New year’s resolution for finance: say goodbye to manual accounting processes

At present, in an period that’s meant to be about finance transformation, a lot of the finance operate nonetheless depends closely on guide accounting processes together with spreadsheets for rebate administration, you’ll discover loads of them buried in emails and on desktops. As an alternative of these in finance specializing in giving high-level perception, they discover themselves caught chasing down errors, reconciling knowledge, and attempting to make necessary choices based mostly on an assortment of typically incomplete or inaccurate rebate knowledge.

Consequently, many organisations find yourself with disputes with buying and selling companions and round 4% of potential rebate income sometimes goes unclaimed. However may 2021 be the 12 months all this adjustments for finance they usually lastly embrace automation to resolve their guide accounting processes.

Disadvantages of guide accounting processes

Handbook accounting processes lack model management, audit trails, consistency and scalability. Ongoing reliance on tedious, guide accounting processes within the finance operate has many disadvantages, together with:

• Elevated threat: Handbook accounting processes enhance the chance of inaccurate or incomplete knowledge on which important choices are made. Compliance dangers are additionally launched that may have a major influence throughout the organisation.
• Human errors: In terms of the complexities of rebate administration, human errors can creep in and critically compromise the worth of buying and selling agreements. Particularly if utilizing a guide accounting course of, it may well take loads longer to trace and proper widespread errors. Research conducted by Censuswide discovered that over half of the finance leaders surveyed aren’t completely assured they will determine monetary errors earlier than reporting outcomes, with lower than 40% saying they trusted the numbers.
• Time consuming: Widespread utilization and reliance on spreadsheets and guide knowledge reconciliation processes take up a major period of time. The outcomes are additionally extra liable to error and sometimes should be reviewed a number of instances. In response to CFO Dive, an organization with a 20-person finance group sometimes loses the equal of 1,920 hours yearly or an estimated $124,800 in prices to those guide accounting duties, Auditoria estimates. A giant firm with a 100-person finance group would possibly lose 9,600 hours, at an estimated $624,000 a 12 months.
• Restricted scale: Handbook accounting processes inhibit a group’s potential to develop or address fast change. This could prohibit an organisation’s growth plans equivalent to taking up extra suppliers or increasing their attain abroad, which means alternatives may very well be missed.
• Lack of audit trails: Spreadsheets are one of many standard guide accounting processes that ought to by no means be used as a system of file. Even one small error can produce the flawed end result and have an effect on a whole deal. A person might disagree with the values on a spreadsheet, arrange their very own controls and hyperlink the outcomes from the primary doc to the second with no oversight or testing for accuracy.
• No superior capabilities: Handbook accounting processes together with spreadsheets should not geared up with superior capabilities or reporting, not to mention safety. This has a major influence on the convenience with which the finance operate can develop over time.
• Lack of model management: Corporations that depend on guide accounting processes might discover they’ve a number of variations of the identical doc in use, which will increase the chance of errors. Utilizing a spreadsheet for rebate administration, for instance, will be harmful if a person pulls up a spreadsheet from the community with outdated or incorrect knowledge.
• Decrease morale: Finance professionals wish to have a constructive influence on their organisation and never be slowed down in knowledge entry and complex workflows. Worker retention goes up when employees are empowered to make a strategic influence.

Adoption of automation

Automation is just not about changing actual staff with robots and laptop software program however relatively making it simpler for the group to work in a extra environment friendly method. By automating routine duties, you’ll be able to enhance workflow efficiencies – liberating up your finance group for increased worth duties, driving down prices, and boosting your income.

Companies count on finance capabilities to maximise the effectivity of their operations and reduce the time they spend on non-value actions. Automation is a key device in delivering this objective and, subsequently, a excessive precedence for a lot of finance capabilities immediately.

Many organizations are nonetheless in very early phases of course of automation and nonetheless rely closely on guide accounting processes. On common, solely about half (51%) of business processes are automated. Nevertheless, in accordance with an EY study, 65% consider that automating finance processes shall be a major precedence sooner or later. Probably the most profitable organizations shall be those that embrace automation with a purpose to higher equip their human expertise.

SaaS rebate administration is driving change in finance

As of late, firms are beneath great stress to go digital with a purpose to survive and keep aggressive. As CFO, you’re largely accountable for the strategic route that your organization takes. Does your small business have the best infrastructure, processes, and know-how to assist your rebate administration technique? If the reply is not any, then that is the place SaaS is available in.

All the benefits of SaaS have been magnified by COVID-19. Corporations have to transition from guide accounting processes to digital options. That enable finance to speak and collaborate on their offers in a constant approach whereas minimizing upfront and ongoing prices. Nevertheless, simply because monetary professionals wish to have higher know-how and instruments, that doesn’t make them IT specialists. SaaS options convey finance an easy-to-use service the place the one issues to handle are an web connection and an internet browser.