Accounting Automation : Balancing act between Realism Vs Expectation

Accounting automation is the latest buzzword in the industry and is seen by many as the greatest innovation to the accounting industry, since the invention of computers and the internet. While accounting automation provides some kind of relief to the accountants from doing repetitive, manually intensive tasks, it has also led to many unrealistic expectations. Let us look at some of the points in the perspective of reality against expectation.

For additional information please read - 8-excellent benefits of accounting automation: 

Reality against expectation:

1. Accounting automation brings redundancy to the role of an accountant:
   There is always a preconceived notion of expectation looming in the air that technology is going to make the present job of an accountant redundant. The senior workforce greet them with criticism, doubtfulness and uncooperativeness.
   However, the new generation accepts them with cheerfulness and gratitude. They usually understand that every innovation empowers the people doing them. Mundane and time consuming tasks can be delegated to the accounting automation technology. Their saved time can be reallocated to much more beneficial and productive tasks. They are now able to strike a balance between professional and personal life.
   In reality, every new innovation has eliminated the workforce which required old skills, but gives an opportunity to a new skill set for people to learn, organise and execute.
2. Accounting Automation eliminates the role of human supervision:
   The expectation of accountants once the process is automated, is that they can forget and engage with other tasks. In reality, automation requires human supervision at the initial stages and later stages at a minimum level.
   Automation works on the standard procedure or protocol of how it is taught. For making the processes to function without disruption, it relies on the structured data and historical instances. If there is a new exception, then it flags it as anomalies or discrepancies. During this time, an accountant has to bring forth his experiences to tackle the issue and set precedence for the tool to learn.
3. Accounting Automation is an expensive affair:
   Smaller firms for unknown reasons become judgemental, considering accounting automation is far too expensive to suit their needs. They prefer to do offshore outsourcing for reducing the cost, rather than indulge in additional operating costs.
   In reality, the firms can always automate processes depending upon the urgency and budget in hand. Testing vital areas of accounting operations and depending upon its success and impediments, slowly spread to the other departments of accounting. In collaboration with the automation service provider a stepwise solution can be mutually agreed upon. This will have a positive impact on business needs and accounting solutions. All of this can be achieved at an affordable cost even for small and medium sized firms.
4. Accounting Automation can fix your data problem:
   Expectation is that automation can utilize all the available data like structured, semi-structured and unstructured data into digital form and utilize it.
   Reality is illegible, handwritten documents data cannot be fetched using automation tools. However, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) can digitise readable documents. In order to understand handwritten information, manual entry is required for making the data into a structured format.
   In case there is a problem with reading documents, our team in Integra Global Solutions, verifies the documents when required.
5. Accounting Automation brings quicker ROI:
   Expectations are built that once accounting automation is done all your problems instantaneously get resolved and cash registers start ringing. If results are not seen, it is misconstrued that the solutions have failed, and companies want to revert to the old way of practice. Management will blame the team behind automation for waste of company resources, time and money.
   In reality, patience for the automation process to function without disruption is needed. Each department follows an unique way of workflow. Therefore, it takes time to harmonize. Though the ROI is expected within a few months, sometimes it may take longer until all the departments get involved with it.

Suggestion to read : What is Automated Bookkeeping and How Do I Integrate it into my Accounting Firm?

As you can see, setting realistic expectations is the only way to make accounting automation a success at your organization. If you are an accounting firm interested in accounting automation, get in touch with us. We have pre-built solutions as well as custom-build solutions for various accounting scenarios. Give us a try.