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ACCOUNTING

ACCOUNTING

Business Success By the Numbers : Clients Profit from Real-Time Financial Data

CPA firms empower companies to make smart decisions with information delivered at the speed of business .
Compiled by Miles Z . Epstein Editor , COMMERCE

Knowing your numbers is the key to running a successful business . But having a dashboard where you can monitor results in real time provides additional advantages . Tracking strengths and weaknesses allows for adjustments in a fast-changing market and the winners in the economy of the future will harness this ability and use it to increase profits . To discuss this process , here are experts from New Jersey ’ s top accounting firms .

Alloy Silverstein By Christopher R . ese , CPA , MSTFP , Manager
In the past , due to the time limitation of business owners , accountants were practically restricted to report on historical data until the business owner was able to provide information . Today , when a business works with our team to implement accounting technology , they enable us to provide real-time insight on their business operations through standard or customized reporting . Accounting technology has been improving by leaps and bounds over recent years . Foundation accounting software alone has been able to utilize bank feeds and rules to almost automatically identify and code transactions , which would have been a tedious task in the past . Using supplemental software , a company can automatically grab and record transactions or retrieve bills and bank statements into one location instead of requiring you to log in to multiple websites to get the necessary documents . Implementation is key , as an incorrect setup could potentially take a large amount of time to correct and clean up . However , if set up correctly , business owners can spend less time on accounting and more time focusing on growing their businesses .
Citrin Cooperman By Michael Napolitano , CPA , Partner
Our client , a specialty contractor , was looking for a strategic approach to manage job costs , sales and back-office accounting . Like most contractors , the company lacked the ontime job cost reporting critical for cost measurement comparisons to estimated costs . In most cases , jobs were measured post-completion , with no ability to correct during construction . Because of our industry expertise , we recommended construction software that would address the critical functions necessary to manage projects , including job cost management , inventory control and billing — all available in real time . Our approach was to incorporate the latest programs and technology to bridge together several programs that resided on different platforms and provide the strategy and processes to use them effectively . A company can have the best software and technology , but if it isn ’ t used correctly , the investment is worthless . We provided the technology to integrate the software to seamlessly work together and trained the staff to use the software correctly . Now the project managers have real-time cost reports , more-accurate billing , better inventory management and a much more-accurate estimating process , which is the result of the real-time reporting that allows the client to update cost estimates .
CohnReznick LLP By Paul Ricci , CPA , Partner , Technology & Data National Leader , CohnReznick Advisory
The economy of the future will harness data and use it to increase profits .
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Today ’ s mercurial economic landscape requires agility and a flexible data strategy . Organizations have needed to shift to continuous forecasting models to improve critical insights like demand or revenue planning . To collate and understand their real-time financial data , companies should leverage the vast innovation of data integration and analytics technologies . With the widespread availability of machine learning platforms , cloud data repositories and analytics tools , we have helped clients streamline financial processes and adopt tailored technology platforms that enable them to ingest , orient and harness near-real-time data for quick decision-making , as well as assessing long-term business strategies . We ’ ve shifted our clients ’ focus from past-period reporting to forward-looking decision-making . CFOs must
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