When the Covid-19 pandemic began, many finance and accounting organizations were still getting used to change as the new normal. Suddenly, uncertainty became a common sentiment for companies around the world.
With very little time to prepare, F&A teams had to figure out how to work from home and close virtually with a distributed workforce. Audit teams had to start performing their procedures remotely, and the roadblocks created by manual close processes and undocumented institutional knowledge became greater than ever before.
But we live in a digital age, and while the transition to a virtual professional world hasn’t been easy, it is possible to leverage what may seem like chaos into a strategic advantage. And the reality is that although change is uncomfortable, it can be more dangerous to live with outdated manual processes and the inherent risks of human behaviour, especially in our current environment.
Elevating Accounting with Automation
Traditional manual accounting processes are not sustainable — and as many F&A teams began working remotely at the start of the pandemic, this became even clearer. To thrive in the midst of heightened uncertainty, risk, and accelerating change, organizations must move to modern accounting — which begins with adapting to changing circumstances through collaboration, visibility, and control.
For decades, accountants have been tackling the month-end close with manual processes tracked with checklists. Until recently, repetitive, brute-force effort was the only option.
Now, innovative technology is automating those repetitive tasks and workflows with rules-based logic, and the sophistication of these solutions is growing with robotics, machine learning and AI.
It All Comes Down to the Right Technology
Purpose-built technology is key to shaping the way you work, now and into the future. This is the best way to better equip your business to run in a virtual environment, make Finance and Accounting more efficient while still operating with a distributed workforce, and reduce the stress on your teams and yourself.
During this pandemic, leading F&A organizations have experienced firsthand that the right technology can help them close with confidence during this crisis and beyond. Cloud-based technology has been helping their F&A teams move to modern accounting by unifying their data and processes, automating repetitive work, and driving accountability through visibility.
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It’s been one of the greatest opportunities for competitive advantage, and waiting to adopt the right technology heightens the risk of being left behind—in your industry and in your profession.
If you decide to do nothing “for now,” but your competitors and peers choose to innovate and move to modern accounting, they will quickly set themselves apart by becoming more efficient and controlled. They’ll have access to the financial information needed to inform better decision-making and gain insight into the bottlenecks.
Driving Your Organization to the next Level
It may seem like less effort to stay where you are. But waiting to make the move to modern accounting could come at a much greater cost, putting you at a disadvantage that may ultimately leave you reeling.
Change is inevitable for any company striving to create competitive advantage, and staying stagnant is far riskier than implementing new technology to improve old processes. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable can drive your organization to the next level.
Read our Virtual Close Playbook for 10 practical tips that will help your F&A teams achieve an efficient and confident virtual close.
