Top Accounting Automation Benefits, Tips & Use Cases

Repetitive and data-heavy tasks undoubtedly bog down your business. Accounting automation benefits help to save time, prevent mistakes, and reduce key person dependencies, to name a few upsides. 

We’re going to take a look at how key automated accounting software like SolveXia can enhance your business’ functioning.

Coming Up

What is Accounting Automation?

What is the History of Accounting Automation?

Why Automate Your Financial Processes?

How is Financial Automation Used?

What Do You Need to Automate Accounting?

What are Accounting Automation Benefits?

What are the Challenges of Automated Accounting?

What are the Challenges of Manual Accounting?

What are the Challenges of Manual Expense Reporting?

Wrapping Up

What is Accounting Automation?

Before we dive into accounting automation examples, let’s define what accounting automation truly is. 

Accounting automation is the application of technology and software to streamline accounting tasks and processes. From simple day-to-day tasks to critical financial functions, accounting automation tools get rid of manual intervention so that your team can focus their energy and resources on high-value initiatives and strategic responsibilities. 

Powered by robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI), accounting automation technologies continue to innovate.

What is the History of Accounting Automation?

While accounting automation benefits have been quickly realized, and as such, accounting automation tools have been implemented globally, the technology of automation began earlier than you may think. 

In the 1880s, the adding machine was invented by William Burroughs, and it helped accountants to perform calculations quickly. The only downside? It didn’t have a memory like today’s tools. 

Moving forward in time, punch-card machines entered the scene, and a few decades later, data could be stored on magnetic tape for payroll. In 1978, spreadsheet software was created, and thereafter, in 1987, Microsoft created Excel. 

Today, companies can leverage solutions like SolveXia, which is a low-code platform designed to automate spreadsheet-driven data and manual processes, increasing productivity by 100x and reducing mistakes by 90%.

Why Automate Your Financial Processes?

Your finance and accounting department is the foundation for your business and all decisions that get made. As such, it’s imperative for the data and information flowing out of it to be 100% accurate, accessible, and applicable at any point in time. 

As businesses scale, transaction volume grows, and multiple systems are in use, it’s increasingly necessary to have a strong hold and internal control over these critical processes.

No matter how skilled your team may be, manual finance and accounting processes are inevitably time-consuming, error-prone, and quite frankly, tedious and exhausting. Accounting automation benefits include:

• Time savings
• Cost savings
• Error reduction 
• Improved employee satisfaction 
• Accurate and accessible data 
• Analysis capabilities 
• And more! 

How is Financial Automation Used?

If you’re thinking, “What processes can I automate?” the answer is probably more than you think! 

You can apply accounting automation tools to streamline many key functions, including (but not limited to):

• Accounts payable
• Accounts receivable
• Payroll 
• Expense analytics 
• Reconciliation
• Finance management
• Regulatory reporting
• Rebate management

What Do You Need to Automate Accounting?

To automate your accounting, there’s not too much you need besides a tool that can cover the capabilities you wish to achieve. That being said, you should have a plan in place for implementation. 

Here’s a list of how to get started:

• Define business goals 
• Take stock of your existing processes 
• Locate where inefficiencies reside
• Research and select a scalable automation software 
• Involve your team in its deployment 
• Test it out on a small scale 
• Monitor results and expand its use 

What are Accounting Automation Benefits?

As soon as you implement an accounting automation solution, you’ll surely see the advantages of having done so. 

To depict, let’s take a look at some of the most outstanding and noticeable/desirable accounting automation benefits there are to be had:

1. Greater Productivity

Accounting automation results in getting more done in less time. With this higher productivity and efficiency, your team can allocate their time towards tasks that require human thought, rather than data entry and manual efforts. 

2. Time Savings

Automation tools streamline workflows and remove bottlenecks. This means you get to save more time. And since time equals money, you also get cost savings along with it. But, greater time savings doesn’t just translate to increased productivity. 

It also helps to better service customers and even to boost employee satisfaction. When customers and clients get what they need more quickly, they are less likely to churn. 

3. Increased Data Accuracy

Accounting tools perform data entry, retrieval and matching in seconds, rather than the hours and days it can take your team. 

Beyond the saved time comes greater accuracy because automation software removes the risk of manual errors. Humans make mistakes, no matter how good they may be at what they do. On the other hand, software solutions perform tasks repetitively with no fatigue. 

4. Security

Accountancy firms often have to store countless paper records for several years, based on regulations. Not only does this take up valuable real estate, but it can also be a security/safety hazard. Digital file storage can be a great relief instead. 

Automation software will neatly and securely store your company and client information with the most up-to-date security measures. For example, SolveXia boasts bank-grade security that keeps your business compliant. 

5. Accessibility

Business happens on-the-go. Gone are the days where people have to be stationary at an office to get things done. Just like you can work on the move, your data should be able to do the same. 

With cloud-based accounting automation, data accessibility is at your fingertips, literally. Faster data retrieval means that you can get work done whenever and wherever you need to. 

6. Internal Control and Visibility

One of the greatest accounting automation benefits is the level of internal control you gain by deploying such solutions. This is especially necessary as teams are operating across geographic locations and remotely at home. 

With process automation tools, managers and stakeholders can check in on a process’ status and progress to keep track of what’s happening. Additionally, it makes it easy to run audit reports for internal and external purposes. 

7. Integrated Systems

A robust automation platform, such as SolveXia, comes with integrations that work alongside your existing tech stack and software systems. As a result, you gain access to all your data in a centralized location, so you can do 

8. Data Analytics

A very impactful benefit that serves the entire organization is the ability to conduct data analysis for informed decision making capabilities. Accountants and finance professionals must be able to quickly recognize patterns, spot fraud, and oversee metrics to ensure the business is on the path to success. 

Data collection, centralization, and analytical application comes standard with the right software automation solutions. As a result, finance teams can spend more time providing strategy and helping to make decisions rather than conducting manual and repetitive data entry tasks. 

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As you can see from this somewhat abbreviated list of accounting automation benefits, there’s a lot of good that comes from deploying automation software. Software like SolveXia is low-code and easy to implement. Its user-friendly interface allows for anyone to use it, without the need for a dedicated IT team. 

What are the Challenges of Automated Accounting?

The challenges of automated accounting mostly reside in its implementation more than anything. 

They may include:

• A complex user interface (That’s why it’s key to focus on finding a solution like SolveXia that is easy-to-use) 
• Training period (It is necessary to implement change management and ensure your team is on board with bringing in a new software) 
• High costs (Depending on what kind of tool you choose, the costs will vary. A cloud-based software-as-a-system solution like SolveXia tends to be the most cost effective, and enables fast ROI)

What are the Challenges of Manual Accounting?

The challenges of manual accounting are way more far-reaching than the challenges associated with automated accounting, namely:

• Manual data entry errors
• Bottlenecks
• Key person dependencies 
• Inefficient flow of information 
• Lack of internal control 
• Security risks and data breaches 

Accounting automation benefits resolve all of these downsides of manual accounting, and more. When you use a tool like SolveXia, you immediately remove bottlenecks and key person dependencies, streamline the flow of information, and can rest assured that your data is accurate, accessible, and safely stored. 

What are the Challenges of Manual Expense Reporting?  

Just like manual accounting is time-consuming and error-prone, the same can be said of manual expense reporting. 

Such manual efforts result in less control, along with the inability to track expenses. Manual expense reporting means that your business leaders and executives will be missing out on the most updated cash flow information. In turn, they may be ill-informed decisions. 

SolveXia can help you to streamline your expense reporting and expense management efforts, so you’ll always have the insights ready to make better business decisions. 

Wrapping Up

Even just a few accounting automation benefits can go a very long way. But, the good news is that once you select an automation software that you like, you can reap the plenty of accounting automation benefits that come along with it. 

SolveXia is a great option for businesses looking to deploy a solution with ease, automate key finance functions, access accurate data, and keep their business’ data secure. 

By removing your dependency on spreadsheets and connecting all your systems (including legacy software), you can enhance productivity, cut costs, and prevent errors. 

Request a demo today to see how an accounting automation tool like SolveXia can improve your business capabilities!