Get Your Accounting FLO Moving for Summit NA
In episode 23 of “Inside Dynamics Communities,” Ryan Gonzales, Senior Sales Director of Dynamics Communities and Summit NA, and Pam Misialek, Community Director of Dynamics Communities and Summit NA, host Shivang Patel, Senior Director of Growth Markets with FloQast, to discuss all things accounting. Specifically, the three discuss accounting automation, and how FloQast’s solutions enable compliance requirements and collaboration.
This episode is sponsored by Summit North America, the largest independent gathering of the Microsoft Business Applications ecosystem, taking place Oct. 15-20, 2023, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Register today to connect with thousands of users across the Microsoft business applications ecosystem at the for user, by user event.
Highlights
00:19 — After introducing Shivang Patel, who is the Senior Director of Growth Markets at FloQast, Pam asks him how users can make their closing process an overall smoother — and less painful — experience.
01:20 — Nowadays, “technology is going to be probably the biggest driver to getting things done easier,” responds Shivang. Something that FloQast clients have adopted are ways to get ahead of the “more high-risk journal entries” — for example, letting revenue “wait until the very end.” Oftentimes, “by making those requests earlier, you can actually do the review process sooner and get comfortable before your deadlines.” When this notion is applied to the full balance sheet, “I think you will immediately see a good pickup.”
02:12 — Revenue tends to wait until the very end, because it can be the most challenging, Pam points out.
“It’s definitely the hardest, [but] there’s a lot of support,” notes Shivang. When applying advanced technologies, there are ways to automate this process – and automation is something built into FloQast applications.
03:04 — How is FloQast implementing automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and compliance integration into its SaaS application?
When it was founded, FloQast was focused on month-end close. “We wanted to build the best close solution that embraced Excel, embraced SharePoint, Dynamics cloud, OneDrive, Visio, Word, things that accountants are already using. We didn’t want to be a system that deterred them away from those solutions,” notes Shivang.
After a few years, FloQast began to integrate automation into its offerings, namely, “being able to match transactions automatically.” Since then, the company has released FloQast Ops, which “integrates with close but allows your team members adjacent to accounting think — F&P and the investor relations, HR, anybody where you’re getting support — to actually do your closing.”
05:06 — More recently, FloQast has “layered on compliance and the ability to not only maintain your full internal control framework, but we also have an ability to test the internal controls, maintain your risk, as well as remediate any issues that may have come as a result of that testing.” As such, not only are accountants responsible for closing books, but act as control owners, providing support for compliance to internal auditors. However, with FloQast, “internal auditors, outsourced internal auditors, and the accounting team can all collaborate,” making it generally easier for accountants.
06:41 — These solutions not only benefit the “doers” — but the accountants themselves — but the controllers, CFOs, and stakeholders now have visibility into the books, too.
“It’s kind of cool because we’ve catered to both audiences… CFOs, and controllers can use our dashboard, while the accounting team can use our reconciliations and checklists to drive automation,” explains Shivang.
07:19 — For the second time, FloQast will be attending Community Summit North America 2023 and will be located at booth #1918 in the Expo Hall.
Lastly, if you are looking for some fun, check out FloQast Studios, suggests Shivang.
