In the world of corporate finance, where decisions can make or break a company’s success, the role of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is more critical than ever. As stewards of financial health and custodians of profitability, CFOs are constantly seeking innovative solutions to drive growth, optimise resources, and enhance competitive advantage.

Many CFOs rely on ERP platforms to understand the elements that go into costing. Although modern enterprise systems do offer a decent set of costing capabilities, they fall short in some crucial respects and lack advanced data organizing and analytics capabilities that underpin accurate costing decisions, that can turn the fortunes of the company.

In this article, we delve into the strategic imperatives that should guide a modern CFO’s decision-making process – beyond ERP systems. Read further to learn how advanced data organizing and data analytics tools help streamline costing, unlock new opportunities, and drive sustainable business outcomes.

Belief in Reputed ERP Data: The Foundation of Financial Integrity

At the heart of every “enterprise ops” toolkit lies the ERP system, a cornerstone of financial and operational efficiency. The trust placed in ERP data is immense, serving as the foundation upon which strategic decisions are made.

CFOs turn to the cost accounting and financial reporting capabilities of ERP systems to unearth critical insight into the company’s financial health. They also turn to these capabilities also help identify key performance indicators. This information should help CFOs to make informed decisions about future investments and growth.

But is ERP data good enough for these crucial objectives?

While ERP data provides a reliable source of financial information, its capabilities in collecting, presenting, and analysing costing data are limited in some important ways.

Many ERP-led costing inputs consider “standard” costs of inputs rather than actual costs. These costs are often incomplete or even poor proxies for the actual costs of all the materials and activities that go into the final product or service.

ERPs often deal with historical data and do not reflect actual market conditions – leading to suboptimal costing decisions. Imagine expanding into a new geography and the ERP not reflecting the level of competition, pricing trends, demographic data, and more.

While allocating indirect costs, different allocation methods used by different departments result in varying outcomes, potentially distorting cost figures. For departments like marketing and research and development where outcomes cannot be easily quantified, determining budgets is an issue that remains unresolved.

Most ERP systems struggle to cope with fluctuations in demand or changes in the business landscape, resulting in inaccurate cost estimates. Imagine relying on incremental budgeting despite cost drivers being extremely dynamic.

ERP systems focus greatly on financial metrics, often overlooking non-financial factors like quality, customer satisfaction, and employee morale, harming long-term profitability.

Traditional ERP systems are also inflexible in planning multiple scenarios and forecasting using different assumptions.

Data sourced by ERP platforms for financial accounting isn’t structured, restricting CFOs from creating accurate financial reports or iterative forecasts.

Truth Beyond ERP: Unveiling Costing and Profitability Insights

Recognising the inherent limitations of ERP systems in providing comprehensive costing and profitability analysis, forward-thinking CFOs are turning to modern software tools to unlock benefits beyond ERP. Activity-based costing tools can pave the way for strategic pricing, while also boosting profitability. Operating seamlessly atop existing ERP environments, these tools open access to a wealth of data-driven insights that foster informed decision-making and drive business performance.

Offering cutting-edge cost management capabilities, activity-based costing tools help unearth useful insights into issues that plague the bottom line. From determining cost per unit and net margin to reducing and controlling costs, making accurate make-or-buy decisions, analysing variances, budgeting, and more. By apportioning specific overheads to various activities within the company, these tools help companies improve their cost management and pricing strategies by weeding out activities that are raising costs and require improvements.

Armed with rich analytics capabilities and in-depth calculations, these tools offer much-needed assistance across three key areas:

• Enabling strategic decision-making with informed cost management
• Optimising and improving operations
• Maximising product and customer profitability

Strategic Imperatives for CFOs: A Roadmap to Success

Activity-based costing tools help address the most intricate challenges faced by businesses. From why profit margins are stagnating when revenue is increasing to what the best price is for a product – and more. Utilising rich costing and profitability insights gained through activity-based costing and analytical tools, CFOs are equipped to:

Improve Profit Margins

Strategically analysing cost structures and identifying opportunities for cost optimisation is paramount to improving profit margins. By leveraging advanced activity-based costing and analytics tools, CFOs can delve deep into cost drivers, pinpoint inefficiencies, and implement targeted cost-saving initiatives that enhance profitability.

Using activity-based costing data, manufacturers can get a clearer understanding of the impact of promotions and discounts on the profitability of each SKU, outlet-wise. They can revisit prices charged to all major customers and make changes to boost the bottom line.

Optimise Pricing Strategies

To decide on the right pricing, CFOs must strike the right balance between maximising revenue and maintaining competitiveness. With access to comprehensive costing data and market insights, CFOs can develop pricing strategies that strike the optimal balance, driving revenue growth while preserving margins.

Activity-based costing tools can offer much-needed support in pricing decisions. For instance, marketing teams that struggle to negotiate with customers can use insights generated by these tools to get a detailed break-up of costs, operations-wise. They can also get a better understanding of related actual costs and current market rates for various operations and ensure prices align with customer expectations.

Gain a Competitive Edge

In today’s hypercompetitive landscape, outdoing the competition is a top priority to drive long-term success. By leveraging cost-data-driven insights, CFOs can identify market trends, assess competitor strategies, and make informed decisions that position their company ahead of the curve.

For instance, activity-based costing tools can furnish details about a company’s product or service vis-à-vis the competition. This can aid in comparing prices, product features, and also marketing efforts – allowing companies to identify their place in a dynamic landscape.

Conduct Data-Driven Capacity Planning

Effective capacity planning is essential for optimising resource allocation and meeting demand fluctuations. By harnessing the power of cost data analytics, CFOs can forecast future demand, identify capacity constraints, and make strategic investments in infrastructure and resources to ensure operational agility and scalability.

Retail CFOs can leverage data generated from costing tools to get a better understanding of sales during the holiday season. This can help them make the right decisions about hiring seasonal workers and adding additional headcount as needed to meet demand.

Reduce Operating Expenses

Identifying opportunities to streamline operations and reduce operating expenses is a constant priority for CFOs. Through detailed analysis of cost structures and process efficiencies, CFOs can identify areas for optimisation, implement cost-saving measures, and drive sustainable cost reductions without compromising quality or service delivery.

For example, using advanced tools, CFOs can identify process expenses using drivers that reflect causality. Using these insights, they can enable improvements via higher capacity utilisation and optimal manpower mix, reducing costly downtime and thus improving customer satisfaction via higher availability and reliability of systems.

The modern CFO is at the forefront of leveraging data analytics to drive strategic decision-making and unlock new opportunities for business growth. While modern ERP platforms are built with a basic set of costing capabilities, they do not deliver the level of analysis or insight needed to survive and thrive in today’s competitive landscape.

Advanced costing and accounting tools can help organisations navigate critical day-to-day processes through strategic decision-making and elevate profitability through effective total cost management. By embracing advanced analytics tools and harnessing the power of data, CFOs can navigate complex challenges, optimise resources, and drive sustainable value creation, ensuring the long-term success and competitiveness of their organisations.