This is a transcript of a video created by Derek Jackson, IFI Professionals Financial Planning & Analysis Team.
Hello, my name is Derek Jackson. I'm a member of the financial planning and analysis team here at IFI. Today, I wanted to talk about a phrase that we hear a lot in finance, single source of the truth.
Now, there are a few things that are more frustrating than searching for answers among multiple sources and getting a different result each time. If you've ever tried to build out an entire budget model on excel, well, you probably know that frustration pretty well.
At IFI we use a tool called Planful. Now Planful offers a cloud-based platform that can integrate with any ERP or CRM, HCM system and it eliminates a lot of those manual error prone processes that we're used to. It also stores data in what we call a cube type structure. Now, this is basically a multidimensional view that segments each data point based, on its attributes.
For example, you may want to see travel expense for a specific department related to a specific project and for a given month. Well, this cube structure is going to allow you to quickly access, and even plan, at that level of detail.
When we talk about single source of the truth from a planning perspective, it really comes down to two key elements, structure and control. Using a cube-based approach like Planful allows data to be stored in a way that mirrors the way that you think about your business. Having that ability to plan and retrieve data for a specific combination of company, department and project is going to give you that edge that you need to be able to ensure that your data is accurate and it's consistent.
Now when it comes to single source of truth for plan data, control is another big part of that. Proper governance of user access roles and permissions can help to ensure that your data integrity is maintained. When team members have the ability to edit only those elements that they are directly responsible for, the risk of inaccuracies drops significantly.
So as you continue this journey to the pinnacle of single source of the truth, just know that your efforts are worthwhile here. There are so many advantages to establishing this practice. Not only will it result in consistent data across all of your applications, but it's also going to reduce the efforts throughout your entire project life cycle.
Reach out to us today and I'll be happy to discuss with you what we can do to help.
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