Time to Change Your Account Reconciliation Routine?
I like the saying, “you can take the man out of the routine but you cannot take the routine out of the man.”
What if the routine is wrong? What if the routine can be improved? What if the routine needs to be taken out of the man?
This is often the case when old practices are somewhat forcefully changed due to new regulations, automation or the availability of new technology.
Not that a plastic bag should be considered technology, but it sure has changed the way my family plays Scrabble. For decades we’ve been playing with the old board and by the old rules instructing us to mix up all of the letter tiles and then put all of them face down on the playing surface. This took time and required a larger playing area to accommodate the pool of letters.
When a move left the old game in storage we needed a new Scrabble game. The new game introduced the grey plastic bag and a new rule instructing us to put all of the letter tiles into the bag and then to draw tiles as needed from the bag.
This bag basically eliminated set up time, made storage easier and expanded our playing area options as we now only needed a flat surface slightly larger than the board.
At SkyStem we often hear a similar story. Our customers purchase ART, say to establish the workflow of their financial close or to gain visibility into the account reconciliation process. They end up being thrilled with how easy ART makes these processes for their teams and are delightfully surprised with all of the extra benefits they unexpectedly receive such as accountability, time savings, improved internal controls, issue awareness (read aging items or variances), and auditor appeasement.
While it may seem impossible to change a routine, it is often easier than you think. You just have to step out of your routine. Being willing to is not enough. You truly have to step out, take a look around experience the change and then enjoy the benefits.
Discover how Stock Yards Bank easily restructured their account reconciliation routine here.