How ‘Unified’ Is Your Finance Function?

A lack of unification across the finance/accounting function can be very common, especially when organisations have grown fast, acquired other businesses, or haven’t modernised in a while. Perhaps you are seeing inefficiencies, data silos, or inconsistent reporting across your finance team/s.

Some key signs of a lack of unification:

• Multiple ERPs/financial management systems, or finance tools, across departments, business units, or regions.
• Heavy reliance on spreadsheets for consolidating reports.
• Manual data entry or reconciliations slowing down the financial close process.
• Disconnected planning and forecasting tools (e.g. Finance uses one thing, Ops another).
• Lack of real-time data access, especially for decision-makers.
• Lack of standardisation in KPIs or financial metrics.
• Data not flowing seamlessly between systems (ERP, CRM, spreadsheets, etc.).

What are the associated risks to the business?

• Operational risks – Disconnected finance functions cause inefficiency, duplicated efforts, and inconsistent processes. Multiple teams may perform the same tasks, leading to wasted time and errors. Non-standard tools and fragmented data limit visibility and hinder informed decision-making.
• Financial risks – Lack of unification can result in inaccurate reporting, unreliable forecasts, and missed regulatory deadlines. This raises the risk of fines, reputational damage, and poor cash flow management due to fragmented financial visibility.
• Strategic risks – Siloed finance teams slow down decision-making, misalign business unit goals, and make it harder to scale, adapt, or integrate acquisitions effectively.
• People & culture risks – A fragmented finance function reduces collaboration, erodes trust, and impacts morale. Manual workarounds and unclear responsibilities can lead to frustration and higher talent turnover.

What’s the solution?

🚀 Digital transformation can bring unification to the finance function through:

• ERP consolidation & modernisation - Moving to a unified, cloud-based ERP (e.g. SunSystems Cloud) can standardise processes, centralise data, and make integration easier.
  
• Automated workflows - Automating approvals, reconciliations, or expense management reduces manual work and errors.
• Integrated financial planning & analysis (FP&A) - Tools from Infor/UniFi can enable collaborative, real-time budgeting and forecasting across teams.
• Advanced reporting & dashboards – reporting solutions and embedded dashboards let stakeholders self-serve real-time insights rather than waiting on monthly reports.
• RPA (Robotic Process Automation)/machine learning/artificial intelligence - Innovative technologies can help automate repetitive finance tasks like invoice processing, data transfers, or compliance checks.
  
  

• Determine all current finance/business systems and their integrations (or lack thereof).
• Identify key pain points (slow close/inconsistent reporting/manual effort).
• Assess cloud-based platforms that could consolidate or automate those processes.
• Start small — pilot automation or integration in one function, for example Accounts Payable.

What’s our recommendation?

Here at Eclipse, we’ve been working with organisations both locally and globally to help them transform their finance functions for 35+ years. We thoroughly recommend ‘UniFi’, a one-stop solution to digitalise and ‘unify’ your entire finance function. With Unifi, you can benefit from a significant shift in your operations with a complete business process platform with unlimited potential across finance and all connected departments. 

UnifFi’s business process automation software includes all the add-ins and enhancements that a finance or ERP solution requires, including: Intercompany Accounting/ Procurement/Next-Gen Optical Character Recognition (OCR)/Expense Management/Analytics/Process Automation/Accounting Automation/Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence and more.

UniFi is essentially a drag-and-drop solution, with complimentary, pre-installed foundation apps. The platform simplifies and enhances the way your business systems communicate, enabling the controlled movement of data between them. With powerful integration capabilities and advanced APIs, UniFi transforms how you connect and automate your workflows.

Why consider UniFi?

• Removes the requirement for multiple individual business applications, eliminating the need for multiple software fees, logins, and interfaces.
• Limitless use cases across every department – UniFi’s comprehensive suite of applications and workflows are designed to meet your end-to-end business requirements.
• The most cost-effective and value-added platform for enhancing your existing finance solution or ERP system, such as SunSystems Cloud, SAP, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics or NetSuite, but can integrate with any finance solution. It is also worth knowing that UniFi provides a significantly lower total cost of ownership compared to other vendors.
• Seamlessly integrated systems for a single source of truth.
• Streamlined, automated, and optimised processes, which are easy-to-use and can be customised to meet the specific needs of your organisation. UniFi has an unmatched ability to automate complex processes and reduce errors, helping to free up time and resources.
• Native machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and automated scheduling capabilities, enabling organisations to revolutionise their operations even further.