Can a Cloud ERP help my business with international expansion?

As you create new legal entities and business units or enter new countries the demands upon your core accounting system increase. Your original system is likely to have been designed for a single entity, single country organisation and quickly reaches its limitations.

Existing systems may continue to work but the system is likely to need support from many workarounds and increasing time from your finance team and local service providers, ensuring you are compliant in each country.

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What benefits to expect?

The benefits expected from a Cloud ERP system vary but within the finance function the following should come as standard when expanding internationally;

Global business management – the ability to quickly report across multiple axis and languages to support your business leaders in their decision-making process. The data can be pulled from multiple entities and countries to give a full company picture, with drill through to the source documentation.

Intercompany accounting and consolidation – have a unified data model to simplify intercompany reconciliation and enable the posting of all sides of a transaction with one entry. With a company corporate chart of accounts, data can also be consolidated automatically with elimination journals automatically posted to give almost real-time visibility of the financial performance.

Comprehensive FX – many accounting packages aimed at smaller entities do not provide full FX functionality, but with a Cloud ERP system, real-time FX consolidation should be standard, ensuring all multi-currency balances are revalued and giving the ability to consolidate at a group level at any time.

Audit and compliance – having one secure system in place enables improved control over financial data and a more systematised way to roll out company policies. A Cloud ERP system should also provide access-based user roles and permissions ensuring the right people have the right information at the right time. With one system and accounting framework in place, you set the foundations for a fully scalable secure platform to support your growth.

Configurable tax engine – each country has its own tax rules and filing requirements and you will need a system that can adapt to each territory individually. The greater alignment your system has to local tax legislation reduces your overall compliance cost and improves your local speed of reporting.

Automation – functionality should be embedded within the system to allow automation of key processes and increase functionality for both you and the wider business.

In conclusion, having one Cloud ERP system and one local service provider to support you in your accounting and compliance needs as you expand globally can save you time, improve your visibility of the business operations, strengthen your internal control environment and provide a secure base for accelerated international growth. The earlier you put in place the simpler the transition is.

If you would like to know how Mazars can support you, please contact us today for a free 30-minute consultation.

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