Learn how to use a balanced scorecard with SAP Business One

In the following sections we will explain the importance of balanced scorecards for business management. We will also take a closer look at SAP Business On, indispensable software that more and more SMEs are adopting to improve their competitiveness, and how its balanced scorecard helps to accurately control all aspects of a business.

Once we have analysed all this, it's time to discover the functions of a balanced scorecard in SAP Business One and how each of them works. We will review KPIs, strategic targets, performance measurement, and many other benefits of a balanced scorecard. We'll explain what steps to take to set them up.

In short, we'll explain everything you need to know about the SAP Business One scorecard. Don't miss it!

What is a comprehensive scorecard in ERP?

A balanced scorecard (BSC) is a tool that comes in some ERPs to improve the management of a company's resources. With the set of functions it provides, departmental managers can measure and monitor the performance of an organisation against its strategic targets. The balanced scorecard provides different views and perspectives of the company, relating to financial and customer issues, or internal processes and growth.

Information in the form of key performance indicators is displayed in each of the sections. This concept is widely known in the business world by its acronym KPI (Key Performance Indicator). These indicators make it possible to see how successful each of the company's actions has been.

A "balanced scorecard" and "ERP", or enterprise resource planning software, constitute an interesting combination. The data provided by the application is transferred to the balanced scorecard and transformed into substantial information for the monitoring and evaluation of strategy. From each perspective or section it is possible to extract graphs and reports that improve decision-making.

In short, the balanced scorecard in an ERP has become a very useful tool for improving a company's overall performance, gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace and exploring new avenues for growth. However, to be effective, the KPIs and targets to be achieved need to be well defined. This is an issue we will discuss later, so stay with us!

Why is this function important?

Is a Balanced Scorecard function really that necessary? Many companies operate without this tool and even without an ERP. But those looking to boost their competitiveness in the marketplace and achieve performance targets will find ERP and scorecards to be two unbeatable tools.

In fact, here is a list of the most notable advantages of integrating both of them into an SME:

• Monitoring of established strategy and of compliance in business performance. This provides a more complete and balanced vision of the company's performance.
• Simplify information finding, facilitating decision-making. The balanced scorecard shows the most relevant data and presents them in a clear and concise way. This makes it easier to turn the business around in the shortest possible time, if necessary.
• Detect opportunities to perfect processes. Each perspective gives visibility to possible deviations from the set targets.
• Improve performance at all levels and in all organisational units of the company by fostering goal alignment, communication and collaboration between the different stakeholders. The scorecard translates into high productivity.
• Favouring the design, implementation, control and evaluation of new strategies that promote the development and growth of the business, by allowing it to adapt to changes in the environment and customer needs.
• Integrate information from the ERP database with a concrete strategy in the balanced scorecard. This optimises the use of resources and avoids the duplication or inconsistency of data.

What is SAP Business One?

SAP Business One is an ERP. If you are not quite sure what is behind the acronym, ERP stand for Enterprise Resource Planning. Simply put, it is a system for planning business resources. It is software designed to allow companies to manage, analyse and automate their business.

It is not a new concept. Companies have enjoyed the benefits of ERPs for decades. In fact, one of the developers of integrated management solutions, SAP, was founded in 1972. However, ERPs have evolved in such a way that they are now able to control processes across many different areas, such as finance, human resources, manufacturing, supply chain, service, purchasing and more.

What do companies achieve by integrating such software into their day-to-day operations? It's simple. An ERP allows you to link information from all departments, unifying it in a single database. This provides access to real-time data to improve efficiency, productivity and decision-making. Optimised processes lead to improved productivity, which is achieved through collaboration between teams. It also paves the way towards reducing operating costs and making better use of resources.

SAP Business One is the ERP par excellence for SMEs. It adapts to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses with a single, affordable solution for managing SMEs, through intuitive scorecards and applications, from accounting and finance to sales and customer relations. The versatility of this option does not stop there. In fact, another highlight of this software is that it can be deployed both in the cloud or on-premises.

Within SAP Business One, among many other things, you will find the balanced scorecard, which provides a global overview of the business and control of its most important aspects. We talked about this at the beginning of the guide and will continue to do so later. First, however, let's get to know the SAP ERP for SMEs a little better.

SAP Business One. Leading software in SMEs

The figures leave no room for doubt. SAP Business One is the leading business management software for SMEs. While reports indicate that the software is present in more than 150 countries with a customer base of 60,000, others believe even these figures are overly conservative.

In any case, the point is that SAP Business One not only provides a balanced scorecard, but also many other features of the undisputed leader in ERP for SMEs.

This is neither exaggerated nor anecdotal. Choosing a solution that tops the rankings of the most used ERPs in the world year after year has enormous benefits, such as having a huge community at your side, a powerful ecosystem of certified vendors, and an active development with constant updates.

Key features for all sectors of SAP Business One.

You already know that SAP Business One is the ERP software of choice for thousands and thousands of small and midsize companies. This has helped these business owners increase the reliability of their operations. Now, you may be wondering what tools a powerful management software like SAP Business One can provide.

In addition to the balanced scorecard, which is the focus of this guide, the SAP solution also gives you the following features:

• Purchasing and distribution management. Enjoy advanced administration to control the entire purchasing and distribution process. The SAP tool covers the entire process, from the creation of purchase orders to the receipt of goods, inventory management, invoicing and payment of suppliers.
• CRM. SAP Business One is a chameleon-like software package that can be adapted to virtually any task within a company. You should know that it has a CRM section to manage everything relating to customers and sales. It helps you to follow up on business opportunities, take customer loyalty actions, or review sales and contacts. It also facilitates the tracking of the customer lifecycle, from first contact to after-sales service and support. Finally, it provides useful reports on the performance of each customer and company representative.
• Finance. SAP ERP for SMEs has a general accounting section, managing key issues such as budgeting, treasury, bank reconciliation and taxation. As with the CRM, it also provides tools for financial analysis and reporting.
• Production. Industries with a production chain benefit greatly from SAP Business One's production chain-specific options. The ERP solves the product manufacturing process, from defining lists of materials to issuing manufacturing orders, calculating costs and managing resources.
• Inventories. Inventory utilities are very practical in SMEs where it is necessary to store products or raw materials. Why? Mainly because they allow you to manage the items that are sold, purchased and inventoried, as well as their prices, discounts, lots, batches, series and locations. It also has a function for stock movements, adjustments and physical inventories. Everything you need to manage stock efficiently.
• Business Intelligence. Business intelligence is an increasingly important concept for company owners. The aim is to extract business reports from the data being managed by means of integrated analytical tools. SAP Business One is able to generate analyses, graphs and Microsoft Excel sheets. This makes it much easier to check how different departments are performing and to get real-time alerts on their performance.

All these integrated tools can be adapted to any type of business, regardless of the sector or business structure behind it.

How does the balanced scorecard work in SAP Business One?

So far, we have looked at all the issues related to the balanced scorecard, ERP and SAP Business One. With all these explanations on the table, it's time to answer a fundamental question: How does the SAP Business One balanced scorecard work?

Clearly understanding the main features of this tool helps give you a clear vision of how it could be integrated into your company to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of your business. These are the most important elements of a balanced scorecard:

• Key performance indicators (KPI)
• Strategic targets
• Action plans
• Performance measurement

Now let's take a look at its main functionalities:

Predefined dashboards

SAP Business One's pre-defined dashboards allow you to create a fully customised balanced scorecard without advanced programming skills. As a result, the information is displayed in a variety of formats, such as tables, diagrams, maps or graphs. In addition to the ERP itself, it is also possible to import data from other platforms thanks to integrations.

Monitoring results

A global perspective on how things are going in your company is possible thanks to the BSC. SAP Business One and its dashboard digest and transform large amounts of data to display accessible information that helps you reach your targets.

Find details

Another aspect of the SAP Business One BSC's operation is its powerful search engine. Thanks to the use of keywords, it is very easy to locate the most essential data at any given moment.

Communication between departments

Facilitating communication and coordination between departments is another of the strengths of SAP Business One. Its balanced scorecard is available to all authorised employees, allowing them to carry out their tasks quickly and correctly. And because everything falls under the ERP umbrella, the different sections of the company collaborate with each other to manage the same database.

Adapt to the market

The advantages outlined above can have a hugely positive effect on your company's performance. This makes the company more profitable because processes are executed in a productive and efficient way. It also ensures that the SME is competitive in the market and achieves its goals established quickly.

How to set up the balanced scorecard in SAP Business One step-by-step

The last section of this in-depth guide to the SAP Business One Balanced Scorecard is dedicated to the configuration process. Is it difficult to set the different KPIs in the scorecard? What information can you view? Which devices is the SAP Business One BSC available on?

We answer all these questions below.

Widgets section

The SAP Business One dashboard consists of widgets. It is in this section of the configuration where you will find the different modules that you can add to the ERP main screen.

How do widgets work? Widgets are small applications that display dynamic information or allow actions to be executed.For example, you can set up a widget if you want to know the status of your sales opportunities or check the status of the manufacturing process of a product.

Creating customised dashboards

When you set out to create a customised dashboard, you can add the most appropriate performance indicators. All the information that appears in the BSC comes from the SAP Business One modules. These are classified into the following categories:

• Management. Information related to system parameters, such as data import or currency exchange rates.
• Finance. It includes data related to accounting, reporting and budgeting, among others. They also show the company's expenses in real time.
• Sales opportunities. Administration of sales opportunities and their analysis. This indicates which opportunities are expected to be won and a dynamic visualisation of the sales stages.
• Sales and purchases. This includes the sections related to the issuing of invoices, transactions for the purchase of raw materials, claims for unpaid invoices and much more.
• Banking management. This allows you to reconcile company bank accounts with the ERP to automate processes such as payments to suppliers and much more.
• Human resources. The ERP also has a section dedicated to the management of employees and recruitment in the different departments.

Using these and other SAP modules as a starting point, it is possible to add widgets to a dashboard that includes the following information:

• Gross profits.
• Profit margin.
• Cash flow.
• Best-selling items.
• Pending orders.
• High-income customers.

By clicking on each perspective, more information is provided. The content of the scorecard is updated in real time.

Access from all devices

SAP Business One's comprehensive dashboards are available on all devices. There are different ways to access them, making this solution one of the most versatile for managing the company:

• Customer website. Fully compliant with current standards such as HTML5, it is compatible with any modern browser. You don't need to install anything on your mobile phone or PC.
• Mobile applications. SAP Business One applications are a solution for consulting dashboards from a phone. The company has launched its app on both Android and iOS. The experience is optimised for touch panels and provides a secure connection to the server.
• Desktop version. The last possibility, of course, is to access all company data from a PC or Mac. This is the most complete and easy-to-use version of the software due to the larger screen size.

All the power of SAP Business One in your business with SEIDOR

If you've made it this far, it means that the SAP Business One integrated scorecard is attractive to you. As you have seen, this function is just the tip of the iceberg. In reality, the SAP solution is a complete suite of tools to manage all the operations of your SME.

It is possible that you already have this software in your company and are not making the most of it. It is also possible that your business is not yet benefiting from the productivity and efficiency gains that have been made in the past few years. In both cases, what should you do?

Our recommendation is plain and simple: look for a reliable partner that specialises in the SAP platform. Although the operation of this ERP is user-friendly, don't forget that its implementation in each company is a delicate matter that must be executed with the utmost skill. It is crucial that SAP Business One and its balanced scorecard are a perfect fit for your organisation.

At SEIDOR we have been helping companies implement, adapt and take maximum advantage of tools like those we've mentioned in this publication for decades. Our sector experience and track record are our guarantee. Contact us now to start enjoying optimal integration of SAP Business One, the balanced scorecard, and the rest of the tools in your business. Take your business to the next level!