CFO Service Finance & Accounting

KPIs for Finance and Accounting Department

Each department in each company uses something called key performance indicators (KPIs) in order to provide them with a wide array of information. This helps to determine if goals are being met, targets need revising and whether teams are being motivated enough. The information can help departments and companies achieve optimum performance.  This is always an important goal of companies in order to achieve the best results. This article describes the KPIs for Finance and Accounting Department.

It’s important to set KPIs so company departments can develop strategies that result in the companies achieving the top performance. A company’s finance/accounting departments also require KPIs. However, it can be tough to determine the right ones. That includes factors used to track the team’s performance and how the information can help to improve in these various areas.

KPI Features for Finance/Accounting Departments

KPIs can provide company managers with two sets of info. That includes how efficiently the department is operating and making sure the employees’ behavior is lined up with the company’s goals. These are both important issues to consider in terms of the departments. Here are some of the main features your company’s KPIs^[1] should have:

• Communicated

It’s important for your Finance/Accounting department to share the KPIs with the company’s workers. This, in turn, will help to make sure everyone is on the same page. That, in turn, will make it more likely the department will be able to achieve the goals. However, if they’re not shared with the employees then they won’t know which KPIs your company is attempting to achieve. That’s definitely a situation you’ll want to avoid as it can make the situation more difficult.

• Realistic

It’s important for KPIs to be ones that your finance & accounting (F&A) departments can achieve. They can be “stretch goals” that requires the company to push itself in order to achieve. However, the goals shouldn’t be so difficult that they’re basically impossible to achieve. That’s a situation you’ll want to avoid because it can have a negative effect on the morale of the department if it’s nearly impossible to reach its goals/objectives. So, while it’s important for the department to set goals they shouldn’t be so tough to achieve that it reduces the department’s motivation.

• Automation

Many of today’s finance/accounting departments use automated systems. Companies don’t mind spending money on upgrades since it will save time/money in the future. When developing KPIs it’s important for them to inform managers of 3 kinds of info including the time needed to report financial data, insights about business performance that the data provides, and the data’s reliability. All of these issues are important in helping to determine if your Finance/Accounting department’s automation systems are effective.

It’s important to verify that KPIs show these factors have been achieved. The Chief Finance Office or Manager can then be certain that the systems are worthwhile. If that’s not the case then the CFO or manager must keep re-designing systems/processes until the company’s goals are achieved. So, KIPs are valuable even in an automated environment.

Factors to add in Finance/Accounting KPIs

It’s important to be aware of which factors the finance manager should add to KPIs when measuring items on the balance sheet. Here are some of the main ones to add:

• Accounts Payable

If you’re measuring this it’s important to consider various factors including time to process invoices, cost per invoice, payments in the timeline, day’s payment outstanding, and discounts for early payment. These are all key factors related to accounts payable services. It’s important to consider all the factors in order to measure accounts payable effectively. This will help to get the most accurate figures.

• Payroll

Here’s another common part of KPIs to consider. Make sure you consider some of the most important factors including error rates cost per payroll payment, manual check-outs, and error rates. These are all important factors to consider when making your calculations.

You can even take it to the next level by collaborating with the HR department in order to figure out how many days are needed to process the company’s new hires, days taken to fix issues, and cost per payroll inquiry. These are all important factors that can be considered when calculating payroll KPIs.

• Accounts Receivable

If your company will have KPIs for accounts receivable it’s important to measure things like:

• Days sales outstanding
• Sales outstanding
• Average days of delinquent payments
• Collections Effectiveness Index

These are all important factors to consider for accounts receivable KPIs. IT’s important to make sure you’re considering all the factors in order to get the most accurate figures.

A company’s finance/accounting departments are some of the most important ones of any company. That’s because they’re integral in the company’s earning and spending money. They’re easily some of the most important departments of any company since they’re involved with the company’s money. As a result, it’s important for the departments to take steps to the company operates as smoothly as possible.

This is the reason why KPIs is so critical in order to help the company run as smoothly as possible. The set of SKIPIs can help to provide the finance managers with all the data they need to make sure the department functions as smoothly as possible. That, in turn, will benefit the company in general.

The primary reasons for measuring KPIs differ among different companies. They can also be used for various departments within a company like the finance and accounting departments. The key is to use KPIs to help achieve the goals of the department and company. It’s not really enough to use KPIs. Instead, they should be used effectively.

However, when a company does that the KPIs can be a critical part of a company’s strategies. The key is to measure the right KPIs and produce items from the data to help the company become more competitive. Today’s business world is more competitive than ever so it’s critical to take steps in order to gain an edge over rival companies. There are several options but KPIs are definitely one of the most important ones in order to achieve the best results.

Read our article:5 Essential Finance and Accounting Tips for Small Businesses