-end close happen to be the busiest time for casual reporting requests, too. Ad-hoc reports from various departments divert the attention of accountants form the time-sensitive account review, reconciliation, and close. Evidently, accountants struggle with manual data extraction and processing, unless financial reporting practices embrace smart automation.

Although many reporting request are recurring, slight variations do happen. Unlike statutory financial reporting, where we have an established template, the preparer must adjust report tables manually, tapping raw data from disconnected sources. The history of reports can reside in local repositories, making it difficult to share and collaborate.

Report creation methods and tools delivered by ReconArt software

ReconArt incorporates sophisticated reporting tools tailored for financial and accounting professionals overseeing the period-end reconciliations. The solution handles both the transaction matching and financial close management aspects of the account reconciliations. Hence, ReconArt delivers comprehensive functionalities for ad-hoc and recurring reporting.

There are three methods for report generation in ReconArt, which provide flexibility to cater for different financial reporting needs and audiences with their specific preferences. Thus ReconArt becomes a hub for verified and up-to-data data and feeds the financial reporting models both inside and outside of the system. The three types of reports are:

• generating pre-configured, human-readable reports through the Reports module
• running data exports through the Import/Export module
• producing ad-hoc data exports directly from the Matching Grid

Matching Grid reports configuration

Firstly, you can generate an Excel export directly from the Matching Grid with a detailed transaction view. The method is convenient for ad-hoc data pulls based on whatever view/filter/sort preference you have applied currently. However, the action cannot be automated.

Reports module capabilities

Secondly, the ReconArt Reports module generate human-readable reports designed for a specific use. They have preconfigured layout, logic, and contents. They are eligible for automated generation and optional circulation to an email list. The software can trigger notification about the report generation events for improved control.

ReconArt supports 30+ report templates out-of-the box, including imported, matched and outstanding items, matching and import statistics, balance differences, reconciliation summaries, etc. Certainly, the most commonly used report in ReconArt is the Reconciliation Statement, which gives balance information, balances of exception items, as well as exception item details.

Financial reporting features of the Export module

Finally, creating an export template will allow you to define the contents of a file that ReconArt will prepare and provide as a download. This file can be exported locally in several formats, both machine and human readable. Additionally, ReconArt users can navigate reports within the system and drill up and down the report sections. 

The export functionality of ReconArt provides a broad range of financial reporting features for custom report development, including combinations of filters, complex calculations and aggregations, groupings, enrichment preferences. You can easily select any column contained in solution database and arrange the header labels in the desired layout.

While export templates predefine the scope, the system Scheduler manages the report timing and frequency (daily, monthly, quarterly, etc.). Importantly, scheduled exports can be leveraged in regulatory reporting via direct integration with downstream platforms. Automated reporting features provide valuable compliance support by fulfilling regulatory standards and data submission requirements consistently.

System reports

On the other hand, system reports differ from matching reports. They focus on the optimal performance of the system itself and the process efficiency. This type of information can help the efforts for continuous process improvement and add another dimension of auditability. The system records: 

• list of outstanding transactions;
• calculated and reported account balance to confirm that all transactions are actually imported;
• imported items – list;
• matched transactions for a selected account and period;
• matching rules for a selected account;
• matching rules split by accounts and order of application;
• scheduled jobs;
• user access reports.

Configurable dashboards and data visualization

The Home screen of the software provide a customizable dashboard of widgets for data visualizations. Selected reconciliation metrics plotted on graphs and charts track trends and highlight bottlenecks. Near real time status visualization keeps team members on top of their task log, help them prioritize, and receive actionable insights.

Each ReconArt user can tailor their own dashboards for optimal visibility into overall team progress, individual productivity, and potential risk items. Making informed decision based on up-to-date current data and a good span of historic numbers is crucial for excellent performance in a dynamic environment.

Accessibility, collaboration and integration

ReconArt is an agile SaaS reconciliation solution. The platform can be accessed securely from anywhere via your favorite browser. Teams located in distant locations and different time zones can collaborate easily. Be perpetually prepared for audits with readily available, detailed historical data and an indelible audit trail.

Besides improved accessibility to reconciliation data, granular access control features restrict user authorizations to view, edit and sign off the reporting output of each reconciliation account within ReconArt. The separation of duties is role-based, both on individual and group level.

ReconArt integrates seamlessly with multiple systems – both to collect incoming data from third party sources and internal tools, but also to feed downstream systems with verified, enriched and duly processes data sets. You can read more about the ReconArt synergies with the business analytics toolset here.