Remote working finance teams drive Cbiz CloudStart

• Cbiz launches its Cbiz CloudStart solution
• A solution to support finance teams
• A completely new financial system in 40 hours
• Includes user training
• A solution to the challenges faced by finance departments & remote working

Cbiz has today launched their Cbiz CloudStart solution, a rapid implementation model for finance teams to help them deal with the challenges of accurate reporting and remote / home working.

Cbiz CloudStart enables the rollout of the Finance module of Microsoft's Dynamics 365 Business Central (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution within 40 hours and within a fixed price.

Historically this rollout would have required several weeks and would have needed time upfront to understand your business before a reliable estimate could be given.

It is common to find finance teams struggling to gain a positive view of their data as they have to deal with a multitude of software, spreadsheets, reports, personal knowledge & "gut feels".

It is typical to see teams:

• Getting data from and even entering data into multiple systems & spreadsheets,
• Have access to inadequate reporting tools and data that is hard to match/get to,
• Inability to access their data outside of the office, e.g. while working from home / remotely, and
• Demanding more detailed and meaningful reports in today's challenging market conditions.

These factors combine to make finance teams work harder, later and under more duress. Creating a recipe for disaster; that is often only averted by individuals doing more than their best to cope week-in, week-out.

As a result, finance teams spend more time getting the data ready than they do on the analysis of that data. Limiting the transformational insight and advice they can offer their businesses.

Research by Microsoft has found that 50% 0f SMB's adopt new business management solution - such as Business Central - only to replace their outdated hardware and software. Only 38% of SMB's proactively do so to resolve data duplication and errors.

"With Microsoft's move to the cloud, along with over 25 years of experience in Business Central, we have designed an approach that allows businesses to get started on their transformation journey much, much faster.

This allows people to work with their data wherever they are - and on the device, they choose - far sooner than ever before.

Our Cbiz CloudStart approach allows businesses to grow into the rich functionality of Business Central from a known starting point. Taking away the risk that is typically associated with moving into a flexible, tailorable business system. Replacing uncertainty with tried and tested templates that allow you to get up and running fast and take over critical data from your old - and often outdated - software". Amit Wason, Managing Director, Cbiz

Our customers have felt the benefits of implementing Microsoft's Dynamics 365 Business Central into their business.

We wanted to bring those benefits to many more companies. Especially those that want to start small and - at a pace that suits them - grow the system across their range of business functions and activities.

Many of the problems we commonly see and have solved are built right into our solution. These include:

• Finance teams wasting hours a week dealing with multiple systems that cannot talk to each other.
• Excruciating - error-prone - manual processes that rely on printing several reports and pulling the data into reporting spreadsheets.
• Slow systems due to a growth in the volume of transactions
• Having teams work late into the night and at weekends, especially at month-end, to meet ever-tighter deadlines.
• Needing to create new metrics in spreadsheets, Access databases, and separate systems to cope with gaps in current systems and rising management/board level demand for further information.
• Struggling with new compliance requirements that are hard to meet in older systems (such as MTD and GDPR).
• Entering Purchase Invoices that could easily be scanned in.
• Striving to keep on top of managers to approve documents or make payments.
• Having to type long journals into systems when they are already prepared in Excel.
• Struggling to train new team members on multiple systems that all work differently and trying to retain the knowledge for all the steps involved.
• Reluctant to bring on new team members, even when desperately needed, as it takes so long to get them productive and accurate. It's easier just to work later and get it done.

Along with the resource and reporting issues mentioned above, multiple systems compound low productivity by requiring numerous logins, numerous window switches, various searches for information and an inordinate amount of concentration to avoid mistakes. Especially at month-end, when it arguably matters the most.