Top 5 Finance: Processes Every Accounting Department Should Automate

Posted on by sboals
Accounting Finance Workflows

Solving Top CFO Concerns with BPM

One of our partners, Protiviti, conducted a fantastic survey on “2016 Finance Priorities”.  The report is laden with some great information on what CEOs and CFOs deem important within the finance function.  Here is one of the key action items that came out of the study:

Action Item for Finance Leaders: Look for improvements and investments in people, process and technology that can result in greater speed, accuracy and efficiency within financial consolidation and close activities.

So why speed, accuracy and efficiency?  To understand, below is an outline of the top concerns for financial leaders:

  1. Improving Margins and Earnings Performance – Optimizing resources and the ability to better manage costs is a top concern.
  2. Cyber Security Risks – Managing and protesting financial data and controlling access to the ERP/Financial Systems.
  3. Strategic Planning – Creating streamlined predictable, standardized processes for planning.
  4. Periodic Forecasting – The ability to surface data from all systems of record.
  5. Budgeting – Using data for improved budgeting and decisions.
top bpm uses for accounting
Improving margins, cyber security, strategic planning, forecasting and budgeting are top concerns.

In these key concern areas, the demand for speed and accuracy continues to mount, and expectations grow without the increases in staff and budget.  So, implementing technology solutions to help is key for success, and helps to alleviate concerns.  So what are the top finance processes ripe for automation? Here are the top 5 processes:

  1.  Expense processing – providing an automated, rules-based process for submitting and approving expenses can provide a standardized, repeatable reporting mechanism for projections.
  2. Invoice Processing – with the majority of invoices still in paper form, automating AP is a key to faster payment (read early pay discounts), reduction in data errors and reduction in processing time.  Using an AP Automation tool like Ephesoft Transact for Invoice Scan and Capture can feed any BPM process.
  3. Capex Approvals – moving away from emailed spreadsheets in the CapEx process, and utilizing a managed digital workflow can provide insight, improved transparency and reporting capabilities.
  4. Budgeting – providing a collaborative, social environment for budgeting can lead to enhanced accuracy, and reduce departmental shortfalls.
  5. Internal Audits – simplified reporting and “visual” report tools can help smooth out the audit process, and reduce staff time required to comply with demands.

Want to read more?  See the links below:

K2 BPM and Workflow for Finance: Information and Transformation Page

Protiviti Finance Report