Time and accuracy are without a doubt the most important factors to Financial Managers. They go hand in hand, where one is stretched the other is put under pressure. Time is precious and there often isn’t enough of it or it is woefully wasted on checking and double checking such as validating existing reports or trying to find errors where inaccuracies have crept in.
We help our customers by alleviating the ‘time-wasters’, effectively enabling them to get on with business knowing they can trust their data due to highly increased accuracy, and save valuable time through automation. In 10 years of business, we have yet to assess a single company that didn’t have inaccuracies in their manual reporting. Many of these were businesses that originally swore by their complex network of workbooks and sums, only realising afterwards the ticking time bomb of their antiquated processes.
Even though, to most, “automation is a no-brainer” (such as a comment by Monty Stephenson on our previous article seen below) there are still businesses and individuals that fight the movement to automation.
“Automation is a no-brainer”
There are a lot of factors at play when we get push-back on our Microsoft Excel based solutions. At times it can be the fault of the in-house IT Department not having the knowledge or skills to embrace Excel solutions, however sometimes it is something much more personal. Sometimes people are so thoroughly entrenched in how they have done things for a decade that they cannot see how we could possibly do what they do in 3 days, in just 15 seconds.
We also encounter fear; many believe we will make their jobs redundant, instead we offer them a tool with which they can only aspire to new heights.
Are you sabotaging your business by avoiding automation?
Businesses are so well versed in cyber security, fraud and the paperwork aspects of business risk these days, but we find so many of them fail this one risk test. How dependent are you on one staff member for your coded reports? Can you run your reports tomorrow if that person is retrenched/resigns or worse? It might sound dramatic, however there are too many businesses that are not keeping an eye on these processes and allowing risk to creep in.
Automating and centralising your data preparation and collation means that your business isn’t dependent on one person’s macros or code, ensuring that your finance is safe.
An opportunity to drive your business forward
It is surprising that in this day and age where in every other sector of life we seek to find the quickest or most efficient method of doing everything, either through process or technology, that some Financial Managers are not doing this naturally for their reporting.
This is why we urge businesses to at least do an assessment of their month-end processes, thereby ascertaining what is possible for their business through automation and the costs involved. Investing in automation for your company is key in driving your business forward!