How Automation is Benefitting In-House Accountants
In-house accountants often find themselves repeating the same tasks month after month, quarter after quarter. It can feel tedious, monotonous and is time consuming. Many firms have leaned on automation to help ease the workloads of their accounting departments.
Some may resist automation because they believe it may spell trouble for those seeking accounting jobs. While it may be true that companies may reduce their internal accounting departments depending on the nature of their business, others still may find themselves expanding their client base and will actually need to expand their accounting department. Let’s explore how automation can benefit in-house accountants.
Time Saved is Money Saved
The immediately obvious benefit is saving time. With automation, in-house accountants are no longer forced to manually enter data. By having the entire process simplified, the speed at which reports can be generated is increased several times over. Accountants no longer need to build out entire programs to complete their work. Instead they are now able to rely on programs that have key formulas plugged in, saving them hours of work. Instead of needing to double-check an entire period’s worth of data manually, all of that work is already completed by the program. While some may believe that this will lead to a loss of accounting jobs, there is a silver lining. By easing the tedious manual tasks, organizations can take on more business knowing that their accounting department can keep up. This in turn paves the way for the creation of new positions within the department. If anything, automation helps to keep the number of accounting jobs level despite having such a drastic impact on the task at hand.
Accuracy in Reporting
Beyond the obvious benefit of saving time, automation also makes the reporting process incredibly accurate. This is not to disparage even the most fastidious accountant, it is merely to acknowledge that we are all human and that means that eventually we will make mistakes. Using an automated system ensures that the data reported is double-checked and accurate. This builds in an excellent protection for the company, giving them the confidence that both investors and the government are operating with accurate information. Knowing that the decisions that investors are making are based off of the correct data brings peace of mind to an organization.
What makes the accuracy aspect so mind blowing is the speed in which data can be retrieved. If entered manually, speed would likely lead to disaster for the accuracy of any accounting report generated. Automation removes that fear and allows in-house accountants to be nimble in their response when reporting is due.
Automation Saves The Day
As worrisome as it can be to those who believe that a human touch is the best way to reconcile the books at the end of an accounting period, automation can make the entire accounting department hum along at a level of productivity not seen before. By handling all of the manual tasks while maintaining an incredibly high level of accuracy, automation is an amazing tool for accounting departments to utilize.
At Pinnacle, we understand the importance of having top notch accountants on your team. With service offerings in accounting and finance, we aim to find the best match for those seeking an accounting position and our clients. If you are looking for the next step in your accounting career, reach out today and we will work together to find the right placement for you.