Are you audit-ready? How BEST can help you achieve compliance

Year-end audits are a constant in business, yet they often bring stress to finance teams. Daily operations don’t pause for these audits, creating a challenging balancing act.

Today, being audit-ready isn’t just good practice—it’s crucial for business success. Lack of preparation can lead to rushed paperwork, scrambling to address audit findings, and delays in providing information to stakeholders. 

As regulatory pressures mount and the stakes of non-compliance rise, organisations must rethink their approach to financial processes and controls. The need for efficiency is clear, and the cost of non-compliance is high.

What is audit readiness, and why is it important?
 

Audit readiness is the state of being fully prepared for an audit, whether internal, external, or regulatory. It involves ensuring that all your company’s financial records, processes, and controls are in place and compliant with relevant standards and regulations. 

Achieving this state of readiness is crucial for three key reasons:

Compliance

Maintaining audit readiness ensures that a company’s financial records and reporting adhere to relevant accounting standards and regulatory requirements. This commitment to compliance not only safeguards the organisation’s reputation but also instils confidence in stakeholders.

Risk mitigation

It serves as a robust defence against the risks of financial misstatements, errors, and fraudulent activities. By proactively addressing potential vulnerabilities, organisations can mitigate the legal, financial, and reputational consequences associated with audit findings.

Operational efficiency

When an organisation is audit-ready, the audit process itself becomes a well-oiled machine, saving time and resources. Finance teams can focus on strategic initiatives rather than scrambling to gather documentation or address discrepancies during the audit.

The power of automation in achieving compliance

At the heart of audit readiness lies data accuracy. BEST’s automation capabilities address this challenge head-on by reducing the risk of errors across key financial processes, from reconciliations to data entry. Automation ensures consistency and accuracy, streamlining day-to-day activities and creating a robust foundation for audit preparedness.

BEST’s in-SAP modules provide a clear audit trail, systematically recording every transaction, adjustment, and reconciliation. This comprehensive history enables auditors to follow the trail easily, enhancing transparency and trust.

BEST’s in-SAP solutions: Delivering compliance with confidence

BEST’s deep understanding of finance teams’ unique challenges informs its suite of in-SAP solutions, transforming manual processes into streamlined, audit-ready, and automated workflows.

Vendor reconciliations: Achieve 95%+ matching rates

BEST’s vendor reconciliation module empowers organisations to take control of their accounts payable reconciliations. By automating the matching of supplier statements to SAP data, BEST delivers match rates of 95% or higher, eliminating the risk of discrepancies and ensuring complete visibility into the payables position. This not only enhances cash flow management but also positions the organisation for audit success, with a clear audit trail and real-time data accuracy.

Balance sheet reconciliations: Automate for continuous compliance

Ensuring the integrity of balance sheet accounts is a critical component of audit readiness. BEST’s balance sheet reconciliation module automates this process, constantly monitoring and reconciling GL balances to identify mismatches. With intelligent flagging and real-time visibility dashboards, finance teams can address discrepancies proactively, maintaining a state of continuous compliance and audit preparedness.

Open item clearing: Streamline period-end closures

The ability to efficiently clear open items is essential for accelerating period-end closures and providing auditors with a clear picture of account balances. BEST’s open item clearing module leverages advanced algorithms to automate bulk clearing across multiple companies and account types, eliminating manual effort and reducing compliance risk exposure.

Customer clearing: Enhance order-to-cash efficiency

Streamlining customer clearing is another crucial aspect of audit readiness. BEST’s customer clearing module automates the matching of remittances to open receivables, providing complete visibility into unclear items and accelerating the order-to-cash cycle. This not only enhances DSO metrics but also ensures regulatory compliance through robust validation and exception handling

A holistic approach to audit readiness
 

While BEST’s individual modules address specific financial processes, the true power of the solution lies in its holistic approach to audit readiness. By seamlessly integrating these capabilities within your current SAP ecosystem, BEST delivers a comprehensive suite of tools that work together to achieve and maintain compliance.

From robust document management and internal control monitoring to real-time reporting and data quality assurance, BEST’s in-SAP modules provide organisations with the visibility, control, and agility required to navigate the complex landscape of financial audits. With the security and familiarity of the SAP platform, finance teams can leverage their existing SAP infrastructure and expertise to drive lasting transformation.

BEST empowers organisations to elevate their audit readiness and financial compliance by combining automation, in-SAP integration, and best practices. Explore how BEST can transform your approach to compliance and audit readiness. Book your demo now: bestsapcbi.com/book-demo