An Efficient Finance Department Rests on Three Factors: Processes, People and Technology
Future of Accounting – Automation and Strategic Vision
A finance department is likely to function effectively only if three areas are working as they should:
- Processes and procedures that are key to achieving significant cost savings and efficiency.
- People who are in positions and performing functions that are closely aligned to their education, training and abilities.
- Technology solutions that are coordinated, integrated and used effectively.
Without all these factors in place, a company’s finance department may have difficulty meeting deadlines, performing necessary functions and producing real-time financial data that helps business leaders make the best decisions.
Outsourced CFO
An outsourced CFO or controller can help your company put the right systems, people and technology solutions in place. But what if you aren’t ready to enter an outsourced relationship? How do you know if your organization could really benefit from outsourcing finance functions?
To help organizations answer those questions, we perform a Transitional Assessment, or an internal evaluation of processes and procedures, finance staff and technology solutions, to create a roadmap to guide you in building a right-sized financial management system.
Why perform such a review if your finance department is firing on all pistons?
Things change. The future of accounting will be significantly more automated and reliant on technology. The human functions will focus more on review and strategic decision making, and less on clerical and data entry activities. Businesses that migrate toward this model sooner will have the upper hand in the marketplace.
In other words, you can adopt new practices and save money now, or you can wait and save money 10 years from now. But in the meantime, your competitors will have automated their finance operations and achieved the resulting cost savings, enabling them to offer their goods and services at a lower price. This puts you at a competitive disadvantage if you decide to wait until you have no choice but to streamline your finance functions.
How the Review Works
During the Review, your processes, people and technology solutions are evaluated and recommendations are put together on how to improve the finance functions. Recommendations may include making a small incremental investment in technology or outsourcing some finance functions but not all of them.
The Review is performed by a team that includes an outsourced CFO or controller, whose role involves knowing the full landscape of processes and technology resources available to businesses of all sizes and budget capabilities. The outsourced team has access to technology solutions a lot of companies feel they can’t invest in because they’re so costly for an individual business. But with the cost spread over many clients, the outsourced accounting provider can offer these solutions at a cost-effective level even for small businesses.
‘The Great Resignation’
Many organizations turn to outsourced accounting and CFO services when long-time finance staff members retire and they find it difficult to recruit qualified candidates in the local market. But even if your current finance staff is stable, now is a good time for a review and evaluation of how you can start down the road of modernizing and automating your finance functions.
Bear in mind that a recent nationwide survey of full-time and part-time U.S. workers showed 65% are looking for new jobs, primarily motivated by the desire for better pay, expanded benefits and more workplace flexibility such as the ability to work remotely. Only three months earlier, just 35% reported they were searching for jobs. So “The Great Resignation,” as the trend has come to be known, is well under way, and it may affect your business.
If you would like to discuss options for your business, contact our outsourced CFO review team today.