All the data gathering that your ERP system does is great, as long as you can access it when and as needed. The needs are very different depending on the type of reporting you are trying to accomplish:
Management Reporting: - Internally focused - users of these reports are most often managers.
- No mandatory rules - how you decide to present the information is up to you. There are few guidelines to follow to ensure that the information is easily understood and not misleading.
- Emphasis on the future - often managers are interested in creating projections or forecasts based on the past. Trends, averages and outliers are key considerations when looking to the future.
- Internal evaluation with behavioral ramifications- we often use management reports to change how we run the business. What should our price changes be? What product lines should we continue to carry?
- Detailed Information - Most often managers want to be able to drill down to the transaction level, especially when they find a problem.
| Financial Reporting: - Externally focused - provide these reports to the bank, your shareholders, CRA.
- GAAP/ IFRS - standards that you must adhere to, mandated by 3rd parties.
- Historically focused - typically looking back in time at your performance for a previous month, quarter or year.
- External evaluation of company as a whole - typically, users are not looking at performance by region or by business unit but at the entire entity.
- Summary Information- most often the level of detail provided in Financial reporting is at a summary level, certainly not transaction by transaction.
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