Attributed to James Hall, CEO at Enate
In an era of rapid modernisation and digital transformation, the finance and accounting industries are undergoing a significant shift, with traditional processes currently being challenged by the demands of a dynamic and interconnected business environment.
As businesses strive for operational efficiency, it is vital to balance the strength of human expertise with the capabilities of automation technology.
The importance of efficiency in the face of adversity
According to research, 72% of CFOs and finance directors find their staff caught in the routine process of policing expense reports, leaving little time for strategic analysis and innovation. This inefficiency has a direct influence on an organization’s capacity to prosper in a more competitive environment.
This leaves the question of how exactly organisations can bridge the gap between human intelligence and technology automation, in an effort to modernise finance and accounting processes.
Bridging the AI-Human communication gap
One of the most prominent challenges that businesses confront is establishing efficient communication between AI systems and the human workforce. Despite artificial intelligence’s proven capacity to speed up regular procedures and analyse data sets, it lacks the nuanced judgement and flexibility that is inherent in human thought.
A breakthrough approach to solving this would include deploying a versatile process orchestration platform that keeps humans in the loop. Having such a cooperative relationship between AI and human judgement would ensure optimal decision making whilst also harnessing the efficiency of automation.
Proven strategies for operational excellence
As the modern world is dominated by data and complexity, tried and tested strategies are crucial to ensuring finance and accounting departments operate at peak performance.
There are several ways that firms can use to guarantee that their finance and accounting departments are performing at their best. For instance, through automating invoice operations. Manual invoice processing raises the likelihood of mistakes and inefficiencies; however, with automation, firms may not only ensure accuracy and compliance, but also free up human resources for more strategic efforts such as accelerating cash flow or decision making.
Vendor relationship management also refers to centralising data storage and management which is essential to nurturing secure vendor relationships. Through this approach, organisations can enhance their data security, facilitate risk analysis, and ensure that data governance policies are adhered to, safeguarding both the organisation and its partnerships.
Another strategy that can be used by organisations is general ledger accounting and reconciliation with automation mitigating the time-consuming and error-prone nature of reconciling vast quantities of data. The reduced manual labour and increased accuracy helps organisations to focus on extracting insights from financial information.
As well as this, intercompany accounting is a great way to streamline intercompany accounting processes through a centralised platform that simplifies complex processes whilst enhancing transparency and reducing the risk of errors, particularly during mergers and acquisitions.
The available strategies don’t stop there, organisations can also use the ‘purchase order management’ strategy to streamline the manual order processing and allowing faster and more efficient procurement. Furthermore, processing of payments can be strengthened through the adoption of a modern workflow management tool, that accelerates payment processing and solidifies vendor relationships, as well as the overall operational efficiency.
Embracing technological integration
The problem of combining cutting-edge technology with existing legacy systems arises when firms modernise their finance and accounting operations. This is because when looking for an innovative solution in the form of technology-agnostic platforms, compatibility usually becomes a top priority.
These flexible software solutions typically transcend underlying architecture and operating systems, allowing for seamless integration and the best of both worlds.
Looking to the future
As finance and accounting landscape evolves, the need to transform established procedures becomes more pressing than ever. Organisations may begin on a revolutionary path towards operational excellence by adopting innovative strategies, encouraging AI-human cooperation, and integrating cutting-edge technology, redefining the role of finance and accounting departments in a dynamic and interconnected world.
Through harnessing the synergy of human and AI capabilities, finance and accounting departments can break free from the chains of inefficiency and emerge as catalysts for innovation and strategic growth.
