Financial clarity protects your business from hefty fines

With the arrival of COVID-19, it’s more important than ever to stay on top of your data – and not just because you need to know your financial position. 

Misreporting your financial position can be perceived as market abuse, and, in the eyes of the law, it’s just as punishable as intentional fraud. 

The threat of financial fraud 

In recent news, NHS IT service provider Redcentric PLC received a final notice for committing market abuse – something that could have been avoided had they kept a full picture of their financial position.  

It was only after an internal review that it became clear they had made mistakes in their balance sheet, but by this point the damage was already done. They had already published false information about their net debt, which in the eyes of the Financial Conduct Authority is tantamount to serious fraud. 

Everybody is at risk 

This could easily happen to your organisation if you don’t have all the information you need. It could be all too easy to misstate your accounting balances if you don’t have an up-to-date picture of the figures – however, at a time when we’re all remote working, it’s harder than ever to get this. 

Could your organisation afford the fiscal and reputational damage of being involved in a criminal case? Once your reputation has been tarred with a high-profile court case, the way your customers perceive your business can be forever changed – even if you had no intent to mislead. 

This could easily happen to any organisation during the COVID-19 crisis if they don’t have a system that supports a real-time financial view. If your financial data is stored in several different locations or even spreadsheets, you may already be falling behind, as these need to be collated manually. 

How to mitigate the risks 

Don't let remote working be the reason you fail – let it be the reason you thrive. Now is the ideal time to migrate to a cloud-based financial system, not just to avoid accidental cases of fraud but also to improve your organisation’s working processes. 

Unified ledger systems such as IRIS Financials can provide total financial clarity. Rather than storing your financial data in separate ledger systems, everything is kept together on the same sheet. 

It also totally eliminates the need to consolidate any financial information, as it’s done for you automatically. This means you can access rich on-demand financial results and generate up-to-the-minute reports. 

If you’ve not used a unified ledger system before, you could benefit from a first-hand demonstration. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with our specialists – we'd love to show you how the IRIS Financials system works.