As businesses continue to evolve and innovate, staying ahead of the curve is not just a strategy but a necessity. Finance departments are no exception to this. The traditional manual processes that once defined financial operations are now being replaced by a revolutionary solution that changes the way businesses manage their finances: finance process automation. How has it changed the game? In this blog, we talk about automation and how it makes a difference when streamlining financial processes.
Over the past few years, finance automation has evolved significantly, revolutionising the way financial tasks are handled in various industries. Automation in finance, or simply finance automation, is using technology to perform repetitive financial tasks without direct human intervention. This could be through tools, systems, software and algorithms.
Invoicing used to involve manual creation, printing and mailing of invoices, which was not only time-consuming but also prone to errors. With automation software, you can send invoice templates to clients and track their payment status. You don’t have to manually update their data because the software will record these for you.
Facilitate purchase order management by automating procurement processes. No need for spreadsheets as the finance automation software can manage the purchase orders for you.
Finance teams can benefit from automation’s ability to do large data collection. A finance automation software’s scanning technology can help with paperwork like receipts, bills, invoices and inspection reports by extracting the data and organising it into a searchable format. During tax season, your finance team will no longer have a hard time because all the necessary documents are uploaded and organised.
Payroll management is easier with automation because you get to add your employees to the payroll system, set their wages and rates and automate the frequency of the payroll process.
You can seamlessly stay on top of the money owed to you thanks to automation. Let it handle recurring invoices, overdue payments and recurring credit card payments to avoid any financial losses.
Automate your finances in accounts payable so you’re sure that you pay your bills on time. With AP automation, you can set the date and amount and let the finance automation software do the rest.
Automation will help you manage collecting, inputting and analysing data. For example, it simplifies the tracking of business expenses by automatically categorising and recording expenses based on predefined rules.
You no longer have to manually generate data and create reports as automation can consolidate all relevant financial data from their connected systems and create the report for you.
Before automation found its way to the business world, employees would submit receipts and invoices using physical paper and wait for the admin to process them. Now, automated receipt collection extracts data for you and provides accurate insights. Other expenses to automate include:
Finance process automation is changing the game by changing the way financial tasks and operations are executed within organisations. Here are some ways finance process automation is making a significant impact:
When your systems and processes are integrated, you get a 360-degree view of your operations and finances. You’ll better understand the reasons behind your fluctuating financials so you can make faster and smarter business decisions.
Imagine having to wait hours, days or even weeks for approval of a budget or a claim. It affects everything else after that! Having an automatic approval system will help you save time and get rid of long email threads where people check the status of every request.
Manually entered data will always be prone to mistakes. When your data is managed by an automation platform, you don’t have to worry about manual errors.
Automation eliminates the need for manual human action in repetitive tasks, allowing processes to run continuously without breaks. This saves a lot of time, enabling employees to focus on more complex and strategic aspects of their roles.
In addition to automating repetitive tasks, automation platforms also integrate with other technologies to streamline the whole financial process. When integrated, various systems create a seamless flow of information.
Automation eliminates human errors and ensures that financial data is accurate, reliable and consistent.
Automation is not replacing finance professionals—it’s expanding their skill sets. Since repetitive tasks are already automated, finance professionals get to develop, learn and focus on new skills.
Transitioning to business finance automation doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are the five steps to start:
List down your processes and map out the individual steps for each. This will allow you to organise your workflows and lay the groundwork for the transition. Doing this will help you identify where to further automate finance tasks.
Look at the systems and workflows that your company already has. Since automation can connect and integrate systems, connect yours and see how well they work together.
What’s your priority? What are your most pressing needs? What do you need to meet your company goals? You don’t need to automate everything all at once. Just know which ones need to be automated first.
Finance automation solutions are all different, so find the one that matches your processes and needs.
Establish a workflow that will guide the automation moving forward. A workflow should consist of a trigger, an action and a result.
Investing in automation technologies is essential in the business world, particularly in the financial sector. Companies are realising the transformative potential of automation to enhance operational efficiency, reduce fraud and optimise processes.