By Tom Jones, Aston Carter Director of Strategic Sales & Solutions and Jessica Berroth, Aston Carter Practice Leader, Accounting and Finance
The Struggle to Keep Up With Increased Digital Transformation
It was only a matter of time before digital transformation revolutionized the accounting and finance space. What surprised some leaders, however, was how quickly change came about. Thanks in part to the necessity created by the COVID-19 pandemic, digital transformation has rapidly increased in nearly all business sectors. As the pandemic forced many to rely more heavily on technology, businesses and customers alike had to quickly adapt to the changing technological landscape. For businesses, this rapid adoption included the creation of next-generation operating models, new digital business models and revenue streams, seamless digital customer experience and new workforce models.
Still, some business leaders within accounting and finance are worried their companies aren’t adapting quickly enough. According to a Gartner survey, 55% of finance leaders aren’t confident with their current progress, and only 37% have a digital finance strategy in place. To stay competitive, accounting and finance leaders need a plan in place to best utilize digital transformation tactics. A smart place to start is focusing on strategies to optimize their work in two key areas: augmenting their workforce through accounting and finance automation and better leveraging data.
Streamline Functions With Accounting and Finance Automation
Businesses are turning to artificial intelligence more often to increase efficiencies, including investing in accounting and finance automation.
Robotic process automation (RPA) takes manual processes and allows them to be automatically repeated at a large scale, freeing up time and energy from the employees who would normally do this work. RPA can automate lower-level finance and accounting tasks like bookkeeping, accounts payable and receivable, invoicing, payroll and more.
RPA and other finance automation tools can help alleviate the need for hard-to-fill, entry-level roles. The benefits are two-fold: supporting a workforce with automated solutions helps companies reduce costs while allowing employees to prioritize high-value touchpoints over manual tasks. That means employees can focus less on transactional skills and put more emphasis on higher-level abilities like thought leadership, creative thinking and problem-solving. This shift can help employees achieve greater career opportunities by offering more paths to advancement, while employers benefit from a more highly trained workforce. However, it will also require employers and employees to work together to create upskilling opportunities that ensure workers have the skills they need to thrive in a digitally accelerated environment.
Accounting Automation Won’t Solve a Talent Shortage
Despite the gains to be made through automation, artificial intelligence and other tools aren’t enough to make up for a larger talent shortage, especially within accounting. While employers may be able to replace some entry-level roles with accounting automation, candidates with higher-level accounting expertise continue to be in demand. Employers will still need to attract new workers through a combination of competitive salary and benefits packages for accountant job seekers and training opportunities for workers without a CPA license.
Using Cloud-Based Platforms to Better Leverage Data
Companies have been capturing data for years, but much of it has remained underutilized. Some figures show that as much as 60% to 73% of all data collected never gets analyzed, leaving critical insights unexamined and unacted upon.
Thanks to increased digital transformation, however, this is changing. As financial companies invest more heavily in cloud-based platforms and data analytics software, they can store, access and, perhaps most importantly, analyze more financial data than ever before.
These data storage and analysis capabilities are crucial to future growth strategies. Analyzing financial data isn’t just looking at how a company performed over the years. With the proper data analytics software, this data can become a tool that helps project where the market is headed. By looking at patterns in historical data, leaders can use lessons from their company’s past to glean insights that inform their future business decisions.
Manage Digital Transformation With a Strategic Partner
Despite the current speed of advancements, digital transformation is an ongoing process that won’t happen overnight. As businesses continue to adjust to changing accounting and finance technology, many will see day-to-day activities disrupted. This disruption can put an extra burden on employees, potentially leading to increased burnout and even attrition.
Partnering with a workforce solutions firm like Aston Carter helps businesses plan for the future while ensuring current projects continue to run smoothly. Aston Carter can be a strategic partner in a company’s digital transformation journey, sharing best practices, identifying current process or talent gaps and making recommendations on finance technology resources. At the same time, Aston Carter supports daily operations to lessen the burden on employees during digital transformation initiatives, including augmenting talent to handle critical projects, providing intermediate project resources and offering additional talent and project oversight capabilities.
Contact us to discuss how to execute your finance transformation initiatives.
US - EN
