Symfio + HELIOS: Financial insight on top of your ERP without long IT projects

HELIOS enterprise systems power mid-sized and large companies across industries, from manufacturing and trade to services. There is more than enough data in them. The trouble usually lies elsewhere: getting a fast, understandable financial overview for leadership out of them. The usual path leads through an expensive BI project, months of development and dependence on consultants, or through endless manual statements in Excel. Symfio offers a third option. It connects directly to HELIOS data and, within days rather than months, makes available a finished financial reporting, a cash flow outlook and a plan versus actual comparison. Leadership gets numbers they understand, and the finance team gets back the time it currently spends preparing materials.

What does connecting Symfio and HELIOS bring you?

1. Direct connection to the ERP database

Symfio connects directly to HELIOS data and synchronizes it automatically, typically overnight, or on demand with one click. No statement exports, no manual transfers, no waiting for IT.

2. Reporting without a data warehouse or development

The profit and loss statement, balance sheet, cash flow and key indicators work right after implementation. Symfio comes with a ready made financial reporting methodology that we fine tune to your conditions through configuration, not programming. You save the hundreds of thousands a classic BI project would swallow, and above all months of time.

3. A single source of truth for the whole leadership

Accounting data from HELIOS becomes the only relevant source of numbers in the company. The CFO, the owner, the board and department heads work with the same values, just at different levels of detail. Meeting discussions move from arguing over spreadsheets to making decisions.

4. Cash flow with an outlook, not just hindsight

The built in cash flow planning tool works with receivables, payables and planned items. You see a tight period weeks in advance, not only after the closing. For companies with production cycles and longer invoice due dates, this is a fundamental difference.

5. Management accounting for complex structures

In Symfio you categorize cost centers, projects, activities and analytical accounts according to your own logic. You track the profitability of divisions, plants or projects, and for groups of companies Symfio consolidates results into one overview with a unified methodology, even when subsidiaries keep their books in different systems.

How the connection works

Symfio runs in the cloud, so there is nothing to install on your side and no extra hardware to buy. The connector links to the HELIOS database and synchronizes data regularly, typically overnight outside working hours. Symfio does not write into the ERP; it only reads the data, so it does not affect the system’s operation in any way.

The technical part of implementation usually takes tens of minutes. The managerial part takes longer: setting up the reporting structure, categorization and plans. How long it takes depends on how well your company has its financial management thought through. If you need methodological support, we can help through our fractional CFO services.

Key benefits for users

• Time saved: reporting prepares itself, with no exports or copying.
• Better decisions: reports and forecasts come straight from accounting data.
• Fewer mistakes: manual data handling drops to a minimum.
• Data driven management for holdings too: several companies clearly in one place.