Do you rely on ERP software to keep your business organized, connected, and on-track?
If not, you should. Too many small businesses face a real struggle, with around half failing to survive their first five years. Just one in three actually last a full decade.
One of the most common reasons for these failure rates is poor management, including information management. A recent survey found more than 80 percent of employees feel this has a negative impact on their productivity — creating the potential to prevent a small business succeeding down the line.
Company-owners and managers must take advantage of the latest tools to manage information effectively. And Sage 300 Intelligence Reporting is a fantastic option. But what is it and how does it work?
What is Sage 300?
Sage 300 is ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software designed to help businesses perform more efficiently.
ERP unites the different processes within a company of any size and centralizes them within one system. This has the power to streamline your operations, increase the visibility of key information, and put all the data employees require at their fingertips.
It’s easy (sadly) for any business with multiple departments to become a little chaotic at times, especially during busy periods. Employees may be unable to find the right spreadsheet in a batch of hundreds, or struggle to identify which stage of development a product is in currently.
To return to the aforementioned survey, 46 percent of respondents felt finding crucial information was too “challenging and time-consuming”. And a staggering 80 percent have recreated documents simply because they can’t find the original.
This is a huge waste of time, effort, and resources. Poor information management may lead to costly delays and dissatisfied customers.
Integrating ERP software into your business can make a huge difference to your day-to-day processes. All departments can find the data, files, reports, and other information they need faster than ever, in one user-friendly system.
What is Sage 300 Intelligence Reporting?
Sage 300 Intelligence Reporting is a module complementing Sage 300. This is designed to extract data from your ERP and collate it into a streamlined, easy-to-read report. You can view this online or download it as a Microsoft® Excel® file.
Intelligence Reporting creates reports that are ready to use, with a professional style. They’re simple to make, too: just choose the information you want the report to cover and the tool does it for you. Reports may be customized or built from scratch.
Presenting data in a visual format is ideal for sharing complex information with employees at different levels, across diverse departments. Workers in one team may have no real idea what another does, for example, but Intelligence Reporting uses charts and graphs to convey data in a way they understand.
Reducing wasted time is a major benefit of the best ERP software, and Intelligence Reporting saves time spent scouring spreadsheets and documents for information manually. Just tailor the report to present the data required and share with all relevant employees.
And any time saved can be channeled into different areas of your business. Employees may be spread less thinly and apply a tighter focus to their respective duties when they have fast access to crucial information.
Furthermore, you can implement pre-built dashboards and reports to suit your business’s requirements or goals. But while Sage 300 Intelligence Reporting is simple to use, it still offers in-depth, actionable insights that can help you make stronger decisions.
Why? Because you have data from across your entire business available within one system, accessible in a customizable dashboard. There’s no need to request data from one department and wait for it to be sent over. It’s right there for you at any time.
The Excel format option means reports can be saved and distributed to be viewed offline, at any place, too. And this means you can analyze data and make decisions on the move, not just in the office.
The Business Benefits of Intelligence Reporting
Sage 300 Intelligence Reporting can be used to create reports related to:
● Finances
● Inventory
● Customers
● Sales
● Purchases
These offer the following benefits:
Drill down for deeper insights
You can take advantage of the drill-down facility in reports to identify trends in your financial activity, with two years’ worth of data available to analyze.
Automating tasks
Sage 300 Intelligence Reporting automates so much of the manual work Excel has traditionally forced you to do, such as making calculations. Inputting formulas is difficult for beginners, and can cost more time than it should. Intelligence Reporting performs these functions for you accurately.
Comprehensive overview of business performance
Sage 300 Intelligence Reporting allows you to create a Dashboard Analysis report, which delivers an overview of your business’s current condition. Enjoy at-a-glance insights into your performance over different periods.
Track your inventory
This report is a fantastic resource for small businesses looking to streamline and improve inventory management. View data on order quantities, costs, stock values, and more, for all your warehouses. You can make better decisions about managing your inventory, and leverage forecasting to plan ahead.
Identify your highest performers
Gather data on your most valuable customers, vendors, and/or products. This is a huge benefit for understanding which of your goods make the most positive impact on buyers, and which consumers demonstrate the most loyalty.
As you can pinpoint which products or vendors are falling behind, you can use these reports to make difficult decisions or determine how to rectify ongoing issues.
As you can see, Sage 300 Intelligence Reporting has the power to transform your small business and help you succeed. Bringing your entire company together through one centralized system can boost collaboration, reduce the danger of oversights or mistakes, and streamline manual processes.
NETWORTH is a trusted Accpac Solution provider working with businesses across such diverse fields as accounting, manufacturing, construction, marketing, transportation, and more.