Warren Buffett once said “In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.” When it comes to operational clarity, QuickBooks and ledgering manual spreadsheets may have provided adequate accounting solutions for a 10-person company, but relying on operational hindsight means taking your eyes off the road ahead. When a singular revenue stream becomes a financial estuary of multiple revenue streams, it’s vital to have the automation, flexibility and integration to control its current.
NetSuite is a cloud-based financial management solution that provides sophisticated, fully integrated functions for revenue recognition, reporting/analytics, and billing management to ensure compliance, provide real-time, sharable information and simplify the billing processes. With NetSuite’s end-to-end integration and customizable automation, companies can effectively map and navigate the complex topography of multiple revenue streams.
Revenue Recognition
Ensuring compliance to revenue recognition on multi-revenue sales can be a complex – and foreboding – prospect, especially when the rules seem to continuously change – such as the introduction of the latest EITF 08-01 and 09-03 rules. NetSuite’s advanced revenue recognition function can eliminate the need for complex spreadsheets and completely automate the revenue recognition processes to ensure compliance with AICPA, FASB and SEC regulations. NetSuite’s capabilities include managing one-off and recurring billing for maintenance and subscription-based revenue streams, as well as calculating multi-currency and multi-subsidiary transactions.
The function of the software is to support revenue recognition schedules for all sales, but NetSuite is also flexible enough to accommodate a company’s preferred processes. For example, customizable schedules can be made on a per-item basis, and companies can choose to separate or integrate revenue recognition with the billing process. A reliable cloud software consultancy firm, such as Business Intelligence 101, can help companies integrate their preferred processes.
Billing Management
When a company begins to source multiple revenue streams, it’s important the streams are not dammed by manual workflow bottlenecks. Regularly caused by manual billing processes – e.g., sales quotes to approved order or fulfillment to invoicing – these dams slow down the order-to-cash process. NetSuite’s billing management eliminates human error harbored by the manual process and reduces turnaround times. By monitoring orders with real-time dashboards and centralizing the management of quotes and orders, NetSuite reduces the effort and time of billing management. When it comes to managing the billing of multiple revenue streams – such as project, subscription, recurring or time-based billing – NetSuite automates the complex and, often times, dissimilar billing processes.
Not only does effective billing management reduce effort, time and human error; the billing automation of NetSuite also provides the conduit needed for customer self-service. By allowing customers access to order, delivery and automated billing information, NetSuite’s billing management becomes a competitive customer service asset.
Reporting and Analytics
While NetSuite’s robust ERP provides sophisticated accounting solutions to manage multi-revenue streams, the reporting and analytics of the full-featured CRM allow companies to monitor the performance of marketing, sales and customer service. NetSuite’s dashboard provides information in real-time, such as lead conversions and website metrics. With access to performance indicators, shared reports and real-time data, departments have the information necessary to analyze information without having to wait for IT reports or wade through murky spreadsheets.
The NetSuite cloud-based financial solution provides both the ERP sophistication to manage multiple revenue streams and the CRM integration to improve business performance. With time-saving automation and full, end-to-end integration, NetSuite can help companies navigate multiple revenue streams and prepare for what’s around the bend.
