Adam Bazeley, EMEA Head of Client Development, SAP Concur
Small and medium-sized businesses spend considerable time managing their manual accounts payable (AP) and expense processes. Finance teams lose hours chasing down scattered workflows, spreadsheets, email threads, PDFs and paper trails. This not only consumes their valuable time but also increases the risks of costly mistakes and data privacy breaches.
They lean on IT teams for help, which, in turn, takes up time from the IT team’s daily work routine to find solutions that fix these inefficiencies. For many growing businesses, the significant time, budget and infrastructure investments, as well as dedicated IT resources required to identify, vet, and deploy high-tech solutions, are simply unaffordable.
Automation doesn’t have to be overwhelming, even if a business doesn’t have a big team. It can be seamless and more impactful for smaller teams if they do the right preparation, have adequate tools, and collaborate with key decision-makers.
Here are five considerations for SMBs’ IT teams on how they can up their game of automation without burning out, even if they are working as a team of one.
- Align on goals: The biggest shortcoming of automation isn’t a technical one; it’s a strategic misalignment between stakeholders on scope and requirements. IT leaders should define objectives from the start: does the business want to improve productivity, increase visibility & compliance, or all three?
In addition, they should define roles and responsibilities from the get-go and align on what the business collectively wants to achieve from automation. Ultimately, the success of automation will depend on a united vision that makes the entire process seamless.
- Find out the right solution: For SMBs who don’t have a large team or IT expertise to set up the systems, using a solution that offers a setup wizard will work best. Depending on which solution(s) IT leaders are adopting, they will have options such as:
- A self-guided implementation model in a simple question-and-answer format to get everything set up
- A supported model where you still lead the process, but work with expert guidance on things like setting up SAML-based Single Sign-On (SSO) and integrating your ERP, HR, finance, CRM, data management, and other systems.
IT leaders should select the solution that best suits their resources, requirements, and business goals.
- Ask a few basic questions: To ensure expense and AP solutions are a fit for the business needs, IT teams should ask their finance leader these four questions.
1. What needs to be posted? IT leaders should factor in the expense and AP information that their finance stakeholders need to have in the tools, so they can post charges and invoices to the accounting system.
2. What needs to be connected? IT teams should identify any systems and applications, such as ERP, accounting (including corporate credit card feeds), payroll, data management, and others, with which they will need to integrate.
3. What do they need to report on? They should also consider the data that finance teams need to analyse and adapt their automation process accordingly.
4. What controls do they need? They should figure out what finance leadership needs to ensure compliance with company spending policies and regulatory requirements.
- Collaborate during testing and validation: Testing is more than just
making sure the technical nuts and bolts are in place; it’s also where IT leaders make sure the finance leader’s decisions about posting, reporting, controls, and compliance are doing what they need for the business. IT leaders should bring in finance stakeholders early to make sure the system meets their day-to-day needs. These collaborations will reduce friction and improve trust amongst teams.
- Use built-in support to improve adoption: As an IT team of one (or very few), the responsibilities constantly expand, yet shift on any given day. IT leaders or their peers from finance teams won’t have time to lead a change management plan, head up communication, or train users. To address this, they should include built-in adoption tools offering turnkey tools, checklists, emails, training, and more. These tools can take care of everything IT leaders need to ensure timely and comprehensive adoption, so finance can quickly realise ROI by seeing more of its spending and controlling more costs.
With the right tools and processes in place to automate expense and AP, IT leaders can focus their expertise on what’s most valuable even if they are flying solo. This includes managing infrastructure, ensuring data compliance, maintaining business systems and applications and securing data.
