According to Microsoft, five million active developers and 500+ enterprises (including 97% of Fortune 500 companies) are harnessing the potential of Power Platform.
Organizations looking to leverage data to drive success must digitize their processes and automate recurring tasks. The most viable way to collect data, develop facilitating applications and drive accountability across all departments is to use specialized software solutions such as Microsoft Power Platform.
What is Power Platform and how it helps in finance?
Microsoft Power Platform is a software suite of low code/no-code tools for workflow automation, application development, chatbot functionality, reporting and analysis. It is also highly useful for the finance function in organizations as its success depends on data accuracy, confidentiality and financial analysis.
Finance professionals need to access numerous data sources to make detailed reports in the shortest timeframe available. Power Platform allows them to swiftly develop applications to replace manual processes without having any IT experience. In short, Microsoft Power Platform enables finance leaders to transform processes and accelerate outcomes as they empower teams to develop low-code applications, automated workflows, data visualizations, reports, and chatbots using a single intuitive platform.
An issue with trial balances (case study)
A financial firm was looking to derive actionable insights from its trial balances. It needed a system to reclassify and eliminate entries in the trial balance along with generating balance sheets and profit/loss statements.
The financial company used Power Platform to develop a management reporting solution that had Power Automate in the back-end. It downloaded trial balances from numerous systems such as emails and accounting apps, and then added them into an SQL database so the analytics tool can use the data to develop insightful reports.
The solution enabled the firm to generate cash flow statements, balance sheets and CFO level insights for each financial statement. Interaction over these reports was also increased using Power BI (Business Intelligence) visualizations. Time filters were added to provide a bird’s eye-view of company’s performance over a selected period and it helped the higher management in making informed decisions and developing growth strategies.
