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DanmarkAutomation does not remove humans from the process – it empowers them. Automating your finance department involves letting the machines carry out the tedious and repetitive work.
With less time executing manual processes, your finance team can focus on the activities that matter most to your organisation, driving productivity to meet your business objectives. Explore Xledger’s features to learn how our automation, insight, and scalability can streamline your finance department.
With this in mind, here are the top ten ways to automate your finance department:
- Bank integrations
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
- Expenses
- Native cloud integrations
- Recurring billing and invoicing
- Workflow rules
- Debt chasing
- Re-allocations
- Prepayments and accruals
- Upgrades
1. Why are automated bank integrations crucial to finance?
Native bank integration is arguably the single greatest benefit of automated accounting software. But why? Integrated bank statements automatically generate cashbook journals based on the statement text.
In turn, these transactions are automatically reconciled with the bank, eliminating the need for finance teams to jump between banks and finance systems to reconcile statements.
For payments, a bank integration removes the need to upload a BACS file to your bank, saving time and increasing security. As the system knows what it’s paying, it automatically posts the cashbook payments and reconciles those invoices on the supplier ledger.
Not only does this automation reduce errors and speed up reconciliation, but it also improves the overall accuracy of an organisation’s financial statements. Fewer errors mean improved audit accuracy with timestamped, transparent data.
2. How does Optical Character Recognition (OCR) streamline Purchase-to-Pay?
OCR technology is a type of intelligent document recognition that reads the characters on an invoice. This type of artificial intelligence reduces the amount of manual data entry required when creating purchase invoices, for example. If purchase orders aren’t being used, smart systems apply machine learning to predict GL analysis, based on former behaviour.
As Xledger is integrated with Companies House, the OCR reads the registration number and posts the invoice to the right supplier, eliminating the need to fill in supplier details.
3. Why do expense modules need automation?
A modern, automated expense module ensures that expense claims, like mileage or travel, are centralised in an organisation’s finance system. As a result, all users are able to self-raise expenses, which then automatically notifies the appropriate approvers, creating a streamlined expense process.
Additionally, automated expense processes leverage OCR for expense processing. Accounting software with native OCR increases the accuracy, control, and speed of the expense process. Mobile-friendly systems, like the Xledger mobile app, allow users to submit on-the-go claims, and managers on the other side of the process to approve these claims for controlled and speedy authorisation.
4. How do cloud-based integrations help finance teams?
True-cloud integrations connect disparate business platforms. Consequently, the finance system becomes a centralised hub of true data that finance teams can leverage to analyse and control an organisation’s finances.
With a ‘true cloud’ finance system, everyone uses the same server. You only need one integration between two systems to serve thousands of customers and users. For cost-effective, reliable integrations – think true-cloud.
5. How does accounting software streamline recurring invoicing?
Automation is an essential cog in the invoicing mechanism that supports finance teams to complete quicker, more efficient, and accurate invoicing. Automating the recurring billing process helps to eliminate manual duplication and improve cash flow consistency.
The process isn’t limited to sending out the same invoice each month. Even if finance teams invoice the same customer, but bill them in a different amount, accounting software with intelligent automation can generate draft invoices, thus removing the excessive invoice creation tasks for finance. With this, finance only changes what they need to.
To reduce the burden on finance teams, automated accounting software sends notifications to appropriate users, such as payment reminders, to ensure the process flows efficiently and cash flow remains consistent.
“When choosing Xledger we went from an almost 100% manual system to a system that is as automated as it can get. Now we are on a cloud-based standard solution, and always have the latest updated version, without spending time or resources on it internally.”
Kaspar Højvig, CFO
Corporater
6. What are automated workflows, and why do finance teams need them?
Automated workflows are rules set up in a finance system that trigger automatic actions. These could be invoice approvals, expense notifications, posting reminders, and numerous other action alerts. The benefit here is faster operations and stronger, consistent controls.
Finance teams with automated workflow processes can automatically send the right people the right supplier or purchase orders. Electronic approvals are equally important, as they provide oversight of the entire approval process.
7. Why should finance teams automate debt chasing?
Debt chasing may always require an element of human intervention, but automated reminder letters help ensure customers understand what they need to do to catch up with their debts. For finance, debt chasing automation removes manual credit control tasks and provides a better overview of aged debt.
8. How do automated re-allocations benefit the month-end?
Month-end tasks often involve routine reallocations — a regular monthly task is always a candidate for automation, and monthly reallocations are no exception. Automating this process reallocates costs to appropriate projects, departments, or accounts based on a set of rules.
This ensures the right costs land with the right cost centres, reduces the burden of month-end, and helps finance to close that period quickly and accurately.
9. How do automated prepayments and accruals smooth audit periods?
When posting a transaction, a modern finance system can automatically prepay and release invoices. Additionally, it can automatically accrue invoices received after the month-end, but before the period close.
This level of automation removes the need to prepay and accrue transactions manually each month, again reducing the burden of month-end tasks. Not only this, but it also increases the accuracy of financial data because revenue and expenses match the correct accounting period. As a result, reporting and audit packages are more compliant.
10. Do finance teams need automatic upgrades?
Yes, finance teams benefit hugely from accounting software with automatic upgrades. With Xledger’s true cloud software, every user sits on the same server, so everybody receives software updates instantly and seamlessly with zero work required on the client side.
With a highly configurable system and no custom code, Xledger users receive a cutting-edge accounting system that’s always running on the latest technology and compliant with the latest regulations.
Reframing your digital transformation
It’s important to remember that digital transformation is a journey, not a destination. As organisations change, technology adapts. The most successful employers are those who continue to invest in the technology that enables them to achieve their business objectives. By choosing to automate your finance department, you are choosing to unlock your employees’ full potential.
Designed for the cloud, Xledger is a unique finance management system for organisations with complex financial needs. Our customers receive significant benefits, including the ability to run leaner, more efficient finance departments. Get in touch to automate your finance function today.
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The Xledger Podcast: Scoping and Implementing a Finance System Part 1
Welcome to the Xledger Podcast, a CPD-Certified series focusing on all sectors.
In part one of this two-part series, our team of experts from Xledger explore the scoping and implementation of a new finance system featuring Tim Wright (Operations Director), Zheng Zeng (Consulting & Support Manager), Ana Rodrigues (Project Manager), and Robb Webb (Senior Business Development Manager). Learn about their insights and experiences from working on finance transformation projects.
Complete the learning to receive:
- CPD certificate
- Transcript
- Accompanying documentation
Article
How to Leverage Accounting Automation to Improve Efficiency
Good finance leaders ensure accounting professionals complete necessary processes on schedule and to industry standards. Great finance leaders invest in the correct tools that automate processes and allow accounting professionals to add value through reports, analysis, and commentaries.
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Leverage Xledger’s advanced automation. Streamline more processes than any other finance software and build a powerful, efficient, and future-proofed finance function.
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