Look beyond Excel to organize your EXIM workflow

Ever since Microsoft launched its spreadsheet application way back in 1985, MS Excel has saved the day more times than we can count. You can use it to plan your vacation and prepare a budget or track your income and compute your taxes. And if you run an export–import business, you’ll agree that managing your EXIM workflow on MS Excel is a breeze.

In fact, if you’re like most businesses, your entire workflow may rely heavily upon these spreadsheets. Market research in 2019 revealed that around 54% of companies in the US alone use Excel for their primary budgeting. In India, the reliance on MS Excel coupled with emails may be just as high (or even higher), particularly among companies engaged in exports.

The time-honored combination of email + Excel for EXIM businesses

Cross-border trade involves various processes and operations. You need to consolidate and manage details related to the following aspects of the trade –

• Sales and purchase orders

• Primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging

• Sea freight, air freight, and inland logistics

• Commercial, customs, and tax invoicing

• Bank remittances and payments

• Advance licenses and import duty

To manage all these details related to exports and imports, most EXIM businesses rely on spreadsheets and emails. This may be convenient initially, but when you have hundreds of documents going back and forth over email, and multiple folders of paperwork stored on your drive, managing operations eventually gets more tedious than efficient.

As it turns out, Email + Excel may not be enough

True, this combination is easy to use, flexible, and incredibly low-cost. However, when you take a step back and look at the big picture, why does your EXIM business still rely on Microsoft’s spreadsheets? Is it because there really is no alternative that’s more scalable? Or is it simply out of a sense of familiarity?

In all likelihood, it is the latter, because limiting your resources to these two tools has several limitations, such as the following 

• Lack of data backup

• Lack of data security

• Inability to generate MIS reports

• No cloud-based access to important documents

• Inability to link different documents to establish a workflow

To take your EXIM business to the next level and manage your export-import workflow better, the need of the hour is an efficient digital supply chain financing platform. These platforms not only help you digitize your operations and automate the processes but may also be cost-effective in the long run and give you a competitive edge.

Choose Credlix to transform your EXIM business today

In addition to a comprehensive digital supply chain financing platform, you need a competitive export finance partner to take your EXIM business to the next level. Credlix can help you with tailor-made enterprise-wide solutions for your cross-border trades. Visit our website to learn more.