Smoothing financial processes with modern technology

By Marie-Laure Burg Autier, EMEA Workday Finance Solution Architect at Alight Solutions

The pandemic highlighted a “digital divide” between organisations that had already invested in digital systems in their financial operations and those that had not. The advent of agile technology, automation, and machine learning have served to eliminate monotonous manual tasks from core processes, freeing up finance professionals to strategise and focus on driving business growth. However, implementing the right steps towards financial ‘freedom’ may be its own challenge. So, what does the journey into automated finance systems look like?

Developing digital finance skills

Moving forward, many traditional finance roles will be automated or superseded by digital and data-driven skillsets needed to get the best returns from technology and automation. With technology automation taking over transactional processes, finance departments must evolve from “number crunching” teams to strategic advisors. Finance teams need to build digital competencies in their teams now to better deliver results in the future.

Technology literacy, digital translation, digital learning, digital bias management, and digital ambition are all financial skills worth learning. Once systems are automated, the human side of the business can better dedicate its time to planning for the future and adding real value, instead of counting data in the present.

Modernising with the right technology

Finance transformation requires the right technology. The right finance platform solution can help streamline processes, increase accuracy, and reduce costs. It can automate and manage financial processes and help to provide actionable insights that drive business strategy and growth. This would allow finance teams to gain visibility across the entire business, helping to manage risk locally and abroad.

Technology vendors can provide innovative platform cloud solutions so that it is easier to maintain and adapt to ever-changing business demands. Being equipped with the latest financial platform technology while reaping the benefits of optimised costs of maintenance means that businesses can remain agile with minimal investment.

Agile and budgeted planning

The right financial management platform serves as a one-stop shop for the entire financial process, including budgeting, planning, and forecasting. This effectively transforms finance from static and disparate into an agile, flexible, and fast-moving strategic business function. This transformation is providing the organisation with an intelligent platform that integrates systems of records and systems of reports across the entire firm, removing the need for various tools and reducing the need for spreadsheets.

Companies can move to dynamic forecasting and budgeting models instead of scheduled reporting, which provides deeper insights and the means to understand the impact of business events whether planned or incidental.

Leveraging data and analytics

Financial data analytics gives an in-depth study and real-time view of a company’s financial position. Predictive and advanced analytics improve decision-making by delivering significant information in bulk, creating a more thorough financial story – often accomplished using dashboards.

These dashboards might be difficult to construct as selecting and arranging meaningful data, and then converting them into actionable insights require specific knowledge and expertise. This is where an external partner can assist, as those abilities are difficult to find and retain in-house in a competitive market. Many finance teams, not making this investment, continue to rely on out-of-date dashboards and apps, and as a result spend more time gathering data and building ad hoc reports than analysing data.

Implement intelligent finance automation

In recent years, the use of robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have grown across many corporate areas. However, adoption has been slower in finance as the true benefits of quick end-to-end business process automation and expedited digital transformation have yet to be realised. Many key finance processes remain manual, with dull and repetitive tasks, susceptible to human mistake and perceived as inefficient.

Bookkeeping, procurement and accounts payable, invoicing and accounts receivable, tax compliance, payroll, and cost management are all good candidates for automation. Not only can this save time and money, but it can also lower the danger of fraud, credit risk, and data theft, as well as increase the accuracy and consistency of financial data. It can transform the tasks performed by finance professionals, changing the required skills and abilities of finance teams.

Financial transformation is a journey about reshaping the company in the present, but also in the future. It is important to have clearly defined strategic intents and commercial goals, and then select the capabilities required to achieve the desired results. These capabilities need to deliver a proven strategy, support decision-making, and give practical examples.

Implementing cutting-edge technology is just the beginning. With a smooth financial platform in place, companies can shift their focus and concentrate on retraining and upskilling their finance personnel. Complemented with continuous improvement, standard processes must be adopted. With this combination, companies can face a changing world and embrace their strategic goals.