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In today’s business environment, organizations need the flexibility to adjust their metrics to adapt to current market conditions — not spending time looking in different places to get basic reports on the status of business operations. Introducing: EDA Financial Statements, which allows for timely, accurate and accessible financial reporting.
EDA Financial Statements Webinar
Join our webinar to see how modern finance leaders configure statements for their entities as well as branches, departments, product lines and more. And with permissions in place, empower users to proactively manage their performance and effectively answer their own questions.
In this webinar, we’ll uncover:
- why it’s urgent to advance from static spreadsheet reporting
- automated consolidation and presentation of month end reports
- ways to empower managers with information they need to perform
- a centralized source of timely and accurate financial data
- why secure cloud access is critical for business continuity
- how to do so much more than analyze AR/AP and ledger data in EDA
When:
August 25, 2020
2PM ET
During this webinar, you’ll see EDA Financial Statements firsthand and learn how you can become a trailblazer in financial self-service, reporting, dashboards and analysis. We look forward to seeing you there.
About Epicor Data Analytics
Epicor Data Analytics (EDA), powered by Phocas, is an easy-to-use cloud service with powerful tools to help you reduce costs, identify new opportunities, and speed decision-making.
- Stay up-to-date with the daily changes of your business
- Eliminate time-consuming and error-prone manual reporting processes
- Visualize data across all of your business systems from production to sales
About Encompass Solutions
Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of Industry.
The article “How to Consider the “What-ifs” in Times of Uncertainty” by Wayne Slater was originally published on the Prophix blog in April, 2020. you can read the original article, Here.
The word “uncertainty” immediately invokes feelings of anxiety and fear. This is not unusual, as it’s a natural human reaction to prefer the comfort of predictability over the vagueness of uncertainty. It’s in our nature to plan our day, week, and year on the data available to us. Businesses and finance professionals are no different. When the future is uncertain, this increases the risk to businesses and anxiety escalates around how to tackle the situation quickly.
Uncertain times are just that, uncertain. They make predicting the future much harder at the precise time you need to plan for it the most. Like people, businesses need to change with the times as well. Plans are no longer set in stone and need to be revisited more than twice or thrice in a year.
The need for active forecasting based on real data is paramount to making well-informed decisions about the future. In uncertain times, it’s all about becoming agile. Think about how the United States went from one COVID-19 case in Jan. 2020 to over 140,0001 by the end of Mar. 2020. Whether your organization operates in healthcare or hospitality, your plans need to adapt quickly because new decisions need to be made. Project management has already started moving from waterfall methodologies to agile for more frequent output. Ask yourself, has this sort of innovation happened in FP&A? It’s high-time finance teams are equipped with the right tools to “shift from generating data to producing insights2” that drive superior decisions.
The World of CPM
Welcome to the world of CPM – Corporate Performance Management – a tool that transforms your finance department by making processes more efficient, agile, and automated, so that you can leverage your data to improve planning, reporting, security, workflows, and consolidations, all while reducing human error. Ultimately, CPM lets your organization be proactive, forward-thinking, and enables finance leaders to better guide the organization during uncertain times.
Agile Scenario Planning
An especially important application in these uncertain times is scenario planning (see Fig.1 for contextual and transactional environmental factors involved in scenario planning). What realities is your business facing? What happens if consumer spending falls by 25%? Or if product revenue falls by 15%? Or customers need to renegotiate payment terms? Whether sales are booming or declining, finance leaders need to go back and revisit their forecasts to assess the impact to cash flow and profitability and set correcting strategies. Having a centralized CPM tool like Prophix can make your life easier because it allows you to easily run scenarios on-the-fly.
Fig. 1: The Role of the Contextual Environment in Scenario Planning | https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/using-scenario-planning-to-reshape-strategy/
Powerful tools let you transform your data and allow you to better model your operations, especially in regard to “what-if” scenario planning. Positioning your company for success involves tough modeling to ensure business continuity.
Some industries are experiencing tremendous growth like healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and groceries. Concurrently, there are those that are being hit hard financially such as hospitality, aviation, and retail. Cash flow planning becomes critical during uncertain times. With a robust CPM tool, you can easily model changes to your plans and move forward. It’s all about enabling you to plan smartly.
Your finance department probably spends long nights doing month-end and operational tasks. If they’re already spending 80% of their time on transactional tasks, it can be hard to shift focus to complex planning. Is your team equipped and ready to model endless scenarios in price adjustments, changes in capital spending, and fluctuating labour needs? Now, try to imagine a world where you already had a plan and solution in place to successfully steer you out of uncertainty…
Planning for Uncertainty
So, how you do you plan for uncertainty (see Fig. 2 for some tips on scenario planning)? Well, it depends on many factors, but it starts with having a tool that can effectively and centrally manage your data, so that all your users can view and interpret the same information.
To prepare for uncertainty, you need to set the baseline financial plan and the appropriate objectives/strategic goals. Next, prepare for different outcomes by involving more people in your planning process and consider best- and worst-case scenarios. CPM software lets you do this seamlessly through workflow project management capabilities.
Once your data is centralized, it’s easy to assess your performance against planned objectives. As you understand your variances, you can measure performance, visualize the future, and adapt accordingly with agility. Once everyone agrees, you can automate report distribution, buying you more time for value creation and generating insights.
Get your guide to corporate financial planning during the pandemic – watch the webinar.
Fig. 2: The DOs and DON’Ts of Scenario Planning | https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/overcoming-obstacles-to-effective-scenario-planning
As you can see, scenario planning is closely linked with both budgeting and forecasting. Things change, uncertainty arises, and plans evolve. In finance, scenarios act as guiding frameworks about events that may or may not take place in the future.
As finance leaders, we must proactively plan for the unknown and incorporate it into our forecasts. We must assess more frequently whether we are meeting our objectives, and if these objectives need to be changed. Scenario planning helps mitigate variances by focusing on the realities of the business. It helps finance leaders manage resources and improve decision-making by considering opportunities and risks.
In summary, the strategy is all about envisioning and implementing ideas and goals that let you compete and win in the marketplace. Don’t let old habits of the past slow down your organization and its predisposition to change. CPM tools like Prophix provide you with the technological solutions that help innovate the Office of Finance in a rapidly evolving environment to give you a competitive edge in a world of big data and increasing complexity.
Consider the “what-ifs” in Prophix’s webinar on proactive scenario planning – watch now.
Join the live discussion with Q&A to learn what CFOs around the globe can do to respond to changing conditions and ensure business continuity while improving planning and minimizing risk.
Footnotes:
1 – https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html
About Prophix
Prophix develops innovative software that automates critical financial processes such as budgeting, planning, consolidation and reporting — improving a company’s profitability and minimising its risks. Thousands of forward-looking organisations in more than 90 countries use software from Prophix to gain increased visibility and insight into their business performance.
About Encompass Solutions
Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of Industry.
The recent Financial Service Network (FSN) survey on Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting (PBF) showed two key characteristics for those organisations that produced the most insightful finance forecasts. First, was the ability to leverage non-financial data. Second, was the application of advanced analytics. We will look at how the most successful organisations expand their vision beyond the narrow financial view of the future to produce more valuable foresight in their PBF processes.
Finance: The Home of Truth
The financial component of enterprise resource planning, whether part of a full-fledged ERP system or a mom-and-pop shop running Quickbooks, has historically been the ‘home of truth’. Finance was where everyone turned for answers, since the only quantitative test of performance and sustainability was the P&L and the balance sheet. Finance largely birthed the IT function in a bid to automate the production of some of these answers. Most famously, in the production of payroll. Despite this, finance has now lagged in technology investment for some years, being overtaken by marketing, sales and operations.
With new technology at their fingertips and an increasingly scientific approach, other functions in the business have begun to answer their own questions, collecting and analysing their own data. The numbers in marketing may still be a little hazier than in finance but marketing has begun to offer insight into things that finance cannot, or has not. Market trends and consumer behaviour tell leaders not just about what is but what might be. This forward-looking insight has often contrasted with finance’s view of the future.
The Past, Give or Take
Finance’s view of tomorrow has, by contrast, been rather singular in its source – the past. Predictions of tomorrow have been based on the evidence of the most recent year, with management’s desire for growth most often being the biggest factor steering the positivity, or otherwise, the forecast for the year ahead. Only negative macro factors have dissuaded forecasters from positivity about the bottom line and all the pressure that brings to bear on sales for revenue growth and operations for ever greater efficiency.
The figures from FSN’s report might suggest this had changed. 72% of finance leaders say their forecasting processes are now inclusive, drawing on sources from across the company but dig further into the figures and this starts to feel more like an aspiration than a reality.
78% of the senior finance executives surveyed agreed that greater use of non-financial data is the best way to improve their PBF process and outcomes. 76% recognised the importance of connecting with more stakeholders from outside of the finance function to improve the accuracy of forecasts. The need to connect with other functions and share data is clearly acknowledged.
But 74% say they are struggling to identify all relevant non-financial data sources. Why? Over 55% of respondents say that the lack of involvement of non-finance personnel is amongst the greatest barriers to forecast accuracy.
The obvious conclusion is that the connections between finance and the rest of the organisation just aren’t there.
Additional Barriers
The lack of cross-cutting relationships through the business is not the only issue blocking the better application of non-financial data for improved forecasts. A quarter of respondents say their senior managers do not appreciate the value of non-financial data. And surprisingly, 23% delegate non-financial data tasks to more junior staff despite 43% of respondents ranking it in their top 3 sources of ‘most insightful data’.
Insightful it may be but there remain concerns about the quality of non-financial data when compared to the sources with which finance professionals are more familiar. 41% of CFOs are concerned about its integrity and believe it is less reliable than financial sources. This may well be true but these issues can be addressed, with appropriate weighting and analysis. The potential value of the data is clear, to ignore it would be nonsensical.
Taking Steps
So, how do finance leaders address these issues in order to improve insight into their planning, budgeting and forecasting?
Relationships across the business rely on reciprocation and communication, not just shared goals. Finance has to be able to bring value to the other functions of the business if it is going to extract value back.
That value comes from the insight finance can bring. Most functions in the business are seeking better analysis of their situation and environment, and finance should have the skills to deliver that.
That comes with a time penalty of course but increasing automation of the base functions of finance should be releasing resources. This is a great way to apply the released resources to improve results.
Relationships will be hard to build without the soft skills of communication, and this is another area where finance has historically fallen down. In our interactions with younger members of finance teams, we consistently find a lack of training on offer in anything beyond technical skills. This frustrates the ambitious and leads them to move on. Training then offers a two-fold benefit to the business: better collaboration and a greater chance of retention.
This isn’t to say technical skills aren’t important. Finance leaders need to be constantly up-skilling their teams in planning and analysis, and equipping them with the right tools to apply their learning. Then, they can efficiently integrate non-financial data into their models, improving forecasts and returning value to the other business functions.
As FSN says in its own report, “Mastering non-financial data is the key to being able to forecast accurately and further into the future.” The only way to do this is to enhance the relationships that finance holds across the organisation, by investing in the skills of its people.
For more information on ERP and the future of financial systems, read the FSN report on the topic – HERE
About Prophix
Prophix develops innovative software that automates critical financial processes such as budgeting, planning, consolidation and reporting — improving a company’s profitability and minimising its risks. Thousands of forward-looking organisations in more than 90 countries use software from Prophix to gain increased visibility and insight into their business performance.
About Encompass Solutions
Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of Industry.
In today’s business environment, manufacturers need the flexibility to adjust their metrics to adapt to current market conditions — not spending time looking in different places to get basic reports on the status of business operations. Introducing: Epicor Data Analytics (EDA) Financial Statements powered by Phocas, the first-ranked vendor for many KPIs across all of its peer groups. EDA Financial Statements allows for timely, accurate, and accessible financial reporting. To cover this all-new component of EDA, an Epicor Data Analytics (EDA) Financial Statements Webinar will be taking place in the first week of June.
Epicor Data Analytics (EDA) Financial Statements Webinar
Join our webinar to see how modern finance leaders configure statements for their entities as well as branches, departments, product lines and more. And with permissions in place, empower users to proactively manage their performance and effectively answer their own questions.
In this webinar, we’ll uncover:
- Why it’s urgent to advance from static spreadsheet reporting
- Automated consolidation and presentation of month-end reports
- Ways to empower managers with the information they need to perform
- A centralized source of timely and accurate financial data
- Why secure cloud access is critical for business continuity
- How to do so much more than analyzing AR/AP and ledger data in EDA
During this webinar, you’ll see EDA Financial Statements firsthand and learn how you can become a trailblazer in financial self-service, reporting, dashboards and analysis. We look forward to seeing you there.
Watch The Epicor Data Analytics (EDA) Financial Statements Webinar Recording
Phocas and Epicor Data Analytics receive 34 top rankings in BARC’s The BI Survey 19
The Phocas-powered Epicor Data Analytics (EDA) is recommended by 100% of customers and continues to outpace BI competitors in many KPIs in its peer groups, according to BARC’s The BI Survey 19, the largest BI user survey in the world. This year, Phocas/EDA finished on top of 34 rankings and received 49 leading positions across the three groups, with a 28 percent adoption rate compared to the industry average of 18 percent.
About Encompass Solutions
Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of Industry.
The Greensboro Chamber of Commerce has been very active in delivering useful information to citizens and businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic. One topic, in particular, was too relevant not to share with our partners and other small to medium-sized business owners in the state. Small Business Disaster Relief Loans are now an option for many businesses in North Carolina as a result of the public health crisis.
These low interest, working capital loans are available to those in affected disaster areas.
If you want to know more about the Small Business Disaster Relief Loans, whether you qualify, and how you can apply for these funds, please watch the full action call – HERE.
You can apply online – HERE.
North Carolina Small Business Disaster Relief Loans FAQ
- WHAT ARE SBA ECONOMIC INJURY DISASTER LOANS?
Low-interest working capital loans of $2 million or less for small businesses and certain nonprofits.
- WHO SHOULD APPLY?
Any small business impacted by COVID-19. Business owners should apply even if they don’t have the best credit or if they can’t prove they’ve exhausted all other means. Additionally, the SBA does not deny disaster loans solely on a business’ inability to provide collateral. If you are denied, you can reapply in 60 days.
Exclusions for the loans include religious and charitable organizations; farmers and ranchers, who are eligible for USDA loans; and small businesses that derive more than 1/3 of their revenue from gambling.
- HOW CAN I USE THE MONEY?
The purpose of economic injury disaster loans is to restore businesses to their pre-crisis state. The money can be used to pay for necessary business expenses like payroll, mortgage or rent payments and inventory. It can’t be used to expand your business or consolidate past debts.
- WHEN AND HOW DO I APPLY?
Apply as soon as possible to get the maximum amount of funding. You will submit your application online, but the SBA recommends looking through the paper application first so you’ll know what you need.
All businesses will need to provide:
- Tax Information Authorization (IRS Form 4506T) for the applicant, principals and affiliates.
- Complete copies of the most recent federal income tax return.
- Schedule of Liabilities (SBA Form 2202).
- Personal Financial Statement (SBA Form 413).
Some businesses will need to provide:
- Complete copy, including all schedules, of the most recent federal income tax return for principals, general partners or managing member and affiliates.
- If the most recent federal income tax return has not been filed, a year-end profit-and-loss statement and balance sheet for that tax year.
- A current year-to-date profit-and-loss statement.
- Additional Filing Requirements (SBA Form 1368) providing monthly sales figures.
About Encompass Solutions
Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of Industry.
Epicor recently sent out an Epicor ERP 10.2 Costing Issue Alert. This notification details a costing issue reported within the Core Application. If you use backflushing within job costing and are on an earlier version of 10.2 than the versions listed below, please contact Encompass Solutions, Inc. at support to receive an expedited fix:
- 10.2.200.34 GA 11/31/19
- 10.2.400.14 GA 10/25/19
- 10.2.500.3 GA 10/23/19
You may have received this notification because records indicate you are on a prior version of 10.2. If you feel you received this in error, you can update your version information on the portal by going to the Configurations > Product Configuration Profiles menu, or please let us know so we can help correct the version information on record. If you did not receive the notification and have observed any of the issues below, it may be because your version is incorrect in the Epicor ERP customer database. You can contact Encompass Solutions support to have the information updated.
Epicor ERP 10.2 Costing Issue Alert Details
Description of issue(s):
- Incorrect job costing when backflushed is being used.
- This is causing incorrect variance (MFG-VAR) calculations on jobs.
- Multiple scenarios were found and corrected
- Dollars to Inventory are not correct
- Dollars seem to be doubled using the Qty x Cost Components
- Dollars remain in WIP despite the job being closed
This may also be causing Negative Material depending on the costing components of the part.
Example:
- Unit Material:
- Unit Labor: (too high of an amount going to inventory)
- Unit Burden: (too high of an amount going to inventory)
- Unit Subcontract: (Not cleared out of WIP)
- Unit Material Burden: (Not cleared out of WIP)
Epicor ERP 10.2 Costing Issue Alert Solution
How we’ll approach the fix is simple. We would install the latest version of Epicor 10 to your Pilot system and assist you with running the necessary tests to ensure this issue is addressed, as well as ensure that the patch doesn’t have negative implications to other system areas. This includes EDI and critical reports.
Finding your Current Version of Epicor ERP
Not sure of your current Epicor version? Follow the steps below to find your current Epicor software version.
For Active Homepage Users:
- Navigate to the main menu and follow the path: Epicor Education > Main > System Setup > System Maintenance > About Epicor
- A new window will pop up displaying your Epicor system information. The current version of your software will be located next to the Epicor logo in large black text.
For Classic users:
- Navigate to and click the help icon in the top right-hand portion of the Epicor ERP interface.
- Then, click the About Epicor link located towards the bottom of the options on the left-hand side of the screen.
- A new window will pop up displaying your Epicor system information. The current version of your software will be located next to the Epicor logo in large black text.
About Encompass Solutions
Encompass Solutions, Inc. is an ERP consulting firm, NetSuite Solution Provider and Epicor Gold Partner that offers professional services in business consulting, project management, and software implementation. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems or addressing the emerging challenges in corporate and operational growth, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. As experts in identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of Industry.
24 states can take the burden of managing sales tax off remote sellers’ shoulders through Streamlined Sales Tax (SST).
How to Take Advantage of SST
SST has never been more important for remote sellers than it is today. With the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. which gave states more authority to impose sales tax obligations on remote sellers, you may be wondering how you’ll comply with the new laws.
What You’ll Learn About SST
Let our partner at Avalara help. In this presentation, you’ll learn how to:
- Decrease the cost of sales tax calculation, returns, and filing
- Reduce audit risk
- Determine if your business qualifies for SST cost savings
You can’t afford to miss this! Join us for Streamlined Sales Tax (SST): Discover How to Get Free Tax Services in 24 States.
Date: Tuesday October 29th, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern
Duration: 30 Minutes
About Encompass Solutions
Encompass Solutions, Inc. is an ERP consulting firm, NetSuite Solution Provider and Epicor Platinum Partner that offers professional services in business consulting, project management, and software implementation. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems or addressing the emerging challenges in corporate and operational growth, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. As experts in identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of Industry.