6 Strategies to Strengthen Your Financial Reporting Team

1. The Golden Rule: Always Use Fresh Eyes

Never send financial statements to external stakeholders without independent review. The person who prepared the report shouldn't be the final reviewer—they're too close to the work to spot their own errors.

A fresh perspective from someone uninvolved in preparation catches mistakes that the original preparer will inevitably miss. This simple quality control step prevents embarrassing errors from reaching clients.

The payoff: Higher quality outputs and protected professional reputation.

2. Create Dedicated Client Communication E-mails

For teams serving external clients, a dedicated email address per client demonstrates professionalism while solving a practical problem. Instead of all client communications flooding one inbox, dedicated channels make it easier to track correspondence, manage requests, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

This simple change shows clients they have a dedicated communication line while making your internal workflow more manageable.

The payoff: Better client relationships and more organized internal processes.

3. Make Comments Count

Internal reviews of financial statements work best when reviewers explain why something needs changing, not just what needs changing. This context helps preparers learn from mistakes and process feedback more effectively.

Platforms like Nexly tie comments directly to specific figures or disclosures with audit trails showing reasoning and support. This clarity reduces back-and-forth during review cycles and creates valuable learning opportunities for junior staff.

The payoff: Smarter teams and smoother collaboration with both internal teams and clients.

4. Dedicate Teams to Clients

Spreading professionals across multiple clients might seem efficient, but it's actually counterproductive. When the same manager-level professionals work consistently with the same clients, they develop deep knowledge of specific requirements, processes, and common issues.

This dedicated approach creates a learning curve that pays dividends—your team understands client nuances, anticipates problems, and delivers faster because they're not constantly switching contexts.

The payoff: Faster turnaround times and higher quality deliverables through specialized expertise.

5. Automate the Mundane Work

Manual cross-checking, tie-outs, and formatting reviews consume hours of valuable time while increasing error risk—especially when deadlines loom. These mechanical tasks pull your experienced professionals away from the strategic work that actually matters.

Automated review tools like Nexly eliminate this burden by reviewing financial statements against support files, flagging discrepancies, and highlighting risky disclosures. Your team can focus on material judgments instead of hunting for formatting inconsistencies.

The payoff: Faster reviews, fewer errors, and professionals doing what they do best.

6. End Version Control Chaos

Nothing kills efficiency like confusion over which draft is current. When teams juggle email attachments, file servers, and Excel files labeled FINAL_final2_v3 mistakes are inevitable. Multiple stakeholders reviewing different versions creates duplicate work and missed changes.

Centralized platforms like Nexly keep all drafts in one place with complete version history and change tracking. Everyone works from the latest version automatically, eliminating the administrative overhead of managing multiple files.

The payoff: No more duplicate work or reviewing outdated versions.

How We Can Help

Schedule a demo to discover how financial reporting teams are using Nexly to reduce tedious tasks by 40%.