Essential Workflow Automation For Accountants

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Accountants must manage vast amounts of data and deliver accurate financial reports quickly in today’s fast-paced business climate. Workflow automation systems can simplify repetitive operations, decrease errors, and boost productivity.
This blog post will discuss workflow automation methods for accountants to improve efficiency. Whether you’re a new or experienced accountant, these tips can help you use automation to boost performance and achieve goals.

Also Read: Best Accounting Software for US Businesses in 2023

What is Workflow Automation?

We utilize automation every day, from grocery store self-checkout lanes to customer service voice-response technologies. Workflow automation is the process of automating tasks that are done over and over again at work. It is meant to get rid of steps that aren’t needed in a current process, which improves the quality of the results as a whole.

The basic idea is that you tell the system how to handle a job by writing down a set of instructions, and then you don’t have to do anything else. Workflow automation is what happens when you fill out an online form and it sends an email to someone else instantly.

But what does that mean exactly for financial software?

Workflow: Examples

ProcessWurks Workflow Automation for accountants:

Processwurks provides a comprehensive solution for accounting professionals looking for an easier way to manage their workflows or help them grow their business. You can save time by automating manual tasks and managing your team’s workflow from anywhere in the world.

You can effortlessly add and manage clients, including multiple businesses/entities. It will help you maintain a clear overview of engagement letters, document requests, and billing information.

You can also Improve client satisfaction with streamlined processes and prompt service.

Why Integrate Workflow Automation Into Your Firm?

Roughly 75% of accounting tasks can be automated with accounting software. Accountants employ workflow automation solutions to reduce time and increase productivity so they can focus on high-value tasks like audits and financial data analysis.

1. Automation Helps Improve Productivity

Sage did a study called “The Practice of Now” in 2019 and 2020. 58% of accounting professionals expect to automate accounting tasks with AI within three years. 58% said enhancing their technology has made businesses more effective and productive, which is vital for adding services customers desire, and 91% said technology helps them focus on customers or be more productive.

2. Workflow Automation Helps With Consistency

One of the most important aspects of workflow automation is consistency. If your clients demand the same service month after month, year after year, your firm’s process must remain consistent.

Accounting firms without a good workflow automation system often have issues. Scope creep—adding tasks without planning how they fit into the project—can result from inconsistency. This can lead to increased costs and lower quality work overall.

3. Workflow Automation Improves Accuracy

Accounting firms are often the first stop for businesses that need a financial audit or other accounting-related services. This makes them an important part of a business’s operations, but it also means that they have to juggle an enormous amount of data.

The companies that use these accounting firms rely on them to be accurate, so any mistakes or errors in their work can be costly. Many firms rely on technologies such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and dematerialization to keep everything running as smoothly as possible and automate their workflow processes.

Also Read: Business ideas for Accounting Firms of next generation

4. Automation Can Help You Cut Down on Mistakes And Save Money

Admins can do multiple jobs at once with batch processing instead of doing them one at a time. Batch processing is a great way to cut down on mistakes and save time when you have multiple clients with similar needs (like billing).

For example, If one client’s 10 bills are due on the 25th of each month, batch processing lets you produce and transmit all 10 invoices at once.

5. Automation Helps You Stay Compliant With Regulations

With accounting processes getting more complicated and the number of rules getting bigger, it’s getting harder for accountants to keep up with their job. This means that both accounting companies and their clients have to pay more.

In the Accounting Today 2022 Year Ahead Survey, 51% of firms said that keeping up with changes in regulations is their biggest problem. Wolters Kluwer also found that more than half of the companies they talked to had trouble keeping up with changes in the law.

Surprisingly, big firms spend more time than average on compliance work, but they don’t do this at the cost of advisory services. Instead, they make up the difference by spending less time on administrative work.

5 Essential Workflow Automation Solutions For Accountants

Here are 5 important ways for accountants to automate their work:

Automating Payments:

Automated payment handling makes it easier for companies to pay vendors and other outside parties on time without having to worry about missing deadlines. This is because the system sends out payments automatically when they’re due.

Automating Invoices:

Invoice processing is a critical part of the accounting workflow. Accounting firms must send out invoices in a timely manner to ensure their clients receive payment on time. Many accounting firms use automated systems to send out invoices, which helps them keep track of outstanding balances and manage cash flow more effectively.

Automate Client Reporting & Statements:

This gives companies a single place to start building a full system for managing clients. It saves time when making reports for clients based on certain criteria and connects data from different sources.

Automating Expenses and Reimbursements:

Accountants often have to enter and reconcile expenses by hand, which takes time and is prone to mistakes. With automation, this isn’t a problem because everything is entered automatically based on how you want the software to work. When someone sends a spending report through QuickBooks Online or Xero, accountants also use it to automatically make receipts.

Automating data entry:

When people write information by hand, there is always a chance that they will make a mistake. By automating this process, you can reduce the chance of mistakes happening because you won’t have to do anything by hand.

Also Read: Secure Your Data with ProcessWurks SSL Encryption

Keys to Success When Implementing Automation

How can you make sure that your accounting firm’s new automation options work? Here are some best practices to use when bringing new automation options into your company.

Proper planning and preparation: Before automating a process, you should figure out what needs to be automated and make a plan to make sure the process goes smoothly. This planning includes figuring out what tools are needed and setting goals that can be reached.

Involving all stakeholders:

For automation to work, you must involve all of your partners, such as staff, clients, and management. It will help make sure that everyone agrees with the changes and that all points of view are taken into account.

Help and training:

The staff must train and assist everyone to use the new technology and accomplish their tasks well.

Easy to understand:

To ensure a smooth transition, discuss automation’s benefits, and how it will influence the business. And clients how it will be implemented.

Ongoing tracking and maintenance:

Maintaining and monitoring the automation system ensures it runs smoothly and can be corrected fast.

Flexibility and adaptability:

The accounting firm’s needs can be met by an adaptable automation system.

Measuring and keeping track of results:

Measuring and tracking technology results helps you understand how it works. And improve it. Metrics for tracking can include metrics for productivity, accuracy, and customer happiness.

Also Read: How Automation Will Change The Job Market

Conclusion

This article covered workflow automation approaches. It helps simplify, reduce errors, and boost productivity for accountants. In today’s fast-paced business world, accountants can improve their work and help their companies by automating. Automating ordinary chores lets them focus on strategic activities like analysis and decision-making, which are crucial to their aims. Explore workflow automation tools to improve accounting procedures and efficiency.