The Importance of Automation To Your Accounting Career

It is an exciting time in accounting as automation is just dawning. The concept of automating a number of administrative workflow tasks behind the close and account reconciliations has moved from “wouldn’t it be neat” to “what features must I absolutely have”. Curiosity is peaking as more and more finance teams want to see how an automation tool works.

What does this mean to your accounting career trajectory? Even if your company may not feel the urgency to automate account reconciliations or the financial close and may be using archaic ERP systems and spreadsheets to hobble through the process, knowing about automation tools and how they work demonstrates your desire to keep yourself abreast of what is happening in your career field and what the future holds. You should not limit your knowledge to the systems you currently use.

Why is it important to know what is out there and what it can do? Because, automation is the future and growing companies are constantly under pressure to close the books faster while financial management teams are increasingly expected to have a more strategic focus. The key to making this happen in a heavily-regulated field is automation. Staying on top of what can be automated and how it helps various facets of the accounting process, demonstrates that you are forward thinking and may help you in an interview where your knowledge will outweigh your experience with regard to automation solutions.

To get an idea of the options available for account reconciliation automation and financial-close automation, Google these terms. Go beyond page one results to gain a broad perspective on who the players are. Also make sure to read the articles covering automation and cloud based solutions in the newsletters and periodicals you subscribe to.

Grab a quick glimpse of an account reconciliation automation demo in this short video.