Process Automation for Accountants
Process Automation for Accountants
If you work within the accounting industry and are looking for a way to make your job easier, process automation should be top of mind. Process automation is the goal of using technology to automate a variety of manual, repetitive tasks, such as payroll, expense management, and data entry. Through process automation, you can reduce errors, ensure consistency, boost productivity… and more! Let’s dive deeper into process automation for accountants so you can determine if it makes sense for your firm.
What is Process Automation
Put simply, process automation automates repetitive and time-consuming processes through software and other types of technology. It may shorten, or even completely eliminate, the need for some of your manual tasks. By having automated processes in place, all types of businesses, including those in the accounting industry, can save time and improve overall efficiency. It’s important to note that process automation will never fully remove the need for human expertise… but it can supplement it.
Benefits of Process Automation
There are countless benefits of process automation, including:
Improve Productivity
Process automation eliminates manual, time-consuming tasks and in turn allows businesses and professionals to be more productive and spend more time with your clients. As long as you implement a well-thought out automation strategy, you’ll be able to remove bottlenecks and complete more tasks in less time. This is essential if you’re looking for a way to increase your bottom line.
Scale with Ease
The reality is that most manual processes are not very scalable. In fact, they can interfere with business growth. Automated processes, on the other hand, are easily scalable. Technology can complete multiple tasks much faster than a human can. If you’d like to expand your business, automation is essential.
Reduce Training of New Staff
It takes a lot of time and money to train new staff. That’s where process automation comes in. If you remove many tedious, repetitive tasks, you can reduce training and give your employees the chance to allocate their time to more meaningful activities that maximize ROI.
Ensure Consistency Across Workflows
When you automate workflows, processes are performed identically every time, allowing for optimal consistency. This can help drive transparency and ensure good quality products, services, and outcomes.
Increase Speed of Workflows
Manual, tedious tasks can slow down your operations. The good news is automating them may have the opposite effect. You’ll have more time to focus on strategic, big picture initiatives that make a positive difference in your business. Automation may be just what you need to achieve the results you want in a faster, more effective way.
What Processes Can be Automated
Fortunately, you can automate a variety of processes. Any processes that are standardized, recurring, and consistent are ideal candidates for automation. By automating these types of tasks, you can easily eliminate human error such as typos and avoid delays that cost you time and money. With automation, you may leave the days of manual data entry, one-by-one payment collection, financial reporting with spreadsheets, and manual reconciliation behind you.
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Process Automations for Accountants
There are a number of internal and external accounting processes you might want to automate. External automations can automate tasks that you perform for your bookkeeping and accounting clients. These may be financial reporting, tax compliance, tax return preparation, month-end reviews, and revenue predictions.
Internal automations, on the other hand, automate tasks you must complete to support your customers, which are usually administrative in nature. Expense management, payroll processing, bank reconciliation, accounts receivable, and accounts payable.
Stages of Process Automation for Accountants
If you’d like to move forward with process automation, follow these steps.
- Identify Your Processes: First and foremost, make a list of all of your processes. Then, hone in on the ones that can be automated. In most cases, these will be processes that are repetitive and ongoing, don’t require a high level of human touch, and don’t involve a lot of out-of-the-box thinking.
- Shop Around: Next, it’s time to do your research and identify the various software and technology that can help you automate the processes you chose in step one. Be sure to compare price points, features, and reviews of all your options. You might also want to request a free trial or demo so you can get an idea of how your top picks work.
- Set Up Workflows: Now, the fun really begins. You figure out each workflow that will contain automated steps. The trigger is the event that launches the automation while the action is what happens in response to the trigger. The result refers to the intended goal of your process. Here’s an example: Trigger: A customer is late on paying their invoice. Action: A reminder email is automatically sent to them. Result: The customer receives the email and completes the payment.
- Test Your Workflows: It’s important to test the workflows you set up to make sure they work the way you’d like them to. You can always modify them as they’re not in stone and can always be improved.
Accounting Simplified with Automation
Process automation can make a world of a difference in your accounting effort. With the right technology in place to support your processes, you’re sure to improve workflows, boost efficiency, and steer your business toward unparalleled success. If you’d like some guidance on how to automate your accounting processes, GrowthLab is here to help. Don’t hesitate to contact us today.
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