By: Tony Zorc, founder and CEO of accountingseed.com.and ForbesBooks Author

There is no better time than right now to review your business’s current technology stack and make improvements where changes are due. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, our world continued to soar high into technological advances both in business and in everyday life. The onset of COVID-19 forced us into a virtual-first mentality even faster than we ever expected. Unfortunately, this put an increased level of pressure on businesses to deliver services quickly, effectively, and efficiently. Those that can’t keep up are left behind.

This is where automation comes in.

There are several areas where businesses should incorporate automation to speed up processes and ensure accuracy internally and externally. But, there is a growing need for automation in finance given the numerous, day-to-day tasks necessary for business – which can be a huge time consumer. In fact, according to Frevvo.com, when it comes to business processes, 60% of occupations could save 30% of their time with automation. I would argue that this percentage is more along the lines of 50%+ for finance teams.

Here are the top three benefits your company can experience when automation is brought to finance and accounting.

1. Quick Insight, Analysis, and Risk Assessment

Financial departments are being called on more and more by sales, marketing, HR, and operations to provide data faster. Without automation, team members are forced to spend hours collecting data, re-entering data, and ensuring data quality. This leaves little to no time left over for analysis and reporting.

Automation changes all of this. When you automate your current, manual financial processes, you vastly simplify reporting, planning, and forecasting. For example, with solutions like Accounting Seed, you can automate recurring billings and journal entries, revenue recognition, bank transaction management and more. The more automation you bring to your back office, the faster you’ll be able to turn around data to the teams that need it for decision-making.

In addition, with access to accurate and timely information, finance executives can run scenarios with different sets of variables. Automation enables users to draw from a much broader selection of data instantaneously, which then allows business to assess both potential risks in existing markets and opportunities in new ones, fast. Instead of having to hunt down each scrap of information, automation lets you easily compile information so you can spend your time analyzing potential risks (before they happen!).

2. Stronger and More Unique KPIs 

Organisations that have successfully automated accounting functions can see past traditional metrics easily, which helps them visualize unique, forward-thinking key performance indicators (KPIs). Automating data flow allows you to more effectively understand key business factors, such as customer satisfaction, and create the right KPIs to measure success.

When financial teams can spend less time compiling and organising their data, they can focus more on analyzing that data to make better decisions that will lead to developing stronger KPIs. This translates to higher conversion rates, more repeat purchases, improved customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, more informed business decisions.

3. Faster Close Cycle for New Business

If your company is using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system like Salesforce, your sales team has access to an infinite amount of data about their prospective customers. If your team has access to data such as customer behavior and sales history, they can rely on software to automate a contract based on the prospect’s information. A faster, more efficient workflow like this benefits your whole company by decreasing time spent on pulling together information and more time increasing sales. The quicker your sales team can negotiate a contract with discounts based on the specific customer needs, the easier it is to replicate good practices to acquire new customers.

Automation, in many areas of business, is one major piece of the puzzle to surviving and thriving in today’s market. Have you enabled automation in your accounting and finance processes? Tweet me at @tonyzorc to share the benefits you’ve gleaned from making that step – I’d love to hear from you!

If you’re still wondering if automation is right for your business, read Accounting Seed’s 2020 Accounting Technology Buyers Guide for further guidance.