Finance

Is your business ready for finance automation?

Published

2 months ago

December 1, 2022

admin

Mari-Frances Bentvelzen, Business Head and General Manager of Global SMB at SAP Concur

As managers continue to drive their businesses through these uncertain economic times, it is important for them to properly equip and guide their organisations. Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are looking to save money during this inflation crisis. By looking carefully into different areas, there are many hidden costs that can be found to combat rising expenses and interest rates.

With 2023 approaching, it’s time for businesses to be more proactive towards improving their processes. Automating administratively heavy tasks can be hugely beneficial in saving time and resources, both of which can have a big impact on the bottom line.

Although travel logistics, expense tracking and invoice processing can sound like a lot of background noise, these processes can all be optimised through automation. This offers more visibility for finance leaders and helps free up valuable time and resources for employees within the organisation.

Identify which key areas need automation

The first step to adopting automation is highlighting which areas can be improved with specific technology. This includes auditing the business and identifying which areas are outdated. From this point, businesses need to determine which processes and procedures may benefit from digital transformation. High on the list are manual processes and data input — two areas that often are riddled with mistakes and delays. Automating these areas proves to be useful for both the organisation and its employees.

Another common issue that finance leaders face is lack of access into full spend visibility. To improve decision making, managers must be confident about the trusted insights, transparency and perspectives in their business. Reporting tools and automated processes can help verify expenses through integration with other vendors and systems.

Without automation, it is difficult for finance departments to ensure all data has been inputted and centralised. This can make it difficult to determine the most appropriate and potentially effective areas to target cost-saving measures. Spend management solutions can, however, provide finance leaders with full visibility into where their money is being spend, enabling any spend that does not correlate with policy to be flagged. This can help businesses to reduce non-compliant spend and increase policy and regulatory compliance.

Find the best solution for both business and employees

Once these areas are identified, the business must adjust for compliance requirements, infrastructure changes and spend changes. Finance leaders should select the best solution to streamline current processes, whilst also improving budgetary controls and employee safety and satisfaction.

It is important for companies to place employee experience and innovation at the forefront of decision making, with training and ongoing employee support. Expenses — the reimbursement process, specifically — often have an under-appreciated role in employee engagement.

In fact, the new SAP Concur Employee Experience study reveals that 70% of employees in the UK are concerned about the impact of cost-of-living increases on their personal finances. And it’s late reimbursements for expenses that are causing employees to worry, with 56% worried about delayed reimbursements impacting their personal finances. This is why it is crucial for organisations to adopt automation to help accelerate processes and relieve reimbursement worry.

We worked with Brother UK (Printing and technology solutions) to automate their processes within their internal finance department. Brother has many employees who have worked for the company for more than two decades, with many processes identical to the day they started. Unsurprisingly, these employees were reluctant to making big changes, as they were used to carrying out their work in very specific ways. And with the obvious talent crisis, Brother realised that it was more important than ever to focus on the employee experience.

Brother put their employees first, ensuring communication remained transparent during the entire project. The company also brought staff directly into the decision-making process, elevating buy-in and a sense of ownership over forthcoming changes.

Now that Bother has automated many financial tasks, employees within the finance department are able to spend more time on strategic and rewarding work, rather than menial and time-consuming tasks. This improvement has been a positive experience for all. It has also helped employees to progress further in their careers.

Plan for the unpredictable future

Do you work for an SMB considering such changes? Don’t hesitate — now is the time to take the proactive step to streamline and grow your business. Overall, SMBs are being faced with the unknown and are being forced to adapt or pivot their business models. Finance automation will help futureproof your business during these uncertain times, bringing a level of stability to your organisation. This will allow employees to focus on future growth ambitions and make more informed decisions without having to worry about laborious tasks.

It’s important to remember a key part of running any business is relationship management — both with customers and employees. It’s important to choose solutions that will help drive profit margins whilst also acknowledging employee needs. For small businesses, maintaining clear communication with employees will not only help to ensure solution implementation is successful, but will also help to soften any resistance to automation.

And there’s so much more beyond basic finance automation. By taking an even deeper dive into invoices and expenses, businesses can find key data to help underpin certain goals such as reducing carbon emissions for business travel or enabling employees to submit expenses from anywhere at any time.

In the long run, digitising tired manual processes makes it more affordable for all businesses, no matter the size, to offer a competitive advantage during this era of change.

Up Next

SaaScada Top Five Predictions for 2023

Don't Miss

What is the True Cost of SMS Phishing?

Business

Accounting Automation in the Future

Published

18 hours ago

January 26, 2023

editorial

Accounting automation is the process of streamlining repetitive tasks in financial processes. For example, some processes like invoicing are time-consuming and repetitive. Automation can reduce manual labor and save businesses both time and money. Also, it helps improve accuracy, reduces errors, and provides more accurate financial reporting.

Accounting automation in the future will be increasingly important for businesses to stay competitive. But every new change comes with both advantages and challenges. Let’s dive in to get ready for this future trend.

Potential Future Benefits of Accounting Automation

Increased Efficiency and Cost Savings

Accounting automation is a great way to increase efficiency and cost savings. For example, AI bookkeeping uses advanced algorithms to automate many accounting tasks. So, companies can track expenses, prepare financial reports, and more using AI.

It reduces the time needed for manual entry. So, businesses can spend fewer labor hours on tedious processes. They can increase efficiency by freeing up resources for more strategic work. It also helps reduce errors and inconsistencies associated with manual processes. So, the cost of compliance is lower because of greater accuracy.

Improved Accuracy and Reliability

Accounting automation can improve accuracy and reliability in accounting processes. For example, Automating bank reconciliation is less prone to errors from human mistakes or miscalculations. You can automate the process to identify discrepancies between the bank statement and accounting records. It helps to ensure that financial reports remain accurate and reliable. So businesses can take corrective action faster than processing data manually.

Streamlined Business Processes

Streamlined business processes involve eliminating unnecessary steps, reducing paperwork, and automating repetitive tasks. This allows businesses to focus on higher-value activities, such as developing new products, improving customer service, and developing strategic plans for the future.

Making a Better Decision

Accounting automation can enhance decision-making in 3 ways.

1. It enables businesses to access real-time information from multiple systems. So they can identify trends for better decision-making.
2. Automated accounting also helps with forecasting, budgeting, and auditing tasks. It enables businesses to be more proactive in their decision-making processes.
3. Also, automated accounting tools can integrate with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. They can manage data across the enterprise and make concise decisions that are favorable to the company as a whole.

Increase Customer Satisfaction

Accounting automation can help businesses increase customer satisfaction by streamlining their processes and providing a more efficient customer experience. For example:
4. Automated accounting systems can automate tedious manual tasks such as invoicing, data entry, and payroll processing. This allows businesses to focus on other aspects of their operations that are more important for customer service.
5. Automated accounting systems can also provide customers with more accurate and timely financial information. The information can help them make better decisions about their finances.
6. Also, accounting automation enables businesses to respond quickly to customer inquiries. It helps reduce wait times and improve the overall customer experience. So, you can build better relationships with their customers.

Improved Accessibility

Accounting automation takes place online or comes with cloud-based solutions. So, you can access your information and do your job from anywhere instead of being confined to one spot.

Challenges to Implementing Accounting Automation in the Future

Cost of Technology Infrastructure Upgrades

Automating an accounting system often requires businesses to invest in new hardware and software, such as servers and other associated equipment. These upgrades come with a hefty price tag that may be difficult for small businesses to afford.

There are also extra costs, such as installation fees, setup charges, software licensing fees, cloud storage costs, and maintenance fees.

Training Requirements for Staff Members

Accounting automation involves using advanced technology to automate certain processes. So, it creates a need for trained staff members who can handle the new technology. Training requirements vary depending on the type of software used.

Some common training includes record-keeping procedures, software applications, and troubleshooting skills.

Regulatory Compliance Issues

Accounting automation can be a time-saver, but it also requires firms to be aware of the applicable rules and regulations. Companies must ensure that their automated systems are compliant with relevant laws and regulations such as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and other applicable accounting standards.

Besides, they must also comply with legal requirements related to taxes, financial statements, and other reporting obligations.

So, businesses must consider the complexities of regulatory compliance when automating accounting.

Security and Data Protection Concerns

As businesses move their accounting processes to the cloud, they are exposed to a wide range of potential security risks. Data breaches can cause significant damage to the business’s financial and reputational integrity. Besides, the complexity of automated accounting systems can make it difficult to identify and detect suspicious activities or errors in the system.

To ensure data is kept secure, businesses must have strong measures in place to protect against unauthorized access, encryption, and regular backups of data.

Furthermore, companies must train their staff on the proper use of the system. It helps staff to know how to protect confidential information from being accessed or misused by unauthorized personnel.

Businesses may also need an experienced IT team to monitor and maintain the system to keep up with any changes or updates for optimal performance.

Final thoughts

Accounting automation has come a long way in the past few decades. It is likely to continue to advance in the future. As technology continues to evolve, more businesses will likely begin taking advantage of automation in their accounting processes. So, businesses should be aware of the potential challenges and prepare to stay competitive.

Finance

Weathering the economic storm in 2023

Published

2 days ago

January 25, 2023

admin

Nikki Dawson, Head of EMEA Marketing at Highspot

New year, new business challenges. When it comes to creating and converting leads into sales for a business, both the marketing and sales teams are critical. Both functions think differently but are equally important in driving growth and revenue. Now more than ever in the current economic climate alignment between the two to achieve business goals is vital to survival.

Entering 2023 it’s important we look back and pinpoint where there’s room for improvement within our business and between our teams. With this, I predict the majority of businesses will realise it’s now critical to get their teams to communicate, collaborate and align more effectively.

What we learned in 2022

Findings from a recent survey of sales and marketing professionals found that over half (52%) of sales and marketing leaders in the UK agree they don’t understand which marketing assets are driving results with potential prospects. For marketers, this lack of visibility over assets limited the amount of valuable oversight which would allow them to improve content and increase adoption.

As a result, we’re now left with over a quarter (29%) of marketers not feeling confident in their ability to demonstrate the ROI achieved by marketing initiatives. Due to this, 30% of those surveyed this year feel a lack of confidence in creating marketing assets that have demonstrable success at meeting specific business objectives and driving sales growth.

Equipping teams with the right tools and technology they need to achieve business objectives seems obvious, but the latest research reveals that over a third (34%) of marketers aren’t confident they have the tools they need to manage and maximise digital marketing initiatives. Furthermore, 30% of UK marketers believe that a lack of efficient technology and tools and inconsistent use of CRM (31%) are barriers to their company’s sales and marketing collaboration.

These are all crucial learnings for what marketers have identified as key barriers in their role, it’s now down to business leaders to listen and take action.

How was revenue impacted?

The lack of alignment between marketing and sales, and the limited visibility over how digital marketing initiatives performed in 2022 had a negative impact on businesses’ ROI. This, as well as not having a single source of truth for marketers and salespeople led to content chaos and became a pain point for both parties wanting to do their jobs effectively.

For business leaders, during a time when demonstrating and justifying marketing and sales spending is needed now more than ever, the gap between marketing content, salespeople and ROI is of great concern.

The year ahead

Misalignment between sales and marketing means, at best, energy and resources are being wasted. At worst, it leads to strategies directly contradicting each other and not being delivered, while team members get frustrated and potentially leave.

Sales enablement has proven that it can dramatically resolve these pain points and be the foundation for alignment. With 72% of both teams equally agreeing that implementing sales enablement to support sales and marketing is something they believe their company should consider in the near future. It’s safe to say that in 2023 may well be the year we see it come into the mainstream.

By design, sales enablement software bridges the gap to provide a platform for alignment, offering one source of truth for linking sales and marketing activity to revenue. This year, the research found that the vast majority, (71%) of sales and marketing professionals agree that a lack of alignment between their teams has had a negative impact on revenue, and 52% of sales and marketing leaders in the UK agree they don’t understand which assets are driving results with potential prospects.

It’s clear that the need for aligned business functions has never been greater and soon, marketers and salespeople will call for AI-powered sales enablement as an essential tool to do their job effectively.

Now is the time…

If businesses want to optimise their work and maximise profits in the turbulent economic climate, they need to focus on driving change from the front by aligning their sales and marketing teams. Smart investment decisions that adapt processes based on buyer engagement with marketing content, and seller activities will be crucial in the coming months.

Having a sales enablement process in place can provide the necessary framework to begin coherently organising, finding, sharing, customising, and analysing content. Sales enablement platforms can be a one-stop shop for sales processes and marketing insights and it’s no longer something that can be overlooked by businesses.

Final thoughts

The need for optimisation has never been greater. In order to maximise profits sales and marketing functions need to work together seamlessly. This year we can expect to see more businesses utilising sales enablement technology to achieve key milestones. With this, marketers and salespeople alike will recognise sales enablement as a crucial day to day tool that is just as essential as the CRM they’re using today.