How to Get Finance and Operations Teams on the Same Page

Maximum efficiency and line-level visibility are the gold standard for finance and operations teams. Operations teams are always looking to be more efficient. Finance teams need all the visibility they can get. 

But, do companies always have efficiency and visibility? Unfortunately, no.

Is it possible to have more efficiency and visibility—on both your finance and operations teams? Yes.

The sad truth is, most businesses lack an organized approach to managing finance and operations. Finance teams don’t know what is being purchased, operations teams don’t know when products are being delivered or who is ordering what products. The top reason for mismanagement of finance and operations? The missing link between the two. Both departments must join forces to be as efficient as possible and help your company grow.

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The Complete Guide to Procurement Management KPIs

Dive deep into how your team can benefit from tracking procurement KPIs, the 15 most important KPIs to track, and a detailed worksheet to help you calculate which KPIs suit you!

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What happens when finance and operations teams aren’t aligned

Let’s paint the picture of what can go wrong when your finance and operations teams are not working together.

Your business is bound to experience frequent hiccups if your two teams don’t have a centralized way to operate. Some of the things that can impact your performance negatively are:

Siloed ordering and purchase information

70% of business leaders feel the data they use to analyze finances and make forecasts is not accurate.

The finding shouldn’t come as a surprise for many finance and operations professionals. Your purchase and ordering information will remain in silos if your operations and finance are not sharing insights. This takes a tremendous amount of time, money, and other employee resources.

No clarity on budget or spending

A budget is imperative to company growth. However, you can only stay within your budget if you are able to track all your expenses. However, that seldom happens when your departments are disjointed.

As a result, you can never be too sure where your money is going, and what you are spending. Therefore, lacking complete visibility into your spending is unacceptable, and is counterproductive to growth.

No way to plan for future growth

Planning for the future is crucial to surviving these difficult times. Resiliency is key. Many businesses are yet to come out from the impact of COVID, so any plan must be highly pragmatic.

However, you will need real-time data and insights to plan for your future growth. Unfortunately, that can come as a barrier if your finance and operations aren’t collaborating.

Most importantly, you won’t be able to access real-time data readily, which is a challenge for 21% of finance executives.

But there is still hope and you can take steps to get your two teams on the same page.

Ebook

The Complete Guide to Procurement Management KPIs

Dive deep into how your team can benefit from tracking procurement KPIs, the 15 most important KPIs to track, and a detailed worksheet to help you calculate which KPIs suit you!

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What happens when your finance and operations teams are aligned

Now, let’s focus on the flip side of things. Many businesses have been able to bring their finance and operations closer for a plethora of benefits.

However, it takes a bit of effort to ensure your two teams have a centralized way of operation. You should start by encouraging a change in your work culture.

The task would be to foster a more collaborative environment where employees feel motivated to work together. They should understand that the business can achieve its objectives only when the whole of it performs as a single unit. Empower your teams with the right tools to centralize your operations. For example, a B2B marketplace like Order.co can allow your finance and operations teams to stay on the same page. Some benefits of keeping your finance and operations teams aligned are:

Centralized and seamless purchasing

Order.co offers a user-friendly interface for finance and operations to…that’s right… order everything your business needs. They can use the same platform to source goods and services from multiple vendors. It also gives them a centralized way to manage suppliers and keep track of spending.

Let’s take the example of the Physical Rehabilitation Network (PRN). PRN’s product purchases were decentralized, and they relied on a very manual process for collecting and placing orders for each of their 140 locations.

Then came Order.co.

Order.co allows PRN to order everything—every purchase—from a single place. Each of their locations found it very easy to use the software and place orders directly. PRN has a centralized way to track each order and know what purchasing is going on in every location. In addition, the company was able to save time and eliminate its manual purchasing process.

Fast and efficient order approvals

Approvals are necessary for every business in order to keep their purchasing under control. Not only are they necessary, but they should be quick and hassle-free. Instead, businesses waste endless hours trying to find who approved what, and why.

Sadly, that adds to the hours that you waste every year due to manual, inefficient processes. For most businesses, that can take up to 15 unproductive weeks per year. Admin and tedious paperwork are efficiency’s worst enemy.

Your finance and operations teams need an easier way to manage approvals. 

Take the example of CorePower Yoga. CorePower Yoga was struggling to manage approvals for purchases across more than 140 locations. Worst of all, they had no way to track or automate their manual purchasing processes. They had to dedicate an employee who collected orders from all locations and placed them with vendors.

Order.co now allows CorePower Yoga to empower every location to order approved products. By placing restrictions on purchasing through approval workflows, Order.co also allows CorePower Yoga to save $50K in unapproved spending every month. 

Granular, line-level visibility

Businesses need granular visibility into their spending for not only efficient expense management, but for future growth projections. Without proper visibility into your company’s purchases, it is impossible to budget and plan for any growth whatsoever. With line-level visibility, companies are able to see every single purchase made in a given month and how much was spent—thus making budgeting easier. Order.co enables businesses to consolidate invoices to have that exact line-level visibility companies need if they want to stay on top of every purchase and plan for future growth. It combines all invoices from your vendor purchases each month into a single monthly invoice. As a result, you can track and analyze every dime your company spends.

Accurate Budgets & forecasting

Let’s face it. Sometimes, employees on finance and operations teams may get a little distracted; they may accidentally put too many zeros after a purchase; they may forget (or lose) an invoice every now and then.

It happens. 

However, finance and operations teams can eliminate human errors. Imagine: no more worrying about the quality of your financial data. It becomes free of mistakes. Invoices are perfectly coded automatically in Order.co, so you can import the data directly to your accounting system. This gives you constant, up-to-date information to make more informed financial decisions.

With that, you also have full visibility into each of your expenses.

Based on how your expenses match up with your budgets, you can generate vital insights about not only your finance and operations teams, but your company’s future growth as well. 

Plan for future growth like a pro. With more accurate spend data, your future projections for growth are more likely to materialize.

Getting your finance and operations teams in Order

A business can reach new heights when its finance and operations collaborate. You can develop complete visibility into your purchases, orders, and payments. In addition, you can centralize your operations and improve vendor relationships by making timely payments. Moreover, you can process invoices faster and issue approvals with one click. The list of perks also includes cash savings, more productivity, and improvement in your bottom line.

Get your finance, operations, and entire company’s growth in order. Book a demo today to learn how Order.co can make that possible.