With the development of technology, many different companies have found a way to automate certain areas of their business. According to a recent study by Prolifics, automation leads to reducing costs, time investment on tasks, and customer satisfaction, just to name a few benefits.
One area of business that can benefit greatly from automation is finance. For instance, nearly 75% of accounting jobs can be automated using accounting software. For this reason, and many others we will discuss, you need to implement business automation in finance.
However, it’s not only important to know why automation in finance is essential for your business, but you also need to know how to approach it.
Why you need finance automation
Automation is there to eliminate difficult procedures and give you ways to make your business finances easier to handle.
It also allows employees to focus on more important tasks. With the roles and responsibilities of finance teams becoming increasingly complicated, it’s essential to implement automation to make their jobs easier.
Finance automation comes with many benefits that will allow your finance team to unlock their full potential and be rid of tedious processes.
Saving time and improving efficiency
There are many finance tasks that require a lot of time and effort when completed manually, and this can significantly diminish the efficiency of your team. Things such as variance analysis and account reconciliation are hard for employees, but can easily be automated.
Approximately 66% of accountants say they would invest in AI to save time on repetitive tasks. Forget about manual tasks that slow you down and implement automation that will smooth out most of your company’s existing financial functions.
Ensuring consistency
When you set up an automated process for a task, you can be sure that the results you get will be without any inconsistencies. No matter how good and experienced your finance team members are, inconsistencies are unavoidable due to different techniques and styles for even standard processes.
Automation makes sure that these inconsistencies are eliminated or at least minimized.
Reducing human error
No matter how good and dependable your employees are at their jobs, at the end of the day they’re still human beings who are prone to making mistakes.
These mistakes are even more likely to happen when they’re working on complicated and time-consuming tasks, as it’s easy to lose concentration. Luckily, with automation, you can expect that all tasks will be without too many errors.
Having access to accurate data
Accurate data and information are vital for your success, and if you only rely on your finance team for that data, it probably won’t be completely factual. This is because the team can’t take into account things that are beyond their control, such as changing policies and minor mistakes.
When real-time data is automated, you can be certain that all the numbers are correct and no manual errors are made. This way, the utility of business information is also increased, and anyone who has access to this data can identify problems at an early stage and address them.
Greater security
Everyone wants to believe they hired a team of trustworthy employees, and while that probably is true for your company as well, you can never be completely sure. Fraud is a big issue in any finance department and it can happen when you least expect it.
If you automate some standard financial tasks, you can be sure that your business is safe from fraud.
How to automate financial processes in your company
There are many different processes you can automate in your financial department. But before you do, you need to take care of three crucial things listed below.
Standardize all financial processes
Before you can even begin to automate anything, you need to be aware of how all of your processes work. Sketch out the entire workflow so you have a good visual representation of your processes to identify which changes can be made and how tasks can be streamlined.
Once you’ve done this, you can choose the correct finance management tools that will be able to digitize your financial processes. Additionally, don’t forget to talk to your company’s stakeholders to get their perspective on what should be automated.
Create a digital form and finance workflow
As you will need a lot of information to go through automation, create a digital form to capture all of it in one convenient place.
The next step is to create a finance workflow, which will assign all team members to their individual tasks so everyone knows what responsibilities they will have after automation is implemented.
Integrate your financial tools with other software
You probably already have multiple software tools in your company, but it’s important that all of them are integrated and able to share information among each other. When you’re choosing your financial automation tools, make sure they are able to integrate with your existing software.
Which processes should you automate?
Before you rush into automation, you need to realize that not all processes can or should be automated. Below are the ones that, if automated, will make your finance team’s jobs much easier and more accurate than ever.
- Core bookkeeping. While this is a task that has been performed manually for a very long time, every accountant knows how time-consuming it is. You can automate it with accounting tools that will significantly speed up the process.
- Invoicing and accounts receivable. Apart from being time-consuming, these tasks are easily subjected to human error, such as mistakes and delays, especially if more people are responsible for them. If your team makes a mistake, you will lose access to your revenue stream.
- Accounts payable. Processing your business’s invoices and bills manually involves checking a lot of information and sending it to be approved, all of which causes a lot of delays. A tool that automates accounts payable allows you to simply scan all invoices and capture the information.
- Tax reporting. Before accounting software made tax compliance and reporting simple, businesses had to hire experienced professionals just to calculate their taxes. If you automate tax reporting, you can be sure that your taxes will meet all requirements without breaking the bank.
- Payroll. Your employees won’t be motivated to do a good job unless they’re paid on time. Having well-organized payroll is important but also incredibly complex if you’re trying to organize everything manually. Save yourself the time and worry by automating this aspect.
Final thoughts
Nothing will ever be able to replace your dedicated financial team. However, there is a way you can make their jobs easier and more enjoyable, and that’s through business automation.
Now that you know why this is important and how to automate the most important processes, you’re ready to step into the world of financial automation.
