How to Prepare For Accounting Automation

Have you entered a non-medical business lately? Was there a receptionist there? Or, was a note next to a phone there to greet you and provide you with instructions as to how to meet with the person you stopped by to see?

Automation is here. Are you ready? Is your team ready?

Following are suggestions to help ensure that your finance team is not only ready to automate a number of back office functions, but is in a position to demand it, embrace it and utilize it to its full potential.

HR Magazine mentions the need to help employees prepare for automation or technology that augments what they do by encouraging them to “build more complex skills, which cannot readily be supplemented – such as collaboration and creativity”.

With automation, teams may become more dispersed and thus need to communicate with new players from around the world. A better understanding of time zones, schedules and cultures will help.

Many accounting functions can be automated such as the reconciling of low-activity accounts, while many will continue to need the human touch. This is where an employee can shine, for example, diving into a particularly complex account to write up a policy and procedure for it.

Creativity is not necessarily a skill widely encouraged in such a regulated field as accounting. Being creative though, may be as simple as asking questions about what the numbers show. Rather than solely creating the reports, look into what they are saying, or not saying.

Deloitte, in its Wall Street Journal Insight, mentions how knowledge workers are slowly but steadily experiencing an increasing number of instances where automation is replacing human labor more so than just supplementing it

Tom Davenport, independent senior adviser, Deloitte Analytics, writes about four actions knowledge workers should take to prepare for automation.

1. Read up on and monitor automation developments in your field and determine which skills are being automated. For example, if some low-risk accounts are being auto reconciled, determine the types of accounts that the system cannot  reconcile and ensure you develop skills to reconcile these and more complex accounts.
2. Hone your skills and become an expert in your field. Know what peers in your role are doing. Use the internet to discover publications, associations and forums that are centered on your field and join in on the conversation.
3. “Develop an understanding of the technologies most likely to become important in the industry.” Who are the big players? Are they hiring – read the job descriptions with titles similar to yours. This is where demand for desired future skills lies.
4. Brush up on your computer skills. Would you be ready to give a presentation and state your business case on a certain group of accounts and discuss the policies and procedures for them? Master what should be basic knowledge so that you can focus on skills that automation packages require.

Researching account reconciliation automation options to ensure that the one you ultimately purchase is what it says it is and thus will be embraced by your accounting team members who will be using it, is a must.

Ensure it is easy to implement, easy to use, can be phased in, communicates with your other systems, does not hold your data hostage, and does not need a full-time administrator.

ART is this and more. See how ART automates account reconciliations here.