- You, or your accounting staff, have to understand the GL database and table structures in order to write accurate queries to build the reports. You cannot design/generate financial reports. You have to request reports from the IT department.
- You have to know how certain accounts or amounts are recorded in the GL and manipulate the way they are displayed. You have to re-key information and/or apply formulas to get the data displayed properly. If you make a mistake on the way one of the numbers was displayed or display an inaccurately calculated number, there is a negative impact.
- Your reports don’t always include all of the account numbers from your GL. You cannot make sure that your reports don’t include an account number multiple times. You cannot ensure that your reports contain accurate data.
- You have to constantly update information such as dates or add information, such as new account numbers. If you don’t properly display the correct header information on your reports, the impact is negative. If you add a new account number to your chart of accounts, you have to remember to add that account number into your report format. It does not always get done properly.
- There are often changes in your organization. The work involved when you acquire a new division, combine cost centers, or change reporting structures, from a financial reporting standpoint, is inefficient. You do not track organizational changes from a financial reporting perspective. Your historical reporting does not take into account organizational changes. It causes reporting inaccuracies.
- Your business deals in more than one currency. You post business in your GL in more than currency. You cannot create reports with more than one currency, and you need to calculate and re-key. It is not very accurate.
- You have more than one organization you need to do financial reporting on. You need consolidated financial reports on these multiple organizations. You cannot consolidate reports today, or the way you do so is inefficient. You re-key information into spreadsheets and link spreadsheets together, and this takes too long. It causes inaccuracies.
- You need to submit reports to organizations requiring the XBRL taxonomy. The way you are currently creating those reports takes too long and is inaccurate. There are harmful penalties for missing a deadline for reports requiring the XBRL taxonomy or for them being inaccurate.
