Are your Accounting processes out of date?

Are your Accounting Processes out of date?

Over the years I have worked with many accounting professionals with ICAEW, ACCA and CIMA qualifications, and I have discovered the following trends with regards to their accounting processes.

Majority of firms are here

Robotic Process Automation and Artificial intelligence is sweeping through accounts departments bringing efficiency, increased levels of control and more importantly, allowing you and your teams the freedom from being slaves to ERPs and spreadsheets.

Just ask yourself this one simple question, 'How much time do I or members of my team spend keying data into my ERP or spreadsheets?'

If the answer is more than 10% you need to consider RPA - as your peers are deploying software robots to automate manual tasks such as keying data into spreadsheets.

Robots work 24x7 and never make a mistake

They can collect data from internal and external sources - saving you and your teams time and allowing you to focus on your real job of adding value to your business and bringing financial insight with guaranteed compliance.

I have offered our customers the ability to interview a robot for a job in their team. All they did was think of three or four manual and time-consuming jobs for it to do and we came in and showed them how to build a robot to do that – typically within a day.

There is no cost for this trial exercise but be warned the majority of firms give their robots a permanent contract - and then give them many more tasks to do

So if you are wondering what to add to your strategic objectives for your team this year (or you want to make a name for yourself and suggest this to your board) investigate what robots can do for you.

Be careful though as not all robots are created equal, if you are looking at robots that require virtual machines, teams of consultants, and developers to come on site - reject them immediately. What you need is a robot that you can build yourself that is as easy to use as Excel.

I would be happy to point you in the right direction if you would value my advice. Just leave me a message below, or send me a LinkedIn message, I would be delighted to help.

Tim Miller

Digital Transformation Expert