In disruptive, uncertain times, accountants can find their already-stretched schedules at breaking point as their clients struggle to contain crises linked to factors such as inflation, interest rates and hiring issues.

And if they’re further bogged down through extra admin and chasing up stray reports, invoices or spreadsheets, there’s precious little time left for the mission-critical tasks that clients demand.

“It can be overwhelming if you’re still relying on complicated manual processes that waste valuable resources and time you simply don’t have,” SolveXia CEO Adem Turgut says.

“Accounting professionals who leverage automation can thrive in tough economic conditions by delivering high quality information quickly and providing insights to stakeholders.”

Turgut argues that finance teams have recently become more critical to business success than ever for three reasons: they have access to data from across the organisation, they understand the end-to-end value chain and they have a high degree of financial literacy.

“Besides simply being the ‘steward’ of finances, accountants can and should act more as navigators, helping their companies reach their goals,” he says.

He has identified four crucial steps that accounting firms can take to make this happen:

1. Optimising operations

“Automation can be used as a catalyst to take steps like eliminating waste, easing bottlenecks and becoming more agile.” It can also enhance compliance, reduce human error and bring a level of transparency that boosts the visibility of key processes for every team.

2. Switching to hyper speed

Despite significant technological advances, many accounts departments are still overloaded with tedious, repetitive processes. “It’s not uncommon to observe entire finance teams spending one or two days every week manually gathering and analysing data and then reporting it using spreadsheets.”

All of which is very costly and inhibits attempts to scale up the business for growth. The negative impact on staff morale can further reduce productivity. In contrast, automation means processes are completed in seconds rather than hours so individuals can be allocated to more meaningful tasks.

Insignia Financial, a large financial services provider with two million customers, cut two days of manual effort from their month end simply by automating their account balance reconciliations using SolveXia.

3. Simplify & streamline

“The average staff tenure is around two or three years, so processes often outlast their creators. Over time, as business needs change, often the legacy processes don’t, leading to chronic inefficiencies and reduced productivity.” Intelligent business software streamlines workflow and is easily adaptive over time to always align with the company’s priorities.

4. Maximise talent retention

Turgut says digitalising and centralising data helps firms keep hold of their key personnel in two ways. “Firstly, it empowers staff, giving them more ownership of their work by effectively turning them into managers instead of executors. And secondly, it demonstrates that you’re prepared to invest in their future, care about their work/life balance and will provide opportunities for them to grow and develop.”

Find out more:

SolveXia empowers finance and accounting teams to automate manual processes to save time and enhance insights.Visit solvexia.com/requestdemo to request a demo.