Ditch the Manual Work: Automate Flux Analysis

It’s business day 5 of month 3 in the quarter. I’m down a Senior Accountant, but the show must go on—books must be closed. My team is scrambling to book the final entries, racing to meet tonight’s 10 p.m. deadline. Amid this chaos, one thing I’ve always relied on during month-end close is fluxes: Did we book everything? Did we book it correctly? Does anything look unusual?

Fluxes are a powerful tool. But (there’s always a but) preparing them was a constant headache. In our ERP, we had a custom report to compare the balance sheet and income statement, but it wasn’t enough. Each month, we’d export the report, add formulas to calculate variances, group details by financial statement line items, flag accounts that required analysis, and assign tasks to team members. It was a cumbersome process just to prepare fluxes for review.

Then came the analysis itself: running the GL, slicing, dicing, and chasing down variances. At a previous company, we used FP&A tools to centralize the data. While it helped avoid repetitive GL downloads among multiple people, it came with its own challenges. Navigating the file once there was a lot of data in it felt like steering a ship. As you’re waiting for a recalculation in the file, you may get a ping “Hey! We’ve refreshed the numbers, here’s an updated file!” Great, now I need to restart. Or even worse, you don't see the updated file so you spend hours investigating why the fluxes in the file don't quite line up with the numbers you're seeing in the financial reports in the ERP.

If fluxes are so critical, why couldn’t my ERP do the heavy lifting? The data’s already there!

When I joined Everest, I learned why pre-existing systems struggle with such features. Decades of code layered with patches make changes risky for business continuity. I empathize with the big ERP players, but the reality is, these limitations force teams back to manual fluxes. Even dedicated tools, while helpful, often don’t integrate seamlessly with unique ERP setups.

At Everest, we understand the challenges accountants face—because we’ve lived them. Our team, made up of former accountants, experienced firsthand the frustration and burnout caused by manual, repetitive tasks. That’s why we set out to create an ERP designed to eliminate those pain points. We built a flux tool directly into our ERP. Now, preliminary checks are truly quick—income statement and balance sheet numbers refresh in seconds. AI provides an initial flux analysis, highlighting key drivers so you can focus on deeper insights and strategic planning. By automating the busy work, we give you back time to focus on meaningful analysis. And the best part? There’s no need for additional tools to automate your fluxes. 

Want to see it in action? Reach out for a demo!

Jennifer Nguyen