Accounting and finance play a huge part in the success and ongoing running of all businesses. With that comes a lot of work, process, and organisation. But, as we all know, a lot of paper-based processes can become overwhelming and often frustrating. So why not automate these processes?
Automating accounting and finance processes allows CFOs (Chief Financial Officers) to do their jobs much quicker, to a significantly higher standard while simultaneously saving the business money in a selection of ways.
1) Automating Invoice Processes
Paper-based processing can be detrimental to a business and its employees. The reason is simple: paper can get lost, misplaced, or accidentally destroyed, which means that employees will have to spend countless extra hours searching for them. This could mean that documents vanish forever and some important information has been lost. This can be avoided.
With an intelligent document management system in place, documents will navigate a business swiftly and successfully, instantly alerting individuals of its existence. Any errors will be exposed and allow employees to get anything they need sorted out completely. Automating the exception process is assisted by:
- Instant flagging of non-standard invoices
- Flexible routing to correct decision makers
- Easy annotations and notes
2) Audit Documentation
As we are all aware, the annual audit is undeniably the most exciting process performed in a business, however, it becomes difficult when it is paper-based. When you rely on paper you rely on your past self, and that is not often dependable. Documents will be hidden in mounds of sharp information and could even be stored in other areas of the country. Inconvenient.
Removing this paper process and replacing it with an automated, digital system means less stress on everyone’s mind and more time to prepare for the well-anticipated audit. Everything the team needs will be ready and waiting on their device. When digitisation is adopted by the business, staff will be able to respond to the requests sent by the auditor and maintain control over business information. Win win.
3) Procurement
Procurement is the process of purchasing goods, services or both from someone else, it is essentially business spending. With this job, a lot of staff will become overpowered by the amount of paper documents that are a product of spending. But while one business is feeling terrible and stressed when undergoing this process, another is streamlined and relaxed because they converted to a digital way of working.
4) Month-End Close
And finally, month-end close. People would like to know more about the data they are reporting on and what the data means. Businesses and staff need to find and produce information quickly, but they would also like the data to be trustworthy. Makes sense, really.
When you understand the data you will be able to work faster, and digitisation can help with that. It isn’t perfect, but better security on data and information will allow businesses to be more satisfied with the results they are coming up with.
To find out more about digital transformation, click here.
Date: 10th May 2021 | Author: Kamran Bashir