To be a modern and successful Executive Assistant, you will need the ideal mix of IT and business skills, combined with financial awareness, to support the executives you work for.

Thankfully, there are a lot of different courses and training you can do to learn the required skills. Knowing how to use ERP systems can help when performing your role as an Executive Assistant. Good examples of ERPs include Oracle, Sage and SAP. There are many more. However, what is an ERP? Why should you make an effort to learn about them? We take a look at what you need to know.

Understanding ERP Systems

This is an acronym for enterprise resource planning. Enterprise resource planning systems are special types of software. Organisations use them all the time to manage daily business activities. This includes procurement, accounting, management and compliance, risk assessment, supply chain operations, and more. This means that budgets, purchase orders, invoices and expense reports will all come from the ERP system.

The Benefits of Learning ERP Systems

As financial skills for an Executive Assistant go, learning how to use ERP systems can have a lot of benefits. Let’s talk about some of them.

Gaining Valuable Skills

If you learn how to use an ERP system, you can benefit greatly from the skill in your daily job. You can learn to reconcile expenses and produce expense reports. You can administer the issuance and receipt of invoices, raise POs,  and create financial reports. Many EAs are responsible or work with Budgets; your Budgets are stored and published from the ERP. Additionally, most managerial and financial reports and forecasts will be extracted from the ERP. You may need to access this information for management meetings.

The good news is that the brand-leading ERP systems are user-friendly. Additionally, if you have done any of the tasks listed above, you most likely have experience using these systems. These useful skills will make you much more valuable to your employer.

Widen Your Skillset

As an Executive Assistant, you will be expected to have skills that constantly evolve. While there are often chances to enhance your knowledge provided by your employer, those who learn new skills of their initiative are looked upon favourably in the workplace.

Improving your skills in this fashion will make it work better with your employer. They will take note of your ability to learn and improve without guidance, and this will highlight you as being a valuable employee.

Benefits of Learning ERP Systems

It gives You New Opportunities.

These skills are very appealing to an employer. They might help you to secure new opportunities within the workplace. Appealing to a prospective employer will help you greatly if you search for another job. Still, it will also allow you to make yourself invaluable during other situations in your current position. Essentially, these types of skills open up a lot of doors and give you a lot more freedom about what you can offer.

Final Thoughts

Learning to use ERP systems is a core part of developing financial skills for an Executive Assistant. It’s important to continually expand your skill set to provide as much value to the workplace as possible. Employers like it when you show initiative and demonstrate that you are prepared to commit to learning. It might be difficult to get the hang of things at first, but with a little time and practice, navigating these types of systems will become familiar.